SUBSCRIBE TO OUR FREE NEWSLETTER
Daily news & progressive opinion—funded by the people, not the corporations—delivered straight to your inbox.
5
#000000
#FFFFFF
5
#000000
#FFFFFF
Climate activists calling themselves We Are Seneca Lake continued their blockade of a construction site for the sixth week. (Photo: WeAreSenecaLake.com)
'We Are Seneca Lake': Arrests, Rallies Mark Continued Gas Storage Protests
Activists released from jail as residents fight against methane storage plans in New York
Dec 04, 2014
Police made 10 arrests Wednesday as ongoing "We Are Seneca Lake" climate protests entered their sixth week in central New York, where residents are engaging in a civil disobedience campaign against a planned gas storage facility on the lake's shores.
At a rally in front of the Reading Town Court on Wednesday night, six of the arraigned protesters plead guilty and vowed to serve jail time rather than pay a fine.
"Protesters who rally under the banner of 'We Are Seneca Lake' are apparently prepared to endure the hardships of incarceration in order to send a message that their protest won't stop until Crestwood stops," the group said in a statement.
A total of 83 arrests have now been made as protesters continue their fight to prevent Texas-based energy company Crestwood Midstream from using unstable salt caverns along Seneca Lake to store methane gas, which activists say would threaten the health and livelihood of residents and business-owners in the area. Among their concerns are the project's potential impact on drinking water for more than 100,000 people, as well as agriculture, tourism, and public health.
"I am not willing to stand by any longer while the air quality deteriorates and the watershed is threatened." --Paula Fitzsimmons
The project was approved by the Federal Energy Regulation Commission (FERC) despite broad public opposition and unanswered questions about the health risks of storing highly pressurized, explosive gas in abandoned salt caverns, the protesters say.
"This is an attempt to dispel the myth that this movement is an 'outside' movement, filled with 'professional protesters,'" said Phil Davis, a winery owner and resident who was among those taken into custody on Wednesday. "However, we welcome all comers, as we must when dealing with a watershed for over 100,000 people and air that we all breathe. It will take people from all over to protect the environment and to stand up to Crestwood, the true outsider in this threat."
Paula Fitzsimmons, a physician assistant, called the Crestwood project a "public health risk of an unacceptable magnitude."
Activists say gas storage in unlined salt caverns has a 40 percent risk of failure within 25 years. The proposed facility on Seneca Lake, the largest of the Finger Lakes, would be unprecedented in size and the biggest in the U.S. and increase the methane within the caverns from 1.5 billion cubic feet to an eventual 10 billion cubic feet, according to Crestwood.
"I am not willing to stand by any longer while the air quality deteriorates and the watershed is threatened," Fitzsimmons added.
An Urgent Message From Our Co-Founder
Dear Common Dreams reader, The U.S. is on a fast track to authoritarianism like nothing I've ever seen. Meanwhile, corporate news outlets are utterly capitulating to Trump, twisting their coverage to avoid drawing his ire while lining up to stuff cash in his pockets. That's why I believe that Common Dreams is doing the best and most consequential reporting that we've ever done. Our small but mighty team is a progressive reporting powerhouse, covering the news every day that the corporate media never will. Our mission has always been simple: To inform. To inspire. And to ignite change for the common good. Now here's the key piece that I want all our readers to understand: None of this would be possible without your financial support. That's not just some fundraising cliche. It's the absolute and literal truth. We don't accept corporate advertising and never will. We don't have a paywall because we don't think people should be blocked from critical news based on their ability to pay. Everything we do is funded by the donations of readers like you. Will you donate now to help power the nonprofit, independent reporting of Common Dreams? Thank you for being a vital member of our community. Together, we can keep independent journalism alive when it’s needed most. - Craig Brown, Co-founder |
Our work is licensed under Creative Commons (CC BY-NC-ND 3.0). Feel free to republish and share widely.
Nadia Prupis
Nadia Prupis is a former Common Dreams staff writer. She wrote on media policy for Truthout.org and has been published in New America Media and AlterNet. She graduated from UC Santa Barbara with a BA in English in 2008.
Police made 10 arrests Wednesday as ongoing "We Are Seneca Lake" climate protests entered their sixth week in central New York, where residents are engaging in a civil disobedience campaign against a planned gas storage facility on the lake's shores.
At a rally in front of the Reading Town Court on Wednesday night, six of the arraigned protesters plead guilty and vowed to serve jail time rather than pay a fine.
"Protesters who rally under the banner of 'We Are Seneca Lake' are apparently prepared to endure the hardships of incarceration in order to send a message that their protest won't stop until Crestwood stops," the group said in a statement.
A total of 83 arrests have now been made as protesters continue their fight to prevent Texas-based energy company Crestwood Midstream from using unstable salt caverns along Seneca Lake to store methane gas, which activists say would threaten the health and livelihood of residents and business-owners in the area. Among their concerns are the project's potential impact on drinking water for more than 100,000 people, as well as agriculture, tourism, and public health.
"I am not willing to stand by any longer while the air quality deteriorates and the watershed is threatened." --Paula Fitzsimmons
The project was approved by the Federal Energy Regulation Commission (FERC) despite broad public opposition and unanswered questions about the health risks of storing highly pressurized, explosive gas in abandoned salt caverns, the protesters say.
"This is an attempt to dispel the myth that this movement is an 'outside' movement, filled with 'professional protesters,'" said Phil Davis, a winery owner and resident who was among those taken into custody on Wednesday. "However, we welcome all comers, as we must when dealing with a watershed for over 100,000 people and air that we all breathe. It will take people from all over to protect the environment and to stand up to Crestwood, the true outsider in this threat."
Paula Fitzsimmons, a physician assistant, called the Crestwood project a "public health risk of an unacceptable magnitude."
Activists say gas storage in unlined salt caverns has a 40 percent risk of failure within 25 years. The proposed facility on Seneca Lake, the largest of the Finger Lakes, would be unprecedented in size and the biggest in the U.S. and increase the methane within the caverns from 1.5 billion cubic feet to an eventual 10 billion cubic feet, according to Crestwood.
"I am not willing to stand by any longer while the air quality deteriorates and the watershed is threatened," Fitzsimmons added.
Nadia Prupis
Nadia Prupis is a former Common Dreams staff writer. She wrote on media policy for Truthout.org and has been published in New America Media and AlterNet. She graduated from UC Santa Barbara with a BA in English in 2008.
Police made 10 arrests Wednesday as ongoing "We Are Seneca Lake" climate protests entered their sixth week in central New York, where residents are engaging in a civil disobedience campaign against a planned gas storage facility on the lake's shores.
At a rally in front of the Reading Town Court on Wednesday night, six of the arraigned protesters plead guilty and vowed to serve jail time rather than pay a fine.
"Protesters who rally under the banner of 'We Are Seneca Lake' are apparently prepared to endure the hardships of incarceration in order to send a message that their protest won't stop until Crestwood stops," the group said in a statement.
A total of 83 arrests have now been made as protesters continue their fight to prevent Texas-based energy company Crestwood Midstream from using unstable salt caverns along Seneca Lake to store methane gas, which activists say would threaten the health and livelihood of residents and business-owners in the area. Among their concerns are the project's potential impact on drinking water for more than 100,000 people, as well as agriculture, tourism, and public health.
"I am not willing to stand by any longer while the air quality deteriorates and the watershed is threatened." --Paula Fitzsimmons
The project was approved by the Federal Energy Regulation Commission (FERC) despite broad public opposition and unanswered questions about the health risks of storing highly pressurized, explosive gas in abandoned salt caverns, the protesters say.
"This is an attempt to dispel the myth that this movement is an 'outside' movement, filled with 'professional protesters,'" said Phil Davis, a winery owner and resident who was among those taken into custody on Wednesday. "However, we welcome all comers, as we must when dealing with a watershed for over 100,000 people and air that we all breathe. It will take people from all over to protect the environment and to stand up to Crestwood, the true outsider in this threat."
Paula Fitzsimmons, a physician assistant, called the Crestwood project a "public health risk of an unacceptable magnitude."
Activists say gas storage in unlined salt caverns has a 40 percent risk of failure within 25 years. The proposed facility on Seneca Lake, the largest of the Finger Lakes, would be unprecedented in size and the biggest in the U.S. and increase the methane within the caverns from 1.5 billion cubic feet to an eventual 10 billion cubic feet, according to Crestwood.
"I am not willing to stand by any longer while the air quality deteriorates and the watershed is threatened," Fitzsimmons added.
We've had enough. The 1% own and operate the corporate media. They are doing everything they can to defend the status quo, squash dissent and protect the wealthy and the powerful. The Common Dreams media model is different. We cover the news that matters to the 99%. Our mission? To inform. To inspire. To ignite change for the common good. How? Nonprofit. Independent. Reader-supported. Free to read. Free to republish. Free to share. With no advertising. No paywalls. No selling of your data. Thousands of small donations fund our newsroom and allow us to continue publishing. Can you chip in? We can't do it without you. Thank you.