Support our campaign to Ban Gas Drilling in the Catskills by sending a letter to your State Senator.
It’s no secret that New Yorkers pride themselves on the taste and quality of our tap water, and rightfully so – it’s delicious, pure and natural – filtering down to us from pristine watersheds in the Catskills without the use of chemical and artificial treatments to deem it drinkable. I always try to take a tap-filled water bottle when I head out of the house but inevitably, I run out and end up buying a bottle. Now though, I won’t have to since TapIt Water, a water bottle refilling service, has recently made its official launch in New York City. TapIt engages a network of cafes and eateries across New York City that volunteer as partners to provide clean drinking water to those who bring in their own reusable bottle. In the past few months, more than 200 cafes and eateries in New York City have started participating in the network. Users can find partner locations or a map of water fountains at TapitWater.com. And there’s also an app for that.
Saving money, reducing pollution by using fewer plastic bottles and lowering carbon emissions from importing thousands of gallons of water into the city from far flung locations like Fiji are just some of the major benefits of using TapIt. It’s about time a program like this was instituted in our fine city to take advantage of the delicious beverage we’ve got on tap. NYC is just one of four US cities with a special permit from the EPA that allows its drinking water to go unfiltered. A network of reservoirs and rivers in five upstate counties ensures that our water remains immaculate.
But unfortunately our happy hour is currently under threat. Large-scale gas drilling in the Catskill area could result in the irreversible pollution of our water supply and cost us billions of dollars in the process.
Technological developments in natural gas drilling have allowed the gas industry access to a large reservoir of natural gas named the Marcellus Shale that lies beneath the Catskills and extends under much of northern Appalachia. Known as hydraulic fracturing, the extraction method involves injecting millions of gallons of water mixed with sand and various toxic chemicals at high pressure into the shale, creating cracks in the sediment and allowing the trapped gas to escape. Some of the wastewater created in the process is extracted but more than 50% of it remains in the shale to seep into the groundwater and surrounding environment.
Hydraulic Fracturing is the suspected cause of impaired or polluted drinking water in western Pennsylvania, Colorado, Alabama, Arkansas, New Mexico, Kansas, Montana, Virginia, Washington, West Virginia and Wyoming. If it is allowed to occur without restriction in the Catskill watershed area, it is only a matter of time before our water is affected as well. Once the watershed becomes polluted, New York will have to cough up ~$10 billion for a water processing plant to treat the water. And you can bet that will leave a bad taste in our mouths.
It is clearly necessary to fight for legislation that will protect our water supply from environmentally irresponsible practices by the gas industry. Alternative sources of fuel such as natural gas are critical to our economy and sustainability but if those developments destroy our drinking water in the process, the costs will far exceed many of the benefits we hope to obtain. Viable and responsible alternatives to hydraulic fracturing methods exist but at the moment, loopholes in federal legislation do not require their use. Thus, we must take up the slack on the city level and fight to protect our watersheds and the surrounding environment. We can’t survive without water and we at MYD prefer water in its pure form, straight from the source.
To learn more about this issue, please read the MYD Environmental Committee issue paper on this subject here.
Support our campaign to Ban Gas Drilling in the Catskills by sending a letter to your State Senator.
This post was written by Bobi Slavin, a member of the Environmental Issues Committee chaired by Lin Gordon. Join the Committee here.
Please no more drilling. Let’s help to clean-up our air and water and food. Cash for Clunkers is a great start.
Having clean water is absolutely a necessity and something that citizens do not take for granted. As a developed world, we should treat it as a human right to provide sanitized water for our population. Please do not take this away.
Fifteen million people depend on The Delaware River Basin for their water. It’s critical that this Labor Day we focus national attention on the dangers posed to it by drilling and fracking. We need as many people and media as possible to gather along the banks of the River on September 6, 2009 to celebrate the works of the River, its culture and its people.
The evening of the party, at 7:00 PM, each person in each community will pour a single cup of water into the River. At 7:30 PM, we’ll light our candles — a 330-mile long beacon — from Hancock to Philadelphia.
For a thousand and one brilliant reasons, grab a cup, a candle and meet us at The River!
Best wishes and great hopes,
Liz Bucar
CottageWorks
Light Up The Delaware River Party