Ron Gulla
Pennsylvanian Ron Gulla has farmed since he was ten years old. He worked his way through college to get a degree in business administration. He and his wife Laurel have raised two children on their 118-acre farm, where they have had first-hand experience with a well on their property.
Don Barber
Five-term supervisor of the Town of Caroline, Don Barber grew up on a dairy farm in Danby and still lives on a small farm with his family. He chairs the Tompkins County Council of Governments and also owns a successful residential construction company.
Natural Gas Drilling and Local Government Responsibility
To Protect the Health, Safety, and Well Being of its Citizens
by Don Barber
In general local governments need to find ways to insert themselves into a process that the State has written us out of.
Potential action steps:
1. Develop overweight vehicle permits and driveway permits to protect your roads and create direct contact/negotiations with the drilling firm.
2. Identify and legislate critical environmental areas (CEA) within your municipality. DEC must then perform site specific SEQR review for permit applications which affect these CEA’s
3. Contact every State Legislator, Governor Paterson and his Deputy Secretary for the Environment, and the DEC Commissioner that we need:
• Notification of permit applications and permits issued;
• Emergency Services need contact info, hazardous material info, gas fire training;
• Fuel production tax or Severance tax to create proper revenues to local governments - tax revenue to support DEC oversight program
4. Contact State Legislators requesting that ECL Section 23-0303 be amended so that local governments become involved agencies for SEQR review. And to support S8748 Natural Gas Drilling Prohibition Near Watershed
5. Contact your Congressperson and US Senator to support HR 2766 Fracturing Responsibility and Awareness of Chemicals Act of 2009.
Don Barber- Chair Tompkins County Council of Governments, Supervisor Town of Caroline, supervisor at townofcaroline.org
DEMAND ACCOUNTABILITY!
Thanks to Essential Dissent, Binghamton, NY, for this video.
http://essentialdissent.blogspot.com
Thanks to Essential Dissent, Binghamton, NY, for this video.
http://essentialdissent.blogspot.com
6 comments:
Thank you for providing the videos of the meeting at Broome Community College. They will help introduce and further educate those who are interested in the hydraulic fracturing used in gas drilling. For another look at Marcellus Shale gas drilling visit: www.marcellus-shale.us
I am only too happy to help spread the word. Thanks for your tireless work, too. The Marcellus Shale website is great!
www.marcellus-shale.us
I was only able to record the second half of the forum from BCC dated June 15th 2009. It aired Sunday Aug 9th 2009 at 10am on channel 4 Public Access community calendar channel. Please post future air times.
We had natural gas drilling on ridges. Our farm is located downhill. We have an artesian well which overflowed at the well, not the overflow pipe. Aresenic, iron, and high levels of other minerals were present in water tests. We never had any tests done for chemicals used to frac with. We had foam on the water which is called MBAS. Most foam is naturally occurring. MBAS at 0.01 is toxic to fish. MBAS is diluted with kerosene. Testing must be done quickly to get the level of MBAS which indicates pollution. WE are concerned about chemicals we don't know about and how PADep has done everything possible to avoid address the high levels of arsenic, etc. See my latest video of suds floating down the Shaffer Creek in Clearville, Pa. We lost livestock and it was blamed on everything but natural gas drilling. WE blame dep for not stating it is possible that natural gas drilling killed our cattle and horse but they avoid those statements, why? Go to my video of MBAS and comment or offer advice. Thanks
youtube.com/hardlessons2008
Part of me is furious that Ron only comes forward now that his land is tainted, the other part is glad he is speaking out. I suspect that in years to come they'll be more people like him who speak out. If only we could skip that part to get to realize the truth.
"Man did not weave the web of life. He is merely a strand in it. Whatever he does to the web, he does to himself." -Native American Chief Seattle.
Does anyone know that Ron Gulla sells the equipment that these Well Drillers use? He is a hypocrite and I am sure he is crying a whining the whole way to the bank with his royalty checks. Ron should shut his mouth because these people he is speaking out against are the ones putting bread on his table.
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