Civil Disobedience at Seneca Lake

I've been thinking a lot lately about the arrests that are taking place at the Crestwood facility in Reading, NY, just north of Watkins Glen on Seneca Lake. A total of 25 people have been arrested over the past few weeks while blocking the entrance to Crestwood on Rt 14.

The ongoing protests are about Crestwood's plan to use salt caverns under Seneca Lake to store LP and Methane Gas. There are lots of articles about the issue that can be found by doing a fairly simple search.

Being a Lake Keeper or Defender of the Lake is serious business and these folks are proving it. I have considered myself a Lake Keeper for quite awhile. My feelings and commitment go back a long time. I first became aware of Seneca Lake when I was 5 years old. My father and a business associate brought my brother and I to Seneca on fishing trips in those early years. They were the years that I became aware of the water and its importance. Later I spent summers on the waters around Nantucket Sound and the Atlantic Ocean. I also lived at the Jersey Shore in those early years. All of these experiences brought me close to the water - fishing, swimming, boating. I learned respect for the water as well as a real love for it.

I moved to this area in the late '70's and reunited with Seneca Lake. I had a small sailboat at the Last Ditch Marina in Watkins Glen and later, a powerboat at the newly built Village Marina. I've lived in a number of houses and owned property on the shores of Seneca. My love affair and relationship with Seneca has been long and solid.

Like many others I have evolved as a Lake Keeper. There were times in my life when I didn't respect this or other great waterways as a natural resource. I have seen and been a part of the fishing lines discarded, the beer bottles and cans finding their way into the lake, a small overflow of gas as a motor was being filled. I've watched and seen the plastic bags being thrown into the water along with trash like wood, metal and concrete. The agricultural runoff of fertilizer and chemicals has been reduced but does continue. All of these things have helped me evolve and see how serious the problem really is for Seneca Lake and many other bodies of water.

I say this because I want to make it clear that the issues we have relative to protecting our water is much more complicated then just an outside corporation storing gas in salt caverns. Just yesterday I watched a farmer not very far above the lake spread cow manure on his fields. Multiplied by hundreds, it will have an eventual impact. A recent report by Seneca Lake Pure Waters indicates that testing streams feeding into Seneca Lake shows she is being choked by phosphorous - Seneca Lake Choking. We are all part of the problem and therefore have to be part of the solution. Here's the reality though. We can hold individuals much more accountable than we can a corporation, especially one driven by fuel and fuel storage profits. It doesn't mean we shouldn't try - we certainly should. I also think we have to be careful about holding up the wine industry and tourism as being so totally environmentally friendly and pitted against a corporation like Crestwood. If we're really honest about it, wineries, breweries and tourism bring their own baggage to the environment including the aforementioned agricultural runoff, traffic and social consequences. Many small rural roads were never meant to handle the bus and limo traffic that is part of the tourism reality. Bringing thousands of people to an area has its pros and cons. Community planning, community conversations and people caring about their environment is important in all aspects of what is easily touted as economic development - always.

These Defenders of the Lake have certainly made us think. Their arrests are significant and important even if law enforcement and the opposition want to make us think it is all pretty minimal and, if anything, creating safety issues in the community.

You see, civil disobedience is very serious business. It's something people need to think about very clearly. It has consequences, some unknown. I happen to believe in civil disobedience as a strategy and at times as a moral imperative. I have been arrested numerous times protesting or fighting for social justice issues.  It should never be taken lightly. There are times when justice screams out at you about laws that need to be broken. This may in fact be one of them. I'm not completely sure yet, but I have a feeling.

I went back recently and re-read Henry David Thoreau's piece on Civil Disobedience. It was written in 1849. Many people may have skimmed over it in high school or college as part of their reading and study of Thoreau's work Walden. Thoreau makes the case but doesn't do it lightly. He recognizes the consequences for both the individual and for society.

I sense more people will commit to civil disobedience and be arrested before it's over. Hopefully these acts will not be taken lightly and many more people will begin talking about and thinking about the importance of our natural resources.