Monday, March 10, 2014

LIVEBLOGGING AT THIS LINK FROM THE EPA MEETING IN NAPLES RE: FRACKING IN FLORIDA ON 3/11/14!



COMPLETE INFO ABOUT THE EPA & DEP MEETINGS IN NAPLES FLORIDA:

U.S. EPA PUBLIC HEARING:

KEEP THE FRACK OUT OF FLORIDA WATER

TUESDAY, MARCH 11, 2014, 4:00PM-8:30PM

Golden Gate Community Center Auditorium

4701 Golden Gate Parkway, Naples, FL 34116

contact: STONECRAB ALLIANCE @ FACEBOOK or dwyerka@gmail.com

https://www.facebook.com/events/660833463978584/

The EPA Hearing is scheduled for MARCH 11. SAVE THE DATE! 4:00-8:30PM. We need you and all of Florida to join us to create critical mass; how many show up will determine what the EPA does. Save our water and our Everglades from dirty drilling by urging the federal EPA to deny the Class II wastewater injection well permit. To speak or submit comments, email Mcmanus.Fred@epa.gov

Oil drilling is more than an environmental issue. It is a human rights issue. Extreme extraction violates the most basic of all human rights – access to clean water and clean air. 

The drilling we’re trying to stop is only 1000 feet from homes in the Big Cypress Swamp watershed, a critical recharge area in the western Everglades. Each well is permitted to use 5 million gallons of water per month. Unlike agricultural water, the drilling water cannot be recycled or reused; it is permanently polluted and must be injected into the boulder zone. Given the worldwide water scarcity and annual water restrictions in South Florida, it is criminal to permit the oil industry to destroy so much fresh water.

Did you know that once the drilling permit is issued, industry is free to extract oil any way they’d like. They can acid or hydraulically frack any time and they don’t have to tell us. They don’t even have to submit a new permit because extreme extraction is perfectly legal in Florida. Did you know the oil industry can use secret chemicals in unknown concentrations, the exact formulas hidden by trade secret laws that violate the public’s right to know. Did you know that one well can use 11,000 gallons of chemicals—everything from benzene, a known carcinogen, to hydrofluoric acid, a corrosive that eats bone, steel, and rock. And did you know flowback can be radioactive and contain strontium, a heavy metal that no amount of regulation or disclosure can ever make safe.

A decision in favor of the Dan A. Hughes Company could open a floodgate of more drilling on the 115,000 acres they leased for oil exploration that includes large portions of the Florida Panther National Wildlife Refuge, Picayune Strand State Forest, Fakahatchee Strand Preserve State Park, Big Cypress National Preserve, Corkscrew Regional Ecosystem Watershed (CREW) and Corkscrew Swamp Sanctuary, with some of the last old-growth cypress in Florida. Add to this another 350,000 acres Collier Resources just leased for seismic testing in the Big Cypress. This is not vacant land, but public land in the heart of the 30-year, 13-billion Everglades Restoration Project that protects native wildlife and vital watersheds. The Everglades is a national treasure on par with the Grand Canyon. Florida’s water and Everglades are far more valuable than oil. They’re our lifeblood, fueling everything from agriculture to our multi-billion dollar tourist industry. Extreme extraction is not safe. Not here. Not anywhere. Ask Pennsylvania, Texas, and West Virginia—the frontlines for fracking and injection wells.

Florida is still suffering from the worst oil disaster on record. Floridians know, accidents happen. Over time, pipes leak. Injected fluids, surface. And, as the BP disaster shows, even cement casings fail. Because it only takes one incident to taint or even ruin a community’s aquifer, drilling and injection wells are not in the public interest.

Now is the time to preserve our air and our water that keeps us alive. Now is the time to create a sustainable future. 

So join us, March 11, in Naples and bring as many people as you can. This is an URGENT REQUEST. The federal EPA is flying in for a hearing that could decide the fate of Florida water and open the door to Everglades drilling. It’s time to show just how strong opposition is to Everglades oil drilling and how serious we are about keeping Florida’s water clean. We need you at the hearing to say “NO” to the injection well. March 11. Clean water not dirty drilling. Hope to see you!

AGENDA:

BRIEF PRE-RALLY (3:45)

EPA INFORMATIONAL MEETING (4-6PM)

EPA PUBLIC HEARING (6:30-8:30PM)

Come and go as you please. We will be there the entire time. Please note that the EPA has also invited the FDEP, FWC, and the Dan A. Hughes, Co.

REMEMEMBER, if you’d like to speak, email requests to McManus.Fred@epa.gov Fred McManus, Chief, Ground Water and UIC Sections. Feel free to submit written comments as well.

Contact us if you’d like housing. We plan to have a cookie table and a very informal afterparty; if you like to bake, bring some homemade cookies to make us strong. 

WHAT: Citizens Oppose Injection Well at U.S. EPA Public Hearing

WHO: Stone Crab Alliance Sierra Club, Conservancy, Green Peace, Food and Water Watch, Environment Florida, Floridians for Clean Water, Indian Riverkeepers, Gulf Restoration Network, Re-Think Energy Florida and concerned citizens

WHERE: Golden Gate Community Center Auditorium, 4701 Golden Gate Parkway, Naples, FL 34116 

WHEN: Tuesday, March 11, Information Meeting 4:00-6:00 p.m. and Public Hearing 6:30-8:30 p.m.

This would take away Home Rule.. Cities and counties would have no say in what happens to it's environment. Please call your state representatives to SAY NO to this Bill. http://www.1000friendsofflorida.org/2014-florida-legislative-session/hb-703/

Let's take a minute to Thank Clovis Watson Jr. for his No Vote!!! clovis.watson@myfloridahouse.gov or phone 352-264-4001.

March to Governor Scott's home in Naples, Florida on 8/31/13

LIVEBLOGGING STARTS HERE AFTER 4PM EST ON TUESDAY 3/11/14

OPEN COMMENTS TO SEE LATEST LIVEBLOGGING!

Internet was sketchy, could do a few entries and then LIVEBLOGGING had to cease as I had no access. Comments are noted below:

4 comments:

Anita Stewart said...

Test comment

Anita Stewart said...

We are here and trying to get in to speak at 6PM, got here too late to get in the room...very confusing at the front and security is tight...not sure who hired for the security.

Anita Stewart said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Anita Stewart said...

NPR and Al Jazeerah are here to report the news! Finally a break with media. Funny that the local media is not covering this as far as I know.