Letters to the Editor Policy

Lyncott Landfill Threatened Again

Although I’m no longer a resident of Susquehanna County, having lived in Lenox Township some 23 years, I still have many ties to the area and a continuing interest in issues threatening the environment. The issue at hand is the Lyncott Landfill in New Milford.

Some readers may recall that the area’s environmental watchdog, R.E.S.C.U.E., fought the good fight some 20 years ago and got that landfill closed down. Additionally, it was ordered that the wells at the landfill be tested periodically to insure that the highly toxic materials that were buried in the landfill are not leaching out into the groundwater. The testing is done annually, and it continues because the toxins are still there, which brings me to my current concern.

I recently learned that the D.E.P. is considering issuing a permit to a gas company to build a road through the landfill, providing them with access to a drilling site. It seems to me that to bring in heavy equipment to construct a roadway, even just a dirt road, could potentially disturb the barrels of toxic materials that are buried there. If that occurred, the quality of the groundwater supply in the entire area could be seriously and irrevocably compromised.

If they’re lucky and no mishaps occur during the road construction, consider the pounding to which the landfill would be subjected by the seemingly endless truck traffic that occurs at a drilling site. That, too, would appear to be an accident waiting to happen.

I urge concerned readers to contact D.E.P. and ask them to reject the permit application for road construction through the Lyncott Landfill. For more information visit Wayne/Susquehanna R.E.S.C.U.E.’s website at www.rescue-nepa.org.

Sincerely,

Dorothy B. McPherson

Braintree, MA

C.A.S.U.A.L. DAY

It is Colon Cancer month. Our Board of Commissioners of the County of Susquehanna has Proclamation 2011-01 to make C.A.S.U.A.L. DAY (Colon Cancer Awareness Saves Unlimited Adult Lives) March 31, 2011. Subsequently, this is a great opportunity to continue a cause of an issue of great importance.

I write this letter as an important plea, extreme concern, and complete injustice of many whom under go colonoscopy. My friend Patrick had the disease, and saved my life. The Veterans Administration in Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania recommends a ten (10) year waiting period for those who do not show any polyps during screening. When a polyp is found the next colonoscopy is three years later. I am fine with this. Three years later you have a colonoscopy, and no polyp is found. Your next test is ten years later. This is a serious problem. This makes it a total of thirteen years. It is during this extra ten year period my friend Patrick developed symptoms of colon cancer and died.

I begged the Binghamton Veterans Administration to give me a colon test, for it was seven years between my tests. I begged them, because Patrick's last wish before he died was for me to get one. I had a polyp. It is non-malignant this time, as it was last time. It is very possible it would become malignant during the next three years had it not been removed. My next test is three years from now. If I am clear in three years, I am to wait another ten. During private consulting, I learned it takes from three to five years for a polyp to grow. This ten year waiting period needs to be changed.

I highly recommend the following. All persons who have a history of polyps have a test every three years regardless if they have a polyp or not after three years. Please let us not be bean counters, but life savors. I am not asking all persons to have a test every three years if they have no history of polyps. I only recommend those who do have a history of polyps. Is this asking too much?

I am happy to say that the Veterans Administration in New York agrees to give me a test every five years. I also discovered there are different types of polyps. Unfortunately, mine is the most fatal type (I do not have the technical name for it.) The good news is that I do not see my name in the obituaries. If you do not obtain a screening for yourselves, then please help keep my promise to Patrick. Let us not have his death, as well as many others be in vain.

Sincerely,

Larry Gary

Gibson, PA

Money Talks…

In reference to L. Clowes’ letter March 9 about being lied to on the use of gas, she is right. On public TV I heard (then senator) Arlen Spector asked this same question. His reply was, it will be sold to whom ever will pay the price as the same as us buying oil.

I know our state representatives tell us they represent us. But ask them if they took money from the gas company. They will tell you this has no bearing on representing you. How much money did you give to your state rep?

I wrote my state senator a question about fracking; he hasn’t answered my letter. I wonder if he has taken money from the gas company. There is an old saying that, money talks and the rest walk.

Sincerely,

George Hettiger

Montrose, PA

Another Good Scam?

One of the problems of having a population that is politically unaware, is that the big picture often escapes them.

In the paper last week appeared the column regarding the conservation tax incentive, being offered as a land protection.

Words like "powerful," "permanently protecting," and more, tells me the writer of that copy does know the job of selling.

Sell your land right out from under you, because you fell for the fear tactics employed. In this case the fear factor is the unfriendly that will come and destroy your environment. It also helps to have the writer tell you, your land taxes will be spread out over the years, to some pretty fantastic buying, or I mean savings. I don't know anyone in this area whose taxes are that high.

800K over 16 years. That might be good if you were in Aspen, Colorado. We live in Susquehanna County, PA. I don't think there are many million dollar homes around here that the tax base would be even close to 800K in 16 years. The landowners who wanted to not pay the equitable share of tax, went with the clean and green county scam, and are now trying to get away from that agreement.

Seems if you want to sell your mineral rights, your fair share of the tax must be paid.

I can only liken this deal to swindle you out of your land, like the swindle being done to homeowners who think the reversible mortgage is a good thing. It might sound good on paper, and sounds good when the actor spokesperson says it, but the reality is, you may outlive the government indicator of years on average that says; your not supposed to be alive. Imagine that.

Well, you not only surpassed the death index, you may be homeless. What bugs me the most, it’s the older folks who did the hard work, paid the mortgage and land taxes, and then find the golden years now include a different kind of hardship. The body ages and impels you to seek expensive doctor care. So along comes the miracle, in the form of a preservation tax act, which is designed to be packaged to the older, and newly wedded members of society, in order to seduce them into selling the land or house, if you fell for the reverse swindle, in your living years.

What? I thought I was preserving it for my kids!? What does page 65 line 78 mean? You didn't tell me that! Now wait a minute, you mean to tell me this is a bait and switch? Now that I am getting my will done, to give my life's work to my kids, and I don't own it?

When did I not own it? I think that happens when you sign a legal document you didn't understand.

I like that Teddy Roosevelt set up land trusts and preserves. He knew how to grow wealth. And with having control of the land, which isn't being made so much anymore, he insured the wealth. He also gave the stewardship to the governmental departments, and created employment by hiring a secretary of interior to run it.

I hope anyone who seriously considers this program, take the civics class again. You will find there are good programs out there that do not have you give something first. That is the first law of the scam. And yes, the news is filled everyday with the warning of a new scam that is going around. Read this, understand just what the land preservation and trusts are really about. They are like a lot of things. When they were first created, they served a good purpose. And like many things, the purpose changed.

Sincerely,

Cynthia Allen

Summersville, PA

A Celebration Of Success

The Legion Auxiliary Unit 86 “Mardi Gras” fundraiser was a big success. Hosting this party at the Post, the Auxiliary provided a laid-back menu with some New Orleans favorites such as chicken gumbo, mini muffulettas, hurricanes and the traditional king cake. Entertainment provided by Mike and Sue Decker was enjoyed by all.

Unit 86 Auxiliary truly appreciates the support from our Legion, SAL and Legion Riders. Also, a sincere thanks to Kathy Reddon (Reddon’s Drug Store) for her donation to the event.

Thank you to everyone who supported our fundraiser. We look forward to hosting more fundraisers like this in the future to support our veterans, their families and our community.

Sincerely,

American Legion Auxiliary Unit 86

Where Has All The Water Gone...

...fracking water, that is? The question is not insignificant since this fluid is highly toxic and in some cases radioactive. Yet the shocking answer is that no one really knows where it is.

Fracking fluid is a slimy slurry pumped deep into the ground in a process called hydraulic fracturing to release natural gas. Hydraulic fracturing has an unquenchable thirst. Five million gallons of fracking fluid - a water, sand, and chemical mixture - are used to frack an average gas well.

In the past three years, 1,500 gas wells have been fracked in Pennsylvania's Marcellus Shale. That required 7.5 billion gallons of frack fluid forced-pumped at 15,000 psi deep into the ground.

One would have to descend to the deepest depth in the ocean to equal 15,000 psi. It's enough to crush a nuclear sub like a paper cup.

To get an idea of the immensity of this volume, it would take 830,000 18-wheeler tanker trucks forming a line 11,000 miles long to transport this liquid; that's almost halfway around the Earth. So where it is?

An average of 75 percent remains underground, the rest returns to the surface. Let's look at the subterranean fraction first, the 5.6 billion gallons.

Out of sight might be out of mind but it's not out of existence. This water is not stagnant any more so than any other part of the Earth is forever motionless. The crust of the Earth and all above it and all below it are dynamic, always in motion, as is the submerged sea of frack water.

In time, this chemically loaded water will mix with other underground water, meander along in uncharted pathways and surface. Only the when and where of its reappearance are unknown.

But it is the immediately resurfacing fracking fluid, the 1.9 billion gallons, that is of greatest concern. What happens to it?

This liquid reemerges with the additional contaminates of many carcinogens: heavy metals, benzene, toluene, and radioactive elements. It is trucked to filtering facilities where most, not all, of the pollutants are removed. Then it is dumped into rivers that supply the drinking water for millions of downstream residents.

That's bad, but it gets worst.

The state requires the drilling companies to report how much and where the up-flowing frack fluid is trucked. However, there is no governmental oversight to verify the reports. In other words, it is whatever the drilling companies say it is.

Is any illegally dumped on deserted roads or clandestinely discharged into streams or rivers? No one knows. What is known is that the drilling companies live on the bottom line.

There is also the question of spills and leaks in holding ponds. Again, it is up to the drillers to report these incidents. But according to one inspector, “If we're too hard on them, the companies might just stop reporting their mistakes.”

There are two more ways that fracking fluid can find their way to the surface.

Dr. Marc Durand is a geological engineering professor who specializing in hydrogeology. He warns that in a decade or so the concrete and steel used to cap disused wells will deteriorate. Brine, ten times saltier than seawater, infused with methane, carcinogenic compounds, and maybe radioactive elements, will bubble up through thousands of abandoned wellheads.

Durand cites another channel for frack fluid to surface. The explosives used in shattering the shale make the rock “thousands of times more permeable.” Eventually, he says, the gooey liquid will wend its way to the surface and ooze out through multiple surface fissures located far from the wellhead.

The drilling companies have sold the public a bill of goods. There's a treasure trove beneath your feet just waiting to be tapped, they say. But it's fool's gold. Gas wells give the illusion of money and jobs, but the reality according to Durand “is environmental ruin and irreversible pollution of ground and surface water.”

The drilling frenzy is analogous to burning the furniture to keep the house warm, then luxuriating in the momentary comfort. Those who shout, “Drill, baby, drill,” might as well chant, “Burn, baby, burn.”

Sincerely,

Bob Scroggins

New Milford, PA

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