Governor Hochul,
We write to you as a mother, grandmother and woman who has brought life into this world. We are women from all walks of life, from across the political, economic, and religious spectrum and we ask you to join us In protecting our most precious resource - our water.
New York has one of the largest clean fresh water supplies in our country. We also have the largest unfiltered drinking water supply of any city in the world. Our upstate reservoirs deliver over a billion gallons of clean water a day to 10 million New Yorkers. The Finger Lakes supply millions of New Yorkers with clean drinking water and power our tourism economy. As climate change worsens and the rest of the country experiences drought, New York must prioritize protecting our clean drinking water above and beyond all else.
For decades many of us have worked, volunteered, donated and supported campaigns to clean our water and protect it from pollution and the dangers of hydrofracking, fracked gas pipelines, Superfund sites, and many other threats. Generations of New Yorkers and Indigenous Nations have tended to our shared land and waters as stewards to protect them for our children and grandchildren and beyond.
Now, New York's water and our lives that depend on it are facing a tremendous threat, as the fracking industry tries to get a foothold. And a massive fracked gas pipeline, the Constitution is proposed. And AI data centers. Artificial intelligence is just that. It is artificial. We are living human beings. Our children and our families, our communities, and all living things depend on this water to live. We cannot give our water to an artificial energy that serves no function or purpose to our society.
Water is life, and we must protect it. We are asking you to join us in defending our water for our children and grandchildren and our great-great-grandchildren to come. The Indigenous peoples of this land know about the importance, and in all of their decision-making, they consider the impact it will have on the seventh generation of life before making a decision. We're asking you right now to consider this and join us.
