The Catskill Chronicle

Story by Leni Santoro – Photos by Leni Santoro, Ted Waddell and all of You

[PHILADELPHIA, PA – HANCOCK, NY] – I can’t believe it’s been a week and a half since the Light Up the Delaware River Party on September 6. I can’t believe it’s taken me this long to gather my thoughts on this momentous event and I relay my apologies to all of you have been waiting patiently for the story and the photos.

To tell the story I have to go back to the beginning.

It all began when Liz Bucar called me one morning about a vision she had. The vision began with the memory of when Ghandi brought the people of India to the sea. According to Liz, “Gandhi led the people to the sea to make salt.  The British Empire had made it illegal for the Indian people to manufacture salt (to control their own resources) because the empire  had taken over the industry and was shipping the product and profits out of India. So, when the people stood up and dedicated themselves to strengthening themselves and regaining their autonomy through resource-control….that’s  when the Empire began to crumble.”  Liz explained that she had a vision of people going to the banks of the Delaware River. They would pour a single cup of water into the river and light a candle as a symbol of caring for the river and taking back stewardship of the river from the corporations of the natural gas drilling industry.

It was never about being against natural gas drilling or the hydro-fracturing of the Marcellus Shale bed. It was about making sure that people knew what was happening and hoping that once they knew they would act to let their representatives know that they were in favor of strict environmental controls.

 We met at Maria Grimaldi’s house on a hilltop farm just outside of Youngsville. We talked about time frames for when this event might occur. We talked about the pros and the cons of waiting till we had more people involved. We talked about alerting those groups who were already fighting the legal battle of making sure strict environmental controls were in place. We talked a lot. But in the end Liz and I still felt that we needed to act immediately, before the Labor Day Weekend, which was then three weeks away.

The next day, Liz called me. We talked. I said the only way for her to get the message about the party out to people as quickly as possible was for her to get in her car, start at Philadelphia and just tack notices up everywhere. It was a crazy idea. I said I’d go along for moral support (which she really didn’t need) and so that I could jump out of the car while she kept the engine going. I thought we could probably do it in a day.

The rest is history and you can read about it on Breathing is Political, (Liz’s blog site) and here at The Catskill Chronicle under Two Grannies River Trip Diary.

Suffice it to say that it took us three days. We met some incredible people who opened their hearts and their doors to us. We also met an enormous amount of people who had never heard of the Marcellus shale bed, natural gas drilling or the hydro-fracturing. Liz made magnetic signs for her Prius and 1000 flyer/invitations. We handed out 800 flyer/invitations and 140 plus business cards.

Besides asking people to celebrate the river, we were also asking that people photograph themselves as they either poured water or lit a candle and send copies of the photos to us. Our intention being to plot them on a map of the Delaware and present the map and the photos at the Delaware River Basin Commission hearing on September 23.

We weren’t alone in our efforts. We had a list of contacts given us by Barbara Arindel of Damascus Citizens for Sustainability, and…

Incredibly, the night before we left, Tanyette Colon set up a special website for people to join in on our adventures and to keep abreast of what communities were doing in preparation for the party. Later the site would post the photographs we were asking people to take of their water pouring/candle parties. To see the photos sent in from Philadelphia,PA to Hancock, NY visit the Light Up the Delaware River Party site. And if you haven’t sent in your photos yet there’s still time.

(*A check of the DRBC website at 5:16 p.m. on Wednesday, September 16, has revealed that, “The public hearing previously scheduled for Wednesday, September 23, 2009 on the revised proposed Docket No. D-2009-20-1 for Chesapeake Appalachia, LLC (also, “Chesapeake”) will be re-scheduled to a later date at the request of the applicant to allow the public and the applicant more time to consider the revised draft docket.” So if you are reading this and have photos you want to send you still have time. As soon as we know the new date for the hearing we will be sure to let readers know.)

Back to the story…

The weeks that followed our Philadelphia to Hancock trip were full ones for Liz. Each day was spent sending out e-mails to people whose contact information we were given along the trip, alerting groups who might be interested in what we were doing, following up with reporters and newspapers who’d heard of the event and just trying to keep ahead of it all while at the same time wondering if anyone would turn out on September 6 to “Light Up The Delaware River Party.”

The week we got back from our trip I was asked to be on WJFF Connections on WJFF – Radio Catskill as part of a panel discussion on the future of journalism. At the beginning of the show Christine Ahern played a clip from a meeting on gas drilling. From that point on all the calls coming into the station to the three newspaper editors gathered there were about gas drilling.

Fred Pecora had heard the WJFF program and called to ask if we were interested in being on any other radio stations. Just days before the “Party” Liz found herself being interviewed on WBAI and I was on WVQR – Vasser College radio.

From the day we got back from our trip along the river from Philadelphia to Hancock everything felt a little bit like a snowball rolling down hill to me – I mean this in a good way. The momentum just kept getting stronger and stronger. Josh Fox agreed to screen his movie-in-progress, “Water Under Attack” at the gazebo in Narrowsburg, e-mails were starting to come in from people saying they were participating, newspapers from Philadelphia on up starting calling asking for information, interviews and photos from our Two Grannies trip.

Then with just two or three days left to go Fred Pecora called again. This time Fred asked if we were interested in having an airplane cover the party. Dan Desmond had offered to pilot his plane and take a photographer up with him. I called Ted Waddell. He was into it. Next thing we knew we had a pilot, a plane and a photographer – voila, aerial shots of Narrowsburg.

Liz said afterwards that she couldn’t believe the whole thing cost her around $650. I still can’t believe that I got to watch one person make a difference the way she has – and really she began it; I was just “moral support.”

Did she do it alone? No. She would be the first to start listing all the people without whose help the Party never would have happened and in fact she lists most of them in her after the party essay on Breathing is Political.

Were we  certain we did the right thing? Yes.

Were we scared about what the end result would be? Sure. 

In her piece about the day of the party, in Narrowsburg, Liz writes…

“On September 6, 2009, the afternoon of The Light Up The Delaware River Party, a few of us were  watching the Big Eddy Regatta from the Narrowsburg Bridge.  We had Martin Springetti’s “Don’t Frak/Don’t Drain Our River” posters and were taking a break from showing them off to passing cars.

“Has anyone heard from  Hancock?”  

“Nope.”

“Philadelphia?” 

I shook my head, [said Liz] “No cell service.”

“…What had I done?  What was I thinking?  How could I hang us all so far out on a limb and not even know whether people were actually gathering in our other river towns?  ‘This is why my children warn strangers about me,’  I thought.”

Liz says, and I agree, that we had “a silent agreement not to think or talk much about the things that could go wrong.” On the road trip, “We didn’t worry about disappearing like Amelia Earhart.  We didn’t think about people slamming doors in our faces.  We were leaping into a great well of faith: people would understand  the threat of hydraulic fracturing and our urgency if we could just look them in the eye.”

And look them in the eye we have and seen reflected back the same care and concern for the river and the environment that we ourselves felt dramatically enough to begin this great adventure.

In Narrowsburg approximately 275 people came out to watch “Water Under Attack,” pour a cup of water off the Narrowsburg Bridge and light a candle. Folks showed up with signs, puppetry and good wishes for the river and for the environment; many had been there throughout the afternoon having either taken part in or watched the Toxic Canoe Regatta earlier that day.

Thank you, dear readers, for coming along with us. Thank you for being there at the river when we came to say hello in August and for being there again with party lights and shining spirits on September 6.

Here then are some of the photos that you have sent in. There are many more on the Light Up The Delaware River Party site.

Bridgetown, PA.

Callicoon, NY

Equinunk, PA

Hancock, NY

Milford/Sholola,PA

Philadelphia, PA

Pond Eddy, NY

Starlight, PA.

Washington's Crossing Bridge, NJ

Long Eddy, NY - Nyssa Calkin - Diamond Cut Images

Narrowsburg, NY

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

To view more photos or to purchase prints from the Narrowsburg – Light Up the Delaware River Party Aerial Photos  and Ground Photos by Ted Waddell and Narrowsburg – Light Up the Delaware River Party photos by Leni Santoro visit the Chronicle on Zenfolio.