To All SLPWA Members and all Supporters of Seneca Lake Message to Members With our summer quarter in full swing on Seneca Lake – activities of the Seneca Lake Pure Wa-ters Association have been going strong as well. Our Marcellus Shale Committee continues to follow developments with the US Environmental Protection Agency and their study of on the “Potential Relationship between Hydraulic Fracturing Water and Drinking Water Resources”, and has provided public comments on their study proposal. The Committee provided input to NTS DEC Commissioner Grannis regarding the DEC’s decision to exempt the NYC and Syracuse water supply watersheds from the regulations of the Generic Environmental Impact Statement for natural gas drilling when issued, since the water supply may need extensive filtration upgrades if the water quality is degraded as a result of Marcellus shale drilling activity. While not restricting drilling in these watersheds, the DEC  will require site Environmental Impact Statements for any permits is-sued in these areas. Our response to the DEC in essence was based on the exemption by the DEC of these two watersheds clearly indicates that drilling may have an environmental impact affecting water quality, therefore a generic process cannot properly take into account the unique features present at any potential well site and ifs affect on the water quality of any watershed. Therefore all permits should require site specific Environmental Impact Statements to safeguard the water qual-ity of all state watersheds. Input from SLPWA on both these items to our federal and state officials can be found on our website.In late June the first organizational meeting of the Finger Lakes Regional Watershed Alliance (FLRWA) was held with watershed associations from all nine publicly held Finger Lakes present and in favor of continuing with the formation of an alliance. More information on the Alliance can be found in the FLRWA article in this issue of LakeWatch. On August 18th, SLPWA will hold its second Annual Meeting since our reorganization. The offi-cers and Board of Directors look forward to meeting as many of our members as possible and get-ting input from you regarding what your association is doing to protect Seneca Lake and its water-shed. Please join us for this dinner meeting at the Harbor Hotel in Watkins Glen. Invitations are being sent to all members – please send in your reservation as soon as possible. Based on membership input, we are working to bring speakers to our some of our monthly mem-bership meetings to share their experiences and background on various topics that involve Seneca Lake and its watershed. If there is a topic of special interest you would like us to pursue send us a note at slpwa@senecalake.org. Our July meeting featured a talk by John Adamski, President of the Board of Trustees and Executive Director of the Finger Lakes Museum. See more information in this newsletter about that. Save the Date – two important events are occurring on Sept 25th. SLPWA will be sponsoring a pharmaceutical collection event at the Geneva Wegmans. Bring all your unused prescription and over the counter drugs for proper and environmentally safe disposal and help protect the Seneca Lake Watershed from additional unnecessary accumulation of these drugs. After you’ve disposed of your unused drugs, you can support the Finger Lakes Institute in their annual clean up of the Seneca Lake Beach. Look for details on both these events in upcoming communications from SLPWA and FLI. Thank you for your continued support! Phil Cianciotto, President, Seneca Lake Pure Waters Association ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ SLPWA's Minimum Requirements for Environmentally and Fiscally Responsible Drilling for Natural Gas SLPWA Comments on Marcelus Shale dSGEIS to NYS DEC November 2009 |
