The Fighting 29th

All about New York's 29th Congressional District

A lot of the comments and public statements about the Chesapeake Energy dust-up mistake opposition to the Pulteney disposal well, and opposition to Chesapeake Energy, with opposition to drilling in the Marcellus Shale. Nothing could be further from the truth.

Saying that Tier residents must bow to the demands of Chesapeake Energy in order to extract gas is the same as saying that one should marry the first person one kisses. Chesapeake is just one of many companies that could successfully extract gas from the Marcellus Shale. There may be other companies with better fracking technology that could extract the gas more cleanly. Perhaps in a couple of years, the combination of new technology and higher energy prices will make everyone glad they waited.

The key point is that the valuable resource here is the gas, not the ability to drill it. Those who have allied with Chesapeake often sound like Chesapeake is the only game in town, and that the economic future of the Southern Tier rests on getting Chesapeake to drill immediately, no matter what the cost.

The truth is that the gas in the ground will only get more valuable over time, and the Tier will see a boom sometime in the near future because of it. This will happen with or without Chesapeake Energy, no matter how much they, and their supporters, want to make us think otherwise.

Today's Corning Leader contains this terse statement from Chesapeake Energy:

Our enhanced water re-use techniques have greatly diminished the need for us to dispose of produced water, therefore, we have no intention of pursuing the injection well in Pulteney, N.Y.

This is clearly not good enough. When Chesapeake says "we have withdrawn our application", then this controversy is over.

Today's Corning Leader has two interesting fracking-related stories.

The first, more important one, covers yesterday's Pulteney Town Board meeting. At that meeting, the board laid the groundwork for a resolution for a moratorium on wastewater storage, and they voted to send a letter to Chesapeake Energy asking them to withdraw their application to store wastewater in a Pulteney well. The story contains this quote from Town Supervisor Bill Weber:

“It is very clear, from all my discussions with the board, and my own conscience, I can’t, in fact, I have yet to find anyone who supports this project,” Weber said, his voice choked with emotion.

The second, comical story concerns George Winner. Winner, who did not attend Sunday's meeting in Pulteney, yesterday accused Eric Massa of hiding the contents of a letter from the standing-room-only crowd there. After Massa and a number of meeting attendees pointed out that Massa distributed 250 copies of the letter at the meeting, Winner now says that Massa was wrong because he didn't distribute enough copies of that letter to the crowd.

What's next from Winner? A complaint about the color of Eric Massa's tie? Perhaps there was a spot on the car that Massa drove to the meeting.

Winner's response is all the more interesting because he agrees with Massa on the fundamental issue: he opposes the storage of waste water in the abandoned gas well in Pulteney. I don't know if this is a new position on Winner's part, since there wasn't a word about his opposition in yesterday's Leader story.

Maybe if Winner had just showed up at the biggest political event in the history of one of the towns he represents, he'd look like a leader rather than an ill-informed Monday morning quarterback.

George Winner's allegation that Eric Massa is misleading constituents about Chesapeake Energy and their wastewater proposal has taken a couple of interesting turns.

First, commenter keuka confirms what Eric Massa says in this press release: Massa handed out 250 copies of the Chesapeake letter [pdf] at Sunday's fracking meeting. So, Winner's contention that Massa misled the attendees at that meeting is simply false.

Second, keuka points out that Tom Reed's brother was at the meeting taking notes. I assume this is Tom's brother John, who appears in this You Tube campaign video with Tom.

Finally, in Massa's letter to Winner [pdf], he makes an interesting point:

[...] I understand that you actually have a copy of this letter which was sent to me and distributed at this meeting. Since you did not attend Sunday's panel discussion and the only copies that I know of were provided at this meeting, I can't help but wonder how you came across a copy of the letter which you claim I withheld.

I think Senator Winner has some explaining to do.

Update: An anonymous reader sent this picture of Tom Reed's brother at the meeting:

Update2: Reader Groundhum, who was at the meeting and contributed this eyewitness report, sent a scan of Massa's letter to Chesapeake and their response [pdf], both of which were distributed at the meeting. Groundum also sent some additional testimony which was attached to the letter from Chesapeake [pdf] and was also distributed.

Today's Corning Leader story is headlined "Winner: Massa Withheld Information". There's a lot less there than the headline would indicate, and what is there is bad for Southern Tier Republicans, not Massa.

The information that Winner says Massa withheld is contained in a letter from Chesapeake Energy, the company that wants to put wastewater down a well one mile from Keuka Lake. Chesapeake says that they have found a new process to filter, dilute and re-use fracking water, so they won't be "actively pursuing" the application to store that water in an abandoned gas well near Pulteney.

Winner thinks that this letter means that Chesapeake won't be using the well. But Chesapeake clearly says that they aren't withdrawing their application to store water in the well:

“While we remain confident that these technological practices will eliminate the need for the injection well permit, it is premature for us to pull the application at this time,” McClendon said.

“However, you have my commitment that we will keep you posted on our recycling program and any change in our position related to the permit application.”

In other words, the fox won't be having chicken for dinner today, but be sure to let him keep the key to the henhouse door for safekeeping. And don't worry -- he'll "keep you posted".

George Winner is either dumb enough, or duplicitous enough, to take Chesapeake's statement at face value. But that's no surprise. Ever since Chesapeake showed up in the Southern Tier, he and Tom Reed have been falling over themselves to accommodate the drilling company's interests. For Winner and Reed, the valid concerns of Tier residents, Republican and Democrat alike, take a back seat to an Oklahoma company's desire to have drilling and wastewater carting start immediately.

The politics of this are dead simple. If Tom Reed had the 29th seat today, there would be no high-profile elected representative asking skeptical questions and slowing down the process so all can be heard. Oklahoma fairy tales would be swallowed whole, along with a big glass of "shut up".

If anyone needs more evidence that Massa's election is making a positive difference in the lives of Tier residents, today's Leader has it, in spades.

Reader Groundhum was kind enough to send over his notes from yesterday's meeting in Pulteney:

To say the meeting was well-attended would be understatement. Attendance estimates range from at least 300 (mine) to 500 (one of the organizers); the meeting room was SRO, and the anteroom was overflowing; the parking lot was full and cars lined both sides of Brown Rd. 500 might not be overstatement. Meeting started shortly after 1:00, and milling about and organizing (still mostly the former) was still happening when we had to leave around 4:00.

The speakers and their salient points (in the order in which they spoke).

Congressman Massa – Opposed, and always will be opposed. Will be meeting with reps of Chesapeake Energy. Two staff members will be working "virtually full time" on this issue. It took millions of years for the gas to form, and it is irresponsible to succumb to the pressure to extract it immediately. Take some time to understand the risks and consequences. And if anyone can possbily have any questions about my stance, read the op-ed from the Daily Messenger, which was also available as a handout and is online here.

Dr. Tony Ingraffea, civil engineer and member of the Cornell Fracture Group at Cornell University – An intense 15-minute course in engineering. Beyond understanding the process involved in engineering projects, do not fail to do the math when statistics are cited: At the volume Chesapeake proposes per their application to the DEC, there will be three truckloads an hour, 8 hours per day, 365 days per year, for 10 years. If 99.99% of the time everything works out with the hauling and injection process as Chesapeake predicts, that still means 1000 spills.

Walter Hang, CEO, Toxics Targeting – The DEC permitting process is geared toward facilitating granting of permits if all required information is submitted with the application. The DEC does not force clean up, and presented evidence of same from DEC records. Admonished attendees to form one group to fight UIC, and vowed to help whatever group emerges as the point in the fight. Also, the US EPA only considers the immediate property when reviewing a site. (Despite what one might assume or even consider common sense, what happens beyond the boundaries of a property is not taken into consideration in an EPA review.)

Art Hunt, Owner, Hunt Country Winery – Read a prepared statement expressing his dismay that something so absurd as injecting toxic waste into the ground would even be considered. Reiterated Keuka Lake Association's opposition (Art is also a member of the KLA board).

Dr. Richard Young, geologist/hydrologist, SUNY Geneseo – There is no map of the state's aquifers. There is no comprehensive map of the faults in the state. There is no way to predict what will give way when waste is injected or where it will really go. And, by the way, did you realize that when waste is injected, the pressure is only slightly less than the pressure used in the hydraulic fracturing process for extraction?

Steve Coffman, chairman, Committee to Preserve the Finger Lakes – This is a patently absurd proposition. The Committe is prepared to do whatever is necessary to try to stop it.

Rachel Treichler, Esq., attorney – An overview of the permit application process, and the small number of relatively weak points in this particular sequence of events. Perhaps the best last chance is if the owner of the Bergstresser site can reject Chesapeake if that option exists in the lease contract.

The big take away was that the suspension in the permit process is an opportunity to organize to be ready to fight. Take advantage of the time because once the clock restarts, the fight has to start.

The slides from the presentations will be available at the Pulteney Library for review, and also posted online at a location yet to be determined.

Media: There is a story & video from WETM here.

WHEC, Channel 10, was there, but I don't find anything on their website, and nothing ran Sunday evening.. Here's the story, thanks to an anonymous commenter.

And, you know about The Leader. I saw a reporter from the Dundee Observer (one of Yates counties many newspapers ;) there, and I'm pretty sure the Chronicle-Express had someone there. Also, a couple of other people with press badges that I couldn't read.

The Corning Leader's Bob Recotta filed this report about the Pulteney fracking wastewater meeting. The meeting was heavily attended, and Eric Massa was one of the speakers. An interesting note: three of the five town board members have signed leases with the energy company that wants to dump the wastewater.

The Leader also has a story about new lighting in the Bath school gym, due in part to the intervention of Massa.

A new Pew report showing that young people aren't blogging as much is getting headlines like "Study: Blogging is so 2006" and "Adults Ruined Blogs for Kids Study Shows".

This spin is just stupid. Blogs are one mode of self-publication on the Internet. Four years ago, blogs were used for personal diaries as well as sites like this one, even though blogs make poor personal diaries because everyone can read a blog. When Facebook and Twitter came along, those who wanted to keep a personal diary online, or stay in good touch with friends, moved there.

Facebook and Twitter, like Blogger and Typepad, are just further perfection of software used to communicate on the Internet. As time goes forward, Internet software will continue to be perfected. Every time a new Internet platform comes on-line, bloggers who like the new platform better than a blog will move there. This has nothing to do with "Adults killing blogging", and everything to do with the way that technology works.

Another Republican reader writes to point out that Eric Massa just voted for pay-as-you-go financing and against increasing the national debt.

Take a good look at that PAYGO vote. Not a single member of the "party of fiscal responsibility" voted for PAYGO.

Republicans are running the House like the House of Commons. They vote as a block, and they vote against the majority party, no matter if that vote is consistent with their principles. Along will all the other problems Tom Reed has, this is a big one. Republican enforcement of party line voting means that he has to give us a really good explanation of when and how he'll choose principle over party.

(I do understand that the debt ceiling vote was split to allow members to vote for PAYGO and for raising the debt ceiling. If anyone thinks that little footnote will keep Democrats from making this a campaign issue, you must be smoking something stronger than John Boehner's Barclay's.)

Reader groundhum sent a couple of links about the proposed wastewater disposal well in Pulteney. First, the Penn Yan Chronicle-Express has a story about the regulatory review required. It sounds like nothing's happening quickly. Also, the Finger Lakes Times reports that the Seneca Pure Water Association thinks the well poses a high risk.