Last Tuesday, we had the opportunity to meet with Hilary Meltzer, an environmental lawyer who works for the DEP (the Department of Environmental Protection). (Hilary is also the mother of Julia Meltzer). We learned a lot, about topics ranging from fracking across the country to New York State’s sanitation systemWe were shocked to hear this because most waste water treatment plants are at sea level and are next to a body of water of some type, it is very likely that as global warming continues and sea levels rise, these toxic plants could be flooded and cause huge amounts of damage and contamination.

Hilary educated us about the two sides if fracking, one being that New York and the country is facing a natural gas shortage crisis which could lead to various consequences as soon as this winter and we need to frack to supply enough energy to keep our heaters running and such. The other side, the one that Hilary supports, says that fracking is extremely dangerous and toxic, and could easily contaminate the drinking water supply for over 9 million people. Because fracking means pumping harmful chemicals deep into shale beneath the earth, environmentalists fear that those chemicals and gases could reach below ground water sources and kill millions of people. That is why they insist that fracking be banned within the NY state watershed, which means that fracking is much less likely to contaminate our drinking water. We also learned that the reason fracking is not occurring within NY state right now is because the mandatory environmental review about the effects of fracking have been found unsatisfactory by the public which has delayed the start of the controversial practice.
Ms. Meltzer also talked to us about the corporate corruption surrounding environmental issues such as oil drilling and fracking. She mentioned a corporation called Chesapeake, which made a big show of not fracking on their land in the NY watershed, but then turned around and sold their land to another major oil company who would. In addition, under the Bush administration, many large industries, such as oil, were exempted from the strict environmental regulations that our country generally claims to enforce.                                                                                                  Through Hilary, we also learned about the Newtown Creek Alliance, a non-profit community organization working to heal and revitalize the highly polluted Newton Creek in Brooklyn. Newtown Creek has been polluted over the centuries by corrupt corporations such as Exxon mobil. We have contacted them and hope to volunteer with them.