NYCkayaker LI Sound: One man's Broadwater vigil

[bonnie13 at earthlink.net]

For more information about this Broadwater plant:

http://www.rpalumni.org/nolng/index.htm



-----Original Message-----
>From: "Harry J. Bubbins" <carrotjuice at friendsofbrookpark.org>
>Sent: Jun 10, 2007 3:49 PM
>To: "nyckayaker at rockandwater.net" <nyckayaker at rockandwater.net>
>Subject: NYCkayaker LI Sound:  One man's Broadwater vigil
>
>  Paddling out there in July, all welcomed....
>____________________________
>
> 
>One man's Broadwater vigil
> 
>Manorville resident camping on beach near proposed terminal site
>
>Contact:  peter maniscalco <peteronlongisland at yahoo.com>
> 
> 
>
>By Denise Civiletti
>
>WADING RIVER‹On Sunday, Pete Maniscalco pitched a small tent on the beach in
>Shoreham, just west of Wading River Creek,
>
>looking out over the wide blue-green expanse of the Long Island Sound where
>Broadwater Energy wants to build a floating liquefied natural gas facility.
>Looming behind him was the silent behemoth of the embattled, defunct
>Shoreham nuclear power plant built by LILCO three decades ago.
>
>The 65-year-old Manorville grandfather plans to spend the next month on the
>beach, in prayer, meditation and communion with the spirit of nature. And,
>he hopes, engaging people in a dialogue about the earth's resources,
>especially Long Island Sound, a body of water he calls sacred.
>
>"This place is all about energy," Mr. Maniscalco said Sunday, standing at
>the creek's edge. "There's the spiritual energy of the Sound itself," he
>said, gesturing north toward the water. "There's the dead nuke carcass." He
>points at the aqua-colored concrete stack of the defunct power plant that
>rises on the shore southwest of the creek. "And then there's Broadwater."
>
>Broadwater Energy, a joint venture of Shell and TransCanada Corp., is
>seeking permits to construct and operate a floating natural gas storage and
>"regasification" facility that would be moored in the Sound, nine miles
>north of Wading River. The facility ‹ which would be 1,200 feet long, 180
>feet wide and rise 75 to 80 feet above sea level, according to the
>Broadwater Energy Web site ‹ would take delivery of liquefied natural gas
>from oceangoing tankers every two to three days, heat the liquid to
>"regasify" it, or change it back to a gaseous state, and feed it to the
>existing Iroquois gas transmission system via a new 22-mile-long connecting
>pipeline to be built along the Sound bottom. The proposal, currently under
>review by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, has drawn strong
>opposition from community and environmental groups and local government
>officials on both sides of the Sound.
>
>Broadwater violates the spirit of nature, according to Mr. Maniscalco, a
>former Long Island University environmental studies professor who was once
>the coordinator of the Stop Shoreham campaign.
>
>"I believe Broadwater Energy violates the spiritual integrity of the Long
>Island Sound," Mr. Maniscalco said. During his month on the beach, he will
>"invoke the spirit of nature, the spirit of the Sound to reject Broadwater,"
>he said, fingering a Cherokee prayer stick, from which dangle an eagle's
>feather and two hawk feathers. It was given to him, he said, by a
>96-year-old Cherokee man who visited him during a 55-day anti-Shoreham vigil
>he held on the same beach in 1989.
>
>"We respect the right of every individual to express themselves on issues of
>importance to them, but we must also recognize that Long Island Sound is,
>and always has been, a commercial waterway," said John Hritcko Jr., a
>spokesman for Broadwater Energy. "Currently some 4,000-7,000 commercial
>vessels traverse Long Island Sound annually, carrying fuel oil, coal and
>petrochemicals," he said. "Broadwater would be an improvement to provide
>homes, schools and churches with cleaner, more affordable energy."
>
>Mr. Maniscalco began his vigil Sunday because June 3 marks the anniversary
>of a big anti-Shoreham march that drew thousands of protesters to the tiny
>hamlet in 1979, a turning point in the Stop Shoreham campaign. He will end
>his vigil July 7, the day of the "Live Earth" concerts being staged around
>the world to draw attention to the Earth's climate crisis.
>
>Sporting a navy blue T-shirt emblazoned with "Son of Long Island" in bold
>white letters, the gray-bearded professor speaks of his lifelong connection
>to the Sound. He spent summers on the North Shore beach growing up, and the
>Sound has always held deep meaning for him, he said.
>
>"Shinnecock elder Elizabeth Hale said, 'To remember is to bring to mind what
>you are to do.' I remember my spiritual connection with the Long Island
>Sound. I know this is what I have to do," Mr. Maniscalco said.
>
>Adrienne Esposito, executive director of Citizens Campaign for the
>Environment and the driving force behind the Anti-Broadwater Coalition, last
>week distributed a press release announcing the vigil from Renew Community
>Earth, an environmental organization Mr. Maniscalco runs. "This is a
>demonstration of how serious this issue is to Long Islanders," she said in
>an interview Monday. "Holding a vigil is a universal form of activism to
>create change," she noted.
>
>There is a time and a place for political activism, and there is also a time
>for spiritual activism, Mr. Maniscalco said. "The time has come for the
>spirit to manifest."
>
>------ End of Forwarded Message
>
>------ End of Forwarded Message
>
>
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