Message in a Bottle

Environmental activist Ekayani Chamberlain wants local politicians to know exactly how dirty and dangerous hydro-fracking is. On Nov. 30, Chamberlain stopped by Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s New York City office with a bottle of fracked water. Along with it came a letter, excerpted below.

Message in a Bottle:

I am supplying you with a “message in a bottle” today in an attempt to bring you up to speed in real life terms about the effects of hydro- fracking. This bottle of water is contaminated with fracking fluid , the toxic chemicals used to force gas out of the ground. It was taken from The Sautners’ well who no longer have clean water to drink as a result of being fracked but who are no longer being delivered clean water. They reside in Dimock, Pa. just 35 miles from the border of Hancock, New York . Please use extreme caution and Do Not drink this water or dispose of it. My best recommendation would be that you have it sent directly to a truly independent laboratory for it to be analyzed to fully understand the toxic effects. I wanted to bring some reality to the table as I don’t think you have been able to visit the town of Dimock up till now to see firsthand the conditions there.

I understand that you have some skepticism about the scientific research out of Cornell that has been done on the hazards so like a true New Yorker I cut to the chase and provide you with the cold hard facts in terms of this evidence. Water seeps everywhere. That is it’s unique and marvelous quality. Trying to outrun this contaminated water in the form of rain, snow will be impossible. That same quality we admire will become deadly and all pervasive once permanently poisoned with fracking fluid. Please consider your daughters. Please consider us and abandon this ill conceived plan to drill anywhere in New York State either near our water sheds or on so called “private lands.” Water knows no such boundaries as it travels in clouds, disperses as condensation on our oceans and rivers and comes out of our taps. As you can see the environmental impact is nothing short of epic in the havoc it will produce.