N e w s l i n e
INQUIRING
Environmentalism
Energy
PHOTOGRAPHER Is The Crestwood Midstream Project Truly Dead?
Tompkins Begins Shift To Smart Grid
By C a se y Mar tin
You can tell a lot about a person based on their go-to karaoke song... What’s yours?
“We love the Hamilton Soundtrack!” —Leona Ritter, Alda and Felix Jones–Rounds
“Everytime I sing karaoke, I tell myself I will never, ever do it again.” —Shane Cavanaugh
“ Back to Black by Amy Winehouse.” —McKenzie Jones
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hos e oppos ed to t he build-up of fossil fuel infrastructure in the Finger Lakes, including hundreds of people arrested for trespass while protesting Crestwood Midstream Partners’ plans to build a methane storage facility, are celebrating the Houston-based energy company’s May 9 announcement that it is not moving forward. Yet, reports of the project’s death may be premature. Officially called the Gallery 2 Expansion Project, the facility would repurpose an existing liquefied petroleum gas storage facility located in salt caverns beneath Seneca Lake in Reading, New York to a methane (natural gas) storage facility and expand its capacity. The gas would travel to the storage facility via pipelines. Opponents contend the proposed project poses unacceptable risks of contamination to Seneca Lake, the source of drinking water for 100,000 people. Less than a month after the Federal Energ y Regulator y Commission (FERC) approved the project on September 30, 2014, the organization, We are ICSD
“Allstar by Smash Mouth. Best song ever.” —Hayden Waller
“I Got You Babe – Cher. ” —Adrian Smith / Shannon Bouchard
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Luvelle Brown in an email earlier this week. “As I’m sure you can appreciate, it is our policy as a district to treat personnel matters as confidential. Nonetheless, I understand that our Records Access Officer has endeavored to provide you with all ICSD records regarding this topic to which the public is lawfully entitled pursuant to New York’s Freedom of Information Law.” According to internal emails from the district’s business office obtained by The Times, the missing funds were first 31–June
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Colleen Boland, left, and Sandra Steingraber, right, being arrested for protesting at the site of a potetial expansion of Crestwood-Midstream. (Photo: Charles Haeffner)
n the coming years, area residents’ electricity and natural gas use will no longer be measured by the constant whirring of a dial, spinning away hard earned dollars in the blink of an eye, a macabre slot machine that never, ever hits. The process will now be digital. NYSEG will begin installing the new smart meters in June, a process that should take several months to complete, according to NYSEG spokesperson Juanita Washington. The program will include customers in parts of Dr yden, Etna, Freeville, Groton, Ithaca and Lansing, 12,400 electric meters and 7,300 natural gas meters in total. All addresses that will see changes during this initial wave are listed on the NYSEG website. NYSEG lists the benefits of smart meters as more accurate bills (based on actual usage), increased usage information, automatic notification in a power outage situation and possible access to cost-saving programs run by NYSEG. It is unclear if the “more accurate billing” smart meters bring has historically caused electric bills for consumers to rise or fall; Washington said NYSEG believes its customers are more concerned with increased cer-
Seneca Lake, kicked off a civil disobedience campaign. For almost three years, there have been regular demonstrations outside Crest wood ’s compressor station and property. From time-to-time, protesters, including teachers, religious leaders, families, and business owners, have joined hands to create a human blockade preventing vehicles from entering and existing driveways leading to Crestwood’s facilities. “The driveway upon which we were arrested became a theatre of ordinary people literally standing against trucks that were servicing a fossil fuel project that we felt was dangerous to drinking water, possibly explosive, and putting a lake at risk, and also absent all accidents, brings more climate killing product to market,” said Sandra Steingraber, distinguished scholar in residence at Ithaca College. She is also a biologist and author active
in We are Seneca Lake’s campaign. O ver t he c ou r s e of t he protests, there have been 657 arrests at the gates of Crestwood for trespass and disorderly conduct, according to We are Seneca Lake’s website. The Town of Reading court dismissed many of the cases in the interests of justice. However, several people, including Steingraber (who pled guilty to trespass in 2014) served jail time. “It’s ver y hard to k now” what role the protests played, said Deborah Goldberg, managing attorney of Earthjustice’s Northeast Regional Office. She represents Gas Free Seneca, an environmental organization playing a leading role in organizing wineries, bed and breakfasts, and other businesses that make up the area’s $4.8 billion tourism and wine economy. continued on page 5
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noticed by the district on January 20 – three days before Hanna’s abrupt resignation – when the school district’s accountant noticed she had not received any money from athletic department functions during the 20162017 season. When she reached out to Hanna, Hanna responded he had the money in his office, stating he knew that he should have done something with the money and hadn’t yet, despite district policy being that all cash receipts should be logged within three to five business days. “I asked him if he thought he would be able to get all the money to the district office by
this Wednesday the 25th,” one of the emails, dated Friday, January 20, read. “He hesitated but said yeah.” In portions of a recorded disciplinary interview obtained by The Times, Hanna admits that he doesn’t know how much of the district’s money he used, and the district would not disclose a specific amount “for personnel reasons,” according to the district’s Chief Operations Officer, Amanda Verba. In the recording, Hanna said the money largely went to offset the cost of undisclosed legal fees, of which a family member paid several thousand dollars
while Hanna covered the rest – approximately $2,500. “I don’t know how much I used, I did use some,” Hanna said in the recording. “That sounds like a lot but I honestly don’t know how much. Reading past articles about other people who’ve taken, it’s always some sob story, so I’m going to pay it back.” The district, already with prompt reporting policies in place for ticket sales at athletic events, said it would continue to review its policies in order to assure misuse of funds can be tracked and noticed quicker. continued on page 5