Last Words of...

    

Chief Joseph - Nez Perce

"Tell General Howard I know his Heart. What He told me before I have in my heart. I am tired of fighting, Looking Glass is dead. too-Hul-hul-sote is dead. The old men are all dead. It is the young men who say yes or no. He who led on the young men is dead. It is cold and we have no blankets. The little children are freezing to death. My people, some of them have run away to the hills, and have no blankets, no food; no one knows where they are--perhpas freezing to death. I want to have time to look for my children and see how many of them I can find. Maybe I shall find them among the dead.
  
Hear me, my chiefs. I am tired; my heart is sick and sad. From where the sun now stands I will fight no more forever."

Thomas "Stonewall" Jackson

"Let us cross over the river and sit in the shade of the trees."

Henry David Thoreau

Moose . . . Indian . . .

Luther Standing Bear

"There is a road in the hearts of all of us, hidden and seldom traveled, which leads to an unkown, secret place."

         

  

I leave to find that place. 

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Speech @ Public Hearing in Tunkhannock, PA

10/20/2009

Good evening.

  

I'm Don Williams of Harleysville, Montgomery County, PA, and I appreciate the opportunity to speak tonight. I am a native and citizen of the commonwealth of Pennsylvania, I was born in the Wyoming Valley, and my ongoing education includes a bachelor’s degree in earth and environmental sciences from Wilkes University. During my senior year in college, I lectured throughout northeastern Pennsylvania on the geology and geomorphology of this region. In 2005, I partnered with the Chesapeake Bay Foundation and American Rivers to name the Susquehanna as the most endangered river in the nation. Unfortunately, it appears we may be approaching that point again. In June 2008, in Washington D C, I was presented with an award from American Rivers for my efforts to protect the Susquehanna, and I was the only private citizen so honored at that event.

  

As an environmentalist who witnessed and participated in the first earth day, I continue to marvel at the infinite wisdom of Rachel Carson's choice of three simple words – web of life - to describe all of nature. It is my belief that almost 40 years after the first earth day - we are now at a point where this commonwealth's commitment to protecting the environment is - in truth - heading toward where it was 40 years prior to 1970. In the present day Marcellus Shale frenzy, we are once again striking a Faustian bargain at the expense of our natural resources, jeopardizing the quality of our land and our waters and our future in exchange for the false promise of jobs and fleeting economic prosperity for a chosen few.

  

A detailed DEP study done earlier this year concluded that about 980,000 pounds per day of assimilative capacity for total dissolved solids remains on the Susquehanna’s West Branch. TerrAqua’s draft discharge permit, which is based upon dumping 400,000 gallons of treated frackwater per day into the Susquehanna, allows between 54,412 and 522,245 pounds per day of total dissolved solids to be discharged to the river to meet 2011 standards. 

  

Let's crunch these numbers a little further. This equates to 15.7 million pounds of solids - containing far too many unknowns - being dumped into the west branch of the Susquehanna every month. That's about 95,000 tons per year. And that's from one treatment plant. Using the same math for the proposed Wyoming Somerset facility, which proposes to discharge 380,000 gallons per day into Meshoppen Creek, this would equate to – roughly – 90,000 tons per year of dissolved solids going into a stream you could hop across with little effort in a few seconds. Anyone remotely familiar with Meshoppen Creek and with modicum of common sense would clearly recognize this would utterly destroy this coldwater fishery’s ecosystem. How anyone could claim or believe this stream has the capacity to accept even 1/100^th the assimilative threshold of the west branch of the Susquehanna is truly beyond me.

  

Additionally, I’ve been advised the application for this plant contains the following statement:

  

 "More information regarding the physical, chemical, and toxicological composition of the wastes produced in the treatment process can be determined once operation begins at the facility. Respective health and safety information will be documented at that time in an updated PPC plan."

  

My friends, somehow putting the cart before the horse comes to mind here. However, with perhaps over a trillion $ at stake in the Marcellus Shale play, we should not be surprised at anything we hear coming from those who seek to profit from it…as well as those who already have.   

  

If we continue to accept frackwater at a growing number of new treatment plants throughout our commonwealth, what will our watershed, and our waters, look like next year…or 5 years from now, and what will we leave as our legacy for future generations?  Where is the tipping point of assimilative capacity? I certainly don't know, however, having studied numerous detailed environmental modeling failures over the past three decades, I truly do not believe the DEP knows either.

  

On May 18, 1971, Pennsylvania's voters by a four-to-one margin ratified what is now Article I, Section 27 of our constitution. As follows:

  

"The people have a right to clean air, pure water, and to the preservation of the natural, scenic, historic and esthetic values of the environment. Pennsylvania's public natural resources are the common property of all the people, including generations yet to come. As trustee of these resources, the Commonwealth shall conserve and maintain them for the benefit of all the people."

  

Webster's defines pure as: unmixed with any other matter. Webster's defines conserve as: avoid wasteful or destructive use of. So far, from my perspective, it appears that many of our state and federal agencies as well as our elected and appointed officials have differing views on exactly what these words mean.

  

Along with a fellow river advocate, I just finished paddling over 100 miles on the Chemung and Susquehanna Rivers, beginning last Friday near Elmira NY and ending on Monday in the Wyoming Valley. We didn’t see any other paddlers during our four days on the water, but we did see over 15 bald eagles, water clear to depths of over 10 feet, and  - at least for two of the four days – Penn’s Woods in all their glory. It was an experience I would share with each of you if I could.

  

From a scientific, environmental and quality of life perspective, I clearly understand the myriad of issues we are facing and – equally important - what we stand to lose.  Therefore, I formally state that I am fully opposed to the further degradation of the Susquehanna River and any of its tributaries by any action or from any source, including application # PA 0065293 that we are discussing this evening. Further, until there is a complete and public disclosure of any and all chemicals used in the horizontal hydro-fracturing process, as well as full disclosure of the additional contaminants emanating from the Marcellus formation itself, I am requesting that any action on any/all frackwater treatment plant applications be suspended indefinitely, and that any existing frackwater treatment facilities be shut down immediately.

  

Prior to registering to speak, I asked if a PowerPoint slideshow could be presented this evening. Since it was not possible…this will have to do. 

  

As a citizen of the commonwealth of Pennsylvania, and per the words of our Constitution set forth in Article 1 Section 27, it is clearly self-evident these are our lands and these are our waters. What is happening throughout the Susquehanna and Delaware and Ohio watersheds today, and how we react to it, will be our legacy to those generations yet to come. Now is not the time for apathy or professions of ignorance or to keep a low profile, now is the time for resolute action. Clean water is not only our right, it is essential to our very lives...PERIOD.

  

And if our current legislators are unwilling to “support, obey and defend” our commonwealth’s Constitution” which is an affirmation taken directly from their oath of office, we must replace them with leaders who will at our earliest opportunity. 

  

From Dimock to Dunkard Creek, from Lake Otsego and Carrolltown to the Chesapeake Bay, and from Harrisburg to Washington, we must do all that is necessary to ensure our gift to the future includes cleaner waters, cleaner air, and a Penn’s Woods we will be proud to leave behind.

     

Thank you.