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Catskill Edible Garden Project launched

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The River Reporter
May 16, 2012 —SULLIVAN COUNTY, NY — Catskill Mountainkeeper and partnering organizations Cornell Cooperative Extension, Center for Workforce Development, Green Village Initiative and Sullivan Renaissance have launched a project called “Catskill Edible Garden Project – Growing the Next Generation of Food Entrepreneurs.”

It involves working with area schools and educational institutions to install and maintain edible gardens, and will seek to provide resources to assist in the development and implementation of garden and food-based curricula integration. It includes a youth employment component.

“The Catskill Edible Garden Project will offer the opportunity for a hands-on youth development experience and exposure to food and agriculture as important aspects of our culture and community, and potential career opportunities,” said Emily Deans of Catskill Mountainkeeper.

During May, the construction and installation of three gardens will begin; two are located at schools: Roscoe Central School and the Sullivan West campus in Jeffersonville ; a third will be at Cornell Cooperative Extension in Liberty. The Cornell garden will promote the CCE “Eat Smart New York” program.

There will be a build day at the Sullivan West Jeffersonville Campus on May 19 starting at 8 a.m. and at the Roscoe Central School on May 22 at 1 p.m. Community volunteers are welcome to participate. Link here

Medical records could yield answers on fracking

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NPR, May 16, 2012
Jon Hamilton

A proposed study of people in northern Pennsylvania could help resolve a national debate about whether the natural gas boom is making people sick. The study would look at detailed health histories on hundreds of thousands of people who live near the Marcellus Shale, a rock formation in which energy companies have already drilled about 5,000 natural gas wells. If the study goes forward, it would be the first large-scale, scientifically rigorous assessment of the health effects of gas production.  Read More…..

New Study Predicts Frack Fluids Can Migrate to Aquifers Within Years

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Major news outlets such as Bloomberg News, Business Week and Propublica are reporting on a game changing peer reviewed study commissioned by Catskill Mountainkeeper that predicts frack fluids can migrate into aquifers, directly contradicting the claims by the gas industry that these toxic chemicals will stay underground forever.

The new peer-reviewed study by hydrogeologist and researcherTom Myers, “Potential Contaminant Pathways from Hydraulically Fractured Shale to Aquifers” published in the current issue of Ground Water, demonstrates that fluids from highly-pressurized gas drilling activities can migrate from deep subsurface layers of shale to shallow aquifers and surface waters, bringing along polluting gases, chemicals, and radioactivity. The study, based on computer modeling of pressure waves, rock characteristics, and fluid mobilization in natural and induced fissures, offers an explanatory mechanism for previous reports of contamination of wells by deep shale methane in and around Dimock, Pennsylvania. The study accords with detailed fracture maps produced by structural geologist Robert Jacobi, showing extensive fracturing of deep bedrock, including shale layers in the Catskills and across New York State.
Hydrofracking and other high-pressurized drilling activities seek to exploit natural and induced fractures in order to release methane gas, but migration of contaminated gas and fluids through rock fissures cannot be managed or controlled, making slow contamination of aquifers and water resources – over time frames as short as one year – extremely likely in areas of intensive drilling activity. This threat from deep level contamination therefore points to risks inherent in high pressure drilling activities and adds a level of threat to human and animal health beyond that of poorly drilled wells and dissolving cement sheaths and casings, already well-accepted as mechanisms by which drilling activities can ruin water sources.
READ THE REPORT ABSTRACT HERE

Read the Propublica Story Here

Read the Bloomberg/Business Week Story Here

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: DON’T FRACK with ANYBODY of WATER

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Catskill Mountainkeeper is proud to be a Supporting Partner of the new campaign “Don’t Frack with AnyBody of Water”.   I AM PICTURES in association with I HEART produced a video and photo portrait campaign of 30 + notable New Yorkers including Leighton Meester, Norman Reedus, Zoe Kravitz, Sandra Bernhard and Adrian Grenier, this PSA raises awareness about the dangers of unregulated fossil fuel extraction. Through personable, direct appeals, “ANYBODY of WATER” demands that we take action to protect New York’s water and put an end to hydraulic fracturing (fracking) today.    Watch the video and then share it with your friends.

WATCH 30 SECOND VIDEO HERE           WATCH 90 SECOND VIDEO HERE

CLICK HERE TO SEE THE PHOTO GALLERY

#DONTFRACK with aNYbody of water @_IHEARTH2O

As the list of known severe short term and irreversible health and environmental hazards caused by the chemicals used to frack grows, energy corporations like Chesapeake and Chevron Hess continue to pollute American drinking water with thousands of toxic chemicals when they mine into our shale bedrock and extract natural gases. What began as an attempt to replace US dependence on coal and foreign oil with domestic natural gas has turned into an unregulated assault on the bodies of land, water and people of today and for generations to come.
If the gas industry prevails, drilling will begin on the first of what could become tens of thousands of wells in the Catskill/Delaware Watershed. This fracking runs the risk of poisoning the drinking water of millions of New Yorkers—once these chemicals (think carcinogens) leak into our water supply, they are nearly impossible to filter out. Now is the time to stop fracking so these chemicals don’t contaminate our water system indefinitely. Because this is ANYBODY of water, this is our only body of water, and if we don’t stand up for it, no one will.
To learn more about fracking and the “ANYBODY of WATER” movement, please read the “Fracking Facts” document, and visit:

iheartH2o.org
DamascusCitizens.org
NYH2O.org
CatskillMountainkeeper.org

“ANYBODY of WATER” is an I AM PICTURES production in association with I HEART H2O Written & Directed by Chloe Domont, Created by Raye Levine, Produced by Zoe Potkin, Co-Produced by Raye Levine, Associate Producer: Emma Levine, Portraits by Alexey Yurenev, Music by Grizzly Bear

In Partnership with: Citizens for Water, Damascus Citizens, Catskill Mountainkeeper, Bone/Levine Architects, NYH2O

For more information contact Catskill Mountainkeeper at 845 482 5400 or email us at info@catskillmountainkeeper.org