May 3, Endicott: Health of local rivers: Important mtg coming up

What: WBESC meeting

When: May 3 2016, 6 pm

Where: First United Methodist Church, 53 McKinley Ave, Endicott, NY 13760(At the intersection of McKinley Ave and Monroe St, entrance at rear)

This concerns a NYS DEC permit application to legally dump 80,000 or more gallons per day of highly toxic landfill leachate into the Susquehanna River, directly on top of 1 of 2 shallow wells which is Endicott's primary water source, and upstream of the other.

My friend Mark Bacon is one of the few people who has been tracking the local landfill leachate issue.

He has a coffee shop in downtown Endicott (he hauls spring water for his coffee from Lisle).

4-5 times per day he sees either a 130 BBL or a 215 BBL (5,000-9,000 gallon) tanker truck carrying landfill leachate drive by each day, some of it comes from over 2 hours away, which is minimally treated by EIT/Huron, then dumped into the Susquehanna River.

As far as we know, the volume is 80,000 gallons each day. This is 21B gallons per year, 1.7M gallons per month.

Huron/i3 Electronis (owned the Maines and Matthews families) have made tons of money in the leachate dumping business.

PS: This is just one "approved" source out of dozens all along the river. (actually i3 owns one SPDES permit, and Huron owns another. So there are 2 different pipes which discharge toxic waste into the river).

It's not really approved. It's been going on since April 2011 as a secret DEC "pilot program". It was only through the investigative effort by members of WBESC (Jim Little, Mark Bacon, Scott Lauffer and me) to figure out what was going on.

There was even a *media disinformation* campaign in 2011 coincident when it started. The headline was "Huron Campus Won't be Treating Frack Waste!". Why is this even a story!?

Yet every news outlet in town reported it. And NONE reported about the unpermitted leachte "pilot program" granted by the NYS DEC in secret.

Are the local media lapdogs, and the local business elites in the Greater Binghamton Chamber (who control the media) engaged in a coverup here? And a smokescreen?

And even the claim "we won't be treating fracking waste" turned out to be untrue. (Google: "What Stinks in Endicott" for more info).


Mark also fishes and helps stock the rivers with fish. Huh? Yes, he puts the farm-hatched fish into the river, then he goes and catches the fish he put in the water.

I thought this sounds unnatural. I asked him, "why do we have to stock the rivers with fish?" His answer shocked me.

"Fracking". Yes of course! We've all heard about fish in the Susquehanna with tumors.

But long before fracking there were many threats. "Dams, quarries (stone for building cities and highways), illegal dumping..."

Then there is *LEGAL* dumping under the "Clean Water Act" (1) including landfill leachate and industrial wastes, toxic runoff from farms (fertilizer, pesticides/herbicides and animal wastes), human sewage.

(1: In NY, the CWA permit is called SPDES, "State Pollution Discharge Elimination System"! The license to pollute claims in name to be eliminating pollution! Each permit considers each point source only. As far as I can see, there are no cumulative impacts analyses being done.)

Also over-fishing impacts natural fish population.

Still, he eats the fish he catches from the river polluted by many sources he tells me about.

Because fishing in the river is how people have lived for centuries.

Except the natural system has been really FUBARed* by humans.

FUBAR = F'ed up beyond all recognition. So much so we oblivious to how unnatural and what a red flag stocking the river with fish is! It's "normal", so we don't see it.

Friends, if we are having to stock the rivers with fish, because the natural fish have died off, this is a big problem!!

If we cannot drink river water without filtration, this is a big problem!

My friend Mark hates fracking, but not for the same reason we do. Mark hates fracking, because as an issue, it has completely dominated local environmental reporting for the last 5-6 years.

This obliterates and displaces reporting on many other environmental threats.

Please come to this important meeting with a DEC rep about Huron/i3's application

What: Western Broome Environmental Stakeholders Coalition (WBESC) meeting with NYSDEC officials regarding Endicott i3 on (Huron Campus) effluent permit.

Issues: Presently, 80,000 gallons per day of minimally processed, highly toxic landfill leachate from Seneca Meadows landfill, and also Broome County Landfill.

1) Is this a good idea?
2) What exactly is being dumped?
3) What is the "treatment" process?
4) Who is performing input composition analysis and output analysis?
5) what controls are in place?
6) WHEN IS THE PUBLIC HEARING ON THE PERMIT?? DEC promised us one 2 years ago: http://youtube.com/watch?v=ScoBNTlVM0c

The meeting is open to the public. The DEC will explain the treatment process and permitting process, and will answer questions and take concerns.

Where: First United Methodist Church
53 McKinley Ave, Endicott, NY 13760
(At the intersection of McKinley Ave and Monroe St, entrance at rear)

When: May 3 2016, 6 pm

Contact: Frank Roma, WBESC spokesperson at 607-727-5705 if you have questions.


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




--

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