If there is going to be food, then water must be protected!

Three Sullivan County farmers gave public comments at the June 5 DRBC meeting in Narrowsburg, NY: Wes Gillingham, Iris Fen Gillingham and Eugene Thalmann. All three spoke of current dangers to water, both quantity and quality. Wes focused on proposed rampant development in Sullivan County, Iris on climate impacts increasing difficulties involved in raising crops, and Eugene about those factors and that the DRBC should “prioritize farmers’ needs in their decision-making process.”

All 3 are connected to Catskill MountainKeeper – Wes is its Associate Director, Eugene its Food and Agricultural Advisor and Iris, now a farmer in her own right, is Wes’s daughter and an environmental activist since her early teenage years.

Wes’s comments and his excellent charts are best shown from 1:18 to 3:37 in the video below. Iris’s comments can be seen from 5:33 to 7:17 in the video. Eugene’s comments to the DRBC can be downloaded as a pdf. Tracy Carluccio, Deputy Director at Delaware Riverkeeper Network, spoke about the need to reduce greenhouse gases now from 0:22 to 1:15 in the video.

Catskill MountainKeeper is a long-time ally of DCS and we are both members of the Delaware Basin Climate and Frack Ban Coalition.

DCS Director Barbara Arrindell also gave comments to the press conference (3:38 to 4:20 in the video) and to the DRBC (download as a pdf), focused on accounting for climate change in their permits (dockets) and on enforcement.