Walking A Fine Line Along Seneca Lake

There are changes in strategy happening everyday as people who are defending Seneca Lake are facing off against a large corporation and the powers that be in Schuyler County. These strategies are changing on both sides. Legal issues are developing that could rise to the level of constitutional violations and challenges. As the arrest of protesters blockading gates at property owned by Crestwood Midstream continue, law enforcement officers from the local Sheriff's office and the Watkins Glen Police Department seem to be getting more aggressive. The NYS Police seem more matter of fact and perhaps understanding of protests. This can be seen in videos of the arrests. In addition, there have been pretty aggressive and confrontational  encounters by the Sheriff's deputies with the press and photo journalists documenting the protests and events. All of this, the protests, the arrests and the police actions are the result of Crestwood's plan to use unlined salt caverns for the storage of large amounts of LP Gas. The protesters for their part seem to be upping the ante by pulling together specific groups at ongoing arrests and protests -  one day educators and teachers, on another musicians and more recently Santa and his Elves.

As part of the strategy shifts, the County District Attorney, the Sheriff and the Town of Reading Court  seem to be skating on some thin ice and walking a fine line relative to constitutional issues regarding First and Sixth Amendment protections of those charged with trespass as well as the press and the public. Because a large crowd was showing up every Wednesday in support of the demonstrators, parking has been severely limited as the Sheriff is putting up temporary no parking signs along the roadway and closing off an adjacent parking area where protest supporters had been directed to park previously. In addition, the court last week actually tried to keep the public and the press out of the legal proceedings themselves. To me, it's almost inevitable that there will be legal challenges relative to some of the tactics being used by the Sheriff and the court. I'm not surprised. Challenges to the status quo through civil disobedience tend to cause reactive responses and that has certainly happened in this case.

There is an interesting piece written by Faith Meckley, one of the We Are Seneca Lake participants, that gives her perspective and report on recent proceedings at the Reading Town Court. I've placed a link to it here.

Also, on Christmas, Jesse McKinley, a reporter for the NYTimes, did a piece on this issue that basically presents the potential conflict between wineries and tourism and the infrastructure being developed for increased LP Gas storage on Seneca Lake. That article can be found here. It's all very interesting and it looks like things will continue for awhile.