Community Water Rights Protection Workshop
Date: June 9-10, 2006
Location: Rural-Urban Center, 208 Broadway, Montour Falls
Why:  Learn how to protect our local water resources from corporate control

Alarmed that water resources in the Finger Lakes will be targeted by large corporate water companies for privatization of municipal water services and for mining bottled water, members of the Finger Lakes Progressive Coalition and the Finger Lakes Group of the Sierra Club have organized a Water Rights Protection Workshop to be held June 9-10, 2006, at the Rural-Urban Center in Montour Falls.  The workshop is designed for the general public to learn what can be done to prevent corporate control of water resources and services in the Finger Lakes.

“Here in the Finger Lakes we take for granted ample supplies of fresh water, but as fresh water becomes an increasingly valuable commodity, large corporations are setting their sights on the giant reservoirs of fresh water in our lakes and aquifers for distribution and profit,” said Rachel Treichler of Hammondsport, a member of the Sierra Club, and one of the organizers of the program.

“Members of the Finger Lakes Progressives are watching water privatization efforts in surrounding states; including Pennsylvania and N. H., with alarm,” Jack Ossont of Yates county, coordinator of the Progressive Coalition, remarked. “Folks in the Finger Lakes have always regarded water as a resource for the use of all and we have organized this workshop to help us keep it that way.”

The workshop will be led by two nationally-known activists on community water issues: Victoria Kaplan, national organizer of the Water for All Campaign with Food & Water Watch in Washington DC, and Ruth Caplan, national coordinator of the Alliance for Democracy’s Defending Water for Life campaign and chair of Sierra Club’s national Water Privatization Task Force. Their presentations will show what communities can do when municipal water and sewer services are targeted for corporate take-overs and when local water resources are targeted by water bottling companies. The workshop will feature discussion of who has the rights to make decisions about water usage in a community and what local communities are doing in the Finger Lakes. People are invited to bring their stories to share.

“From Mt. Shasta, California to Bigelow Mountain in Maine, Nestle and other giant corporations are pursuing big profits pumping pristine water from America’s gems of nature to put in little plastic bottles”, warns Ruth Caplan. “Now is the time to act, if you don’t want this to happen to the Finger Lakes.”

“Communities around the country and around the world have experienced major problems when a corporation gets control of their water--from rate increases to declining customer service,” said Victoria Kaplan. “Luckily, residents of the Finger Lakes region have a great opportunity right now to protect their water for future generations.”

The workshop is being held the evening of Friday, June 9 and the day of Saturday, June 10 at the Rural-Urban Center, 208 Broadway, in Montour Falls. It is free and open to the public. There is a suggested donation of $10 on Saturday. $5 charge for lunch on Sat.

Friday’s program, which begins at 7:00 pm, features a showing of the prize-winning documentary, THIRST, and a discussion of the issues raised by the film. The 62 minute documentary looks at the corporate drive to control and profit from our water and shows the global scope of the debate over water rights. Is water part of a shared commons, a human right for all people? Or is it a commodity to be bought, sold, and traded in a global marketplace? THIRST tells the stories of communities in Bolivia, India, and the United States that are asking these fundamental questions, as water becomes the most valuable global resource of the 21st Century.

Saturday’s program begins at 10:00 am and features in-depth presentations and discussions among those in attendance. In the morning, Victoria Kaplan will address municipal privatization issues and tell us how global trade talks threaten U.S. municipal water services. Ruth Caplan will talk about how water bottling companies are taking local water supplies and what communities are doing about it. In the afternoon, everyone will discuss what is happening in the Finger Lakes area. The program ends at 3:30.

The workshop schedule is at: http://www.ecobooks.com/fingerlakeswaterworkshop.html .  Contact Rachel to reserve a space: 607-569-2114 or

About the Presenters

Victoria Kaplan is a national organizer for the Water for All Campaign at Food & Water Watch in Washington, DC. She works with community groups and local elected officials who want to strengthen public water works and resist water privatization efforts. Ruth Caplan, also from Washington DC, is National Campaign Coordinator for the Alliance for Democracy’s Defending Water for Life Campaign. In 2003, she helped to organize the Water Allies Network, a diverse national network of people and groups who believe “secure and equitable access to clean water is a human right and must be protected for all generations and all living things.” Ruth Caplan’s environmental career began in New York. She was a founding member of Ecology Action of Oswego NY in 1971 and played a key role in regional organizing and successful legal appeals that prevented the construction of three nuclear units on Lake Ontario. Caplan is also chair of the national Sierra Club’s Water Privatization Task Force. In 2004, she received the national Sierra Club’s Special Service Award for her work on corporate accountability, international trade, water privatization, and energy policy.

Learn more about Food and Water Watch at http://www.foodandwaterwatch.org/water/waterprivatization
Learn more about the Alliance for Democracy Defending Water for Life Campaign at http://www.thealliancefordemocracy.org/water
Learn more about the Sierra Club Water Privatization Task Force at http://www.sierraclub.org/cac/water/
Learn more about the Finger Lakes Group of the Sierra Club at http://newyork.sierraclub.org/fingerlakes/
Learn more about New York Democracy Schools at http://www.ecobooks.com/FLdemocracyschool.htm

The USDA is seeking public comments on revisions it has made to the National Organic Program regarding pasture access for organic dairy cattle. Two of the largest organic dairy companies in the nation, Horizon Organic (a subsidiary of Dean Foods), a supplier to Wal-Mart and many health food stores; and Aurora Organic, a supplier of private brand name organic milk to Costco, Safeway, Giant, Wild Oats and others, are purchasing the majority of their milk from so-called organic feedlot dairies where the cows are kept in intensive confinement, with little or no access to pasture. Together, Horizon and Aurora control nearly 65% of the organic dairy market. Recent scientific studies have shown that humanely raised, grass-fed dairy and beef are qualitatively better for human health and the environment. Take action to close the loopholes in organic standards that currently allow factory farm dairies to call their products “organic”. http://www.organicconsumers.org/nosb2.htm

Humane Society of the U.S.
The Web site features: the Farm Animal Welfare Resource Library, which features newly-published research papers on a variety of issues; links to current HSUS legislation and litigation efforts; and links to background information and updates on HSUS campaigns.

See:
http://www.FactoryFarming.hsus.org

Farm Sanctuary
This new website “is a supportive meeting place where kids can learn more about factory farming and vegetarianism, share their writing and artwork, play games, find new ways to get active for farm animals, and express their compassionate bekiefs with other young people who share their views.”

See:
http://www.FarmSanctuaryKids.org

The findings of a study on the Northern NY dairy industry were presented on Feb 25 in Watertown. We were not able to be there so we read the synopsis and now we wait anxiously for the usual platitudes to be announced by the usual suspects.
We did our own study by meeting a group of dairy farmers in LaFargeville one rainy night and listened to the dire circumstances of our small dairy farmers in northern New York.  They told us that every week one of their colleagues is squeezed out of the business and they themselves work off the farm just to keep body and soul together. Farm auctions take on the atmosphere of a family funeral.
According to the state bureaucrats, the NY dairy industry is “facing significant changesâ€?. We have more milk produced due to what they call “efficiencies and improvements.â€?  Our farmer friends tell us what that means is:
Farmer Bigcafo gets bigger and bigger. He is helped out with price breaks and transportation breaks from the co-ops. He is further supported by taxpayer subsidies (welfare). He gets up to his neck in manure, which he stores, in a huge cesspool, which then pollutes the nearby streams and the groundwater. He sprays the slurry on too-small fields thereby choking his neighbors and giving their kids asthma and neurological damage.
This is very profitable.

It is called privatizing the profits and socializing the costs.

Meanwhile Farmer LittleDairy gets squeezed out of business. This is called “innovation.�
This innovative system is supported by the state bureaucrats such as the Department of Environmental Conservation, which will not enforce EPA regulations; by politicians such as Senator Nozzolio who tell complaining citizens that they are “collateral damage� and by Farm Bureau bullies who hammer town officials who try to pass zoning regulations.
Then there is Governor Pataki (the environmental governor). During his administration New York State has lost 31% of its dairy farms. Rural New York looks like a war zone, and decent, ethical farmers are getting shafted.
We can’t wait to read the full report.

Senator Charles J. Fuschillo, Jr. (8th Senate District) has introduced legislation that would provide for public disclosure of information concerning the release of potentially harmful substances into the environment.

Under the guidelines of Senator Fuschillo’s legislation, which is called the “Environmental Community Right To Know Act”, New York State would post information on the Internet concerning the release of hazardous substances into the environment. This information would be accessible and presented in a manner that could be understood by the general public.

In addition, the Commissioner of the Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) would be required to present an annual report to the Governor and the Legislature on this program. Posting exemptions would occur only if the DEC Commissioner certifies that releasing such information would jeopardize public safety.

“Residents have a right to know what’s happening in their surroundings and be aware of any potential dangers that may exist,” said Senator Fuschillo. “By posting this information on a website for the general public to view,” individuals can have instant access to vital information about the conditions of their environment.”

Comment:
New York State Senator Fuschillo is looking out for the public’s right to know what is poisoning them.
In our ag districts we already know what is being released- hydrogen sulfide, methane, ammonia among other toxins. Still, I guess it would be nice to make it official from the DEC. We sure would love to hear the DEC admit that CAFOs are emitting “potentially harmful substances.” Of course we already have documentation that CAFO emissions are toxic to the human nervous system. Come on up to sniff Flevie’s farm up in Niagara County, Senator.
How about some legislation that places CAFOs in the same category as industry? How about some more money in the budget for Department of Environmental Conservation employees? And how about some Senate oversight on the documented instances of the DEC’s failure to respond to toxic emission complaints from rural citizens?
Notice that the Senator says we have a right to know what is happening in our surroundings - he doesn’t say we have the right to expect the DEC to do anything about it. So far as we can tell, the DEC, the Department of Health and local politicians don’t give a hoot.

There is an active weblog regarding the CAFO problems in Preble New York.
See:

http://www.prebleny.com/index.php?cat=15

See also the photos taken in Preble:
http://www.prebleny.com/images/ManureDumpPA/index.htm