For a column published yesterday, Mike Di Paola of Bloomberg News paid a visit to a Sullivan county grandma, Alice Diehl, who helped convince Sullivan County legislators to ban gas drilling on county land.
Breathing is Political's Liz Bucar, who attended the March meeting where Diehl testified, captured her remarks:
There have been six generations on Diehl farms. Our children and grandchildren want to farm. One of my grandsons is buying equipment. He has his herd started. I feel compelled because of him to come here today and let you know how we feel about our farming future. Gas drilling is a really bad idea. It might bring revenue but there are other ways. Once our aquifers are breached, that’s the end. We can’t farm with toxic water and we don’t want to move. You people are responsible for the health and well-being of our residents.
In yesterday's column, Di Paola seems to agree with that viewpoint as he describes dining with Alice Diehl and her family in their Delaware home:
The Diehls have watched in horror as their neighbors have lined up to lease their land. “This is what it’s all about,” says Pete Diehl, 65, holding up a glass of tap water after we lunch on pancakes and extremely fresh maple syrup ... The Diehls refuse to lease their land, yet they fear their well water will be fouled by fracking chemicals or other contaminants dredged up in a process that might affect broad stretches of local aquifers. Area landowners with well water aren’t the only ones who should be worried. There are also the 8.2 million people in New York City who, like me, get their water from the 2,000-square-mile watershed, some of it in Sullivan County.
Di Paola then interviews Catskill Mountainkeeper director Ramsay Adams, whose vociferous opposition to gas drilling includes multiple uses of the word 'hell':
“It’s a hell of a lot of New York,” says [Adams]. “We’re really talking about industrializing New York like never before, ever. It’s incredible what’s at stake, polluting half the state ... New York City is smart,” says Adams. “It said, ‘What the hell are you talking about? Get the hell out of our watershed.’”
"Fracking Marcellus appears to be inevitable, and the state is now working out rules to regulate it," Di Paola concludes.
