24 villages 2,500 people 5,000 graves

24 villages 2,500 people 5,000 graves
(Do you think Gas Money will bring you Happiness and Power?)

Executive Summary:

• Neither Money nor Land Wealth will purchase you protection
  from Mob Rule or Corporate Colonization.
  
  
• Even the Mob's drinking water is at risk.
  

I happened to be driving though the NYC Watershed over the weekend.
Such a beautiful area.

Yet, I kept seeing signs like this one:



It turns out that when the NYC reservoir system was built 1942-1954
all of these villages and towns were seized by eminent domain
and destroyed for the "greater good" of clean water for NYC:

West Hurley, Ashton, Glenford, Brown's Station, Olive Bridge,
Brodhead, Shokan, West Shokan, Boiceville, Beerston,
Cannonsville, Rock Rift, Rock Royal, Granton, Neversink,
Bittersweet,  Arena, Pepacton, Shavertown, Union Grove,
Eureka, Montela, Lackawack and Gilboa.

24 villages were flooded
2,500 people were displaced
5,000 graves were dug up and relocated

Since the NYC watershed now enjoys special protections
from gas drilling, I found these signs emblematic.

Because the same principle which destroyed
24 villages and forced the relocation of 2,500 people,
"The rights of the many trump the rights of the few."
i.e., MOB RULE, is still at work.


People lease their land to the gas company
(or desire to) in order to "get rich",
think this money will purchase
greater freedom,  wealth and power
(esp political power), therefore happiness.

This vision, promoted by the corporate media,
such as this Associated Press piece published
in Gannett's Binghamton paper, the PSB, is clearly false.

Dreams of gas riches fading for NY landowners
http://www.pressconnects.com/article/20130226/NEWS01/302260008/Dreams-gas-riches-fading-NY-landowners

There were certainly people in Arena, Eureka, and Bittersweet NY
who were "land rich", yet this wealth offered them
NO PROTECTION against the tyranny of Mob Rule
(eminent domain).

If the government, or the gas industry, wants your land,
they will take it, and all the money in the world
(or land riches) will offer you no special protection.

This principle is not based on egalitarianism
upon which this country was founded,
that ALL PERSONS ARE BORN OF EQUAL RIGHT,

in fact, Mob Rule is subversive to it.

Again and again, as gas-drilling approaches,
I have seen this:

• FERC Class-1 designation
  
  This is based on the notion that
  people in rural areas should get less protections against pipelines
  than people in more densely populated areas.
  
  Why? Based in Science?
  Nope... it's Mob Rule.
  
  
• "Filtration Avoidance Determination"
  
  In a nutshell: "Our NYC water is especially pure and delicious,
  therefore we deserve greater protection".
  
  Based in science? No way. It's Mob Rule.
  
  
• NYC Watershed Protection
  
  vs. Principle Aquifer Protection
  vs. Primary Aquifer Protection.
  
  First, let's note that
  only the term "Watershed" has a definition based in Geology.
  
  The NYS DEC defines a 'primary aquifer' as "a highly productive aquifer presently being utilized
  as a source of water supply by a major municipal supply system."
  
  Huh? Note the use of subjective words like "highly" and "major".
  Based on science? NOPE. Yet, a "primary aquifer" gets a 500' setback.
  

  NYS DEC defines a 'principal aquifer' as "an aquifer known to be highly productive or whose
  geology suggests abundant potential water supply, but which is not intensively used as a source
  of water supply by a major municipal system at the present time."
  
  Huh? More subjective words  Based in science? Nope.
  Guess what? There are no setbacks for a "principle aquifer" (whatever they are).
  

Had enough irony? Here's the Grand Finale:

This might be called the Revenge of the Rural People:
"We demand the right to Frack Ourselves!"

One year ago, the frackers and wealthy landowners in Delaware County
Board of Supervisors passed a resolution stating their intention to
FRACK INSIDE the NYC Watershed,  and if the 7M NYC people living downstream
don't like it, they can pay $81 Billion in Reparations:

http://williamahuston.blogspot.com/2012/12/wo-wait-did-he-say-reparations.html

This is weird enough that a dozen or so rich white guys in Delaware Co.
think they can go against the 7M people in NYC
who will receive whatever toxic gersplutsch that drilling activity
will inevitably send downstream into NYC tap water....

(We should ask the former residents of Shavertown if this is likely to win this)

But implicit in their cry: "We demand the right to frack ourselves!"
is the premise that WEALTH WILL PURCHASE HAPPINESS.

Ask a wealthy person living in a FERC Class-1 region
where the Constitution Pipeline is proposed
if wealth will purchase them special protection.

Ask a wealthy person who drinks water from a "principal aquifer"
(no special protections from fracking) if their wealth will ensure them
their water will remain clean.

The Final Insult to the "Mob of the Majority",
the people in NYC-- the promised 4,000' setback for the NYC Watershed
is ABSENT from the regulations.
It's only in the SGEIS.

This seems to indicate that the NYS DEC is intending to violate said 4.000' protection
which is ultimately bad for BOTH the denizens of Delaware County AND NYC.

Welcome to the New York State Mining Colony.
Where only the corporations get rights.

Fortunately, there seems to be a revolution in progress.


--
--
May you, and all beings
be happy and free from suffering :)
-- ancient Buddhist Prayer (Metta)