Air Force, Anti-Fracking Veteran Risks Jail, Stands Her Ground

WATKINS GLEN, N.Y., Nov. 11, 2014 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- U.S. Air Force Senior Master Sergeant Colleen Boland (retired) joins renowned anti-fracking author, biologist Sandra Steingraber, Ph.D., to form a human blockade of Crestwood's proposed fracked-gas salt cavern storage facility on Seneca Lake.

On Wednesday, October 29, Boland, Steingraber and eight other protesters linked arms and formed a human blockade at the gates of Texas-based Crestwood Midstream as an Amrex Chemical tractor-trailer attempted to enter. The driver at first stopped about twenty yards in front of the protesters, then pulled up to within two feet of the human blockade and revved the engine. "We were not intimidated, but it was a cold day and you could feel the blast of heat coming from the engine. We held fast until the Schuyler County sheriffs arrived and cuffed us," says Boland. Most of the blockaders were charged with trespass and disorderly conduct.

Crestwood's own documents confirm their intent to use the facility to store and transport natural gas fracked out of the Marcellus shale.

"I'm here to protect the drinking water and resist the fracked gas infrastructure buildout in New York State. The use of these crumbling salt caverns as methane (natural gas) storage not only endangers the Finger Lakes but it will enable even more fracking in Pennsylvania and beyond."—Colleen Boland

Recent studies indicate that methane, a potent greenhouse gas, and the major component of natural gas, is potentially a greater threat than CO2 with respect to climate instability.

Boland served on the National Space Council at the White House, the Pentagon, and in over 20 countries including Brunei, Oman, India, Solomon Islands, Korea and Japan.

"In reflecting upon those experiences and comparing them to where I am today, I realize a common thread. Water. Children in Malaysia, the Cook Islands, and the Philippines and children here in Schuyler County, and Dimock, PA and Longmont, CO and Fort Berthold, ND need access to clean water; for water is indeed life." –Colleen Boland

The Pentagon released a report in October asserting decisively that climate change poses an immediate threat to national security according to the New York Times. Climate change, the Pentagon writes, requires immediate action on the part of the U.S. military. Boland served at the Pentagon and takes such dire warnings seriously.

"I'd like to dispel the notion that the only people standing up to protect our water, our air, and our communities are tree-hugging hippies or out of touch dreamers. Don't get me wrong, I love trees, but I was never quite cool enough to be a hippie—and, I'm certainly not dreaming. I am peacefully defending the Finger Lakes region against all enemies—foreign and domestic; Crestwood is my enemy." — Colleen Boland.

Boland is a volunteer board member for Ghar Sita Mutu, House with Heart, a home for abandoned children, a skills training center for destitute women, and an outreach program for needy families in Kathmandu, Nepal. She spent time as an in-country volunteer; tutored and mentored school-aged children in the House, taught literacy to impoverished Nepali women, and was a guest teacher in local schools.

Sentencing is scheduled for 11/19 in Reading, NY Town Court.

Seneca Lake Defenders Arrested PRNewswire
Seneca Lake Defenders Continue Blockade PRNewswire
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Background story from Food and Water Watch

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SOURCE We Are Seneca Lake

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