Long the subject of scrutiny by the local scientific community, the Cargill Salt Mine in Lansing has attracted the attention of Tompkins County’s voice on the New York State Assembly, Barbara Lifton, who has joined the group of those opposed to further salt mining under Cayuga Lake.
Local environmental activist Walter Hang holds a jar of used shotgun shells he collected along the face of the cliff next to the Ithaca Falls Gorge, left over from the Ithaca Gun Factory.
New York State officials outlined a final remedy for the Ithaca Gun Factory site adjacent to Ithaca Falls, probably the most notoriously polluted remnant of the city's bygone industrial era.
"We need a political campaign. We need to wage the same kind of battle against Governor Cuomo that won the fight against shale fracking [...] I implore you: help protect the lake. If you rely on the DEC to help protect this lake, they're just not going to do it."
After a small victory for activists railing against upgrades to a natural gas compressor station in Ellis Hollow, it appears Dominion Energy – the national energy company whose New Market Project runs through the Town of Dryden – has found a way to continue building what activists now say is a pipeline to sell fracked gas from Pennsylvania to Canadian customers.
For the better part of a year, anti-natural gas activists and neighbors to a natural gas compression station up near Ellis Hollow have vocally opposed an expansion to the project intended to accommodate a greater amount of natural gas flowing through their community.
Route of the Dominion gas pipeline south from Ellis Hollow Creek Road.
(Photo: Bill Chaisson)
With the state-spanning New Market Pipeline recently receiving the rubber stamps from the state necessary for it to move further ahead in the approval process, a local activist said he believes he has proof that contamination along the pipeline’s alignment in several locations – including in Tompkins County – could potentially derail the project.
Route of the Dominion gas pipeline south from Ellis Hollow Creek Road.
(Photo: Bill Chaisson)
The Ithaca Times followed up on a protest by Walter Hang of Toxic Targeting by contacting representatives from Dominion Transmission and the New York State Department of Conservation (DEC) for responses. Hang opposes the upgrading of a natural gas pipeline that runs through our region.
Cayuga Lake from the South Hill overlook. The Cayuga Lake Modeling Project is looking at phosphorus levels in the lake and its tributaries, as well as point sources: the water treatment plants, and Cornell's Lake Source Cooling plant.
