Kathy Chandler protests MVP in 2017

From an Article by Laurence Hammack, Roanoke Times, May 16, 2021

When a company building the Mountain Valley Pipeline first selected a route, cutting directly through James and Kathy Chandler’s “slice of heaven” atop Bent Mountain, it offered them $89,343.

A jury on Friday ordered Mountain Valley to pay the Chandlers $430,000. After hearing four days of testimony, the jury settled on the figure as “just compensation” for an 8.6-acre easement the company took in 2018, using its power of eminent domain to force a sale when the owners resisted.

Currently under construction, the 42-inch diameter natural gas pipeline bisects the Chandlers’ 111-acre property, passing about 500 feet from their custom-built home.

“There’s a huge gap that cuts through the heart of their land, 125 feet wide and half a mile long,” Stephen Clarke, the Chandlers’ attorney, said during the first trial to decide just compensation for the owners of one of nearly 300 parcels condemned by Mountain Valley.

The Chandlers testified about how they had long searched for the perfect place to build their dream home. In 1997, they found a remote spot on Bent Mountain, with forests and pastures along Mill Creek, that became their “slice of heaven,” James Chandler testified.

When plans for the pipeline were announced in 2014, the Chandlers knew their land would be forever changed. Even after it is buried, the pipeline will occupy a cleared right of way through a forest that Kathy Chandler once called her yard. “The pipe will always be there,” James Chandler told the jury. “It will always be a visual reminder. Nothing will be normal.”

After Mountain Valley decided to build a pipeline that will pass through the New River and Roanoke valleys on a 303-mile path from northern West Virginia to Pittsylvania County, the joint venture of five energy companies began to buy the land it needed. About 85% of the landowners struck voluntary agreements, the company has said.

In October 2017 — about two weeks after the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission found there was a public need for the natural gas that will be pumped through the pipeline at high pressure — Mountain Valley sued the owners of about 300 parcels in Virginia who had refused to sell.

Under the Natural Gas Act, the company was allowed to use the power of eminent domain, which originally was used by governmental agencies for public projects such as highways or schools.

U.S. District Judge Elizabeth Dillon granted Mountain Valley immediate possession of the land, allowing it to begin cutting trees in early 2018 while the property owners waited to be paid.

Since then, most of the cases have been settled, either through voluntary agreements or after a judge’s ruling on evidentiary issues forced a resolution. About a dozen cases remain pending.

Mountain Valley often makes lowball offers while using its eminent domain authority as leverage over landowners, according to Mark Jarrell of Protect Our Water, Heritage, Rights, an anti-pipeline coalition. Jarrell, who is from West Virginia, owns land that has been taken by Mountain Valley.

“Regardless of how great or small a verdict may be, the forced easement is a loss, a gut punch for landowners — like being taken to the gallows,” Jarrell said in a statement following the trial. “This is a no win, they’ve lost their privacy, peace of mind, their sense of safety and security, and they have a potential 42-inch pipe bomb in their back yard.”

The Chandlers’ trial featured a mostly empty courtroom, rearranged to accommodate for pandemic social distancing, and the numbers-laden testimony of appraisers to determine a fair-market value of their loss.

Joseph Thompson, a Roanoke appraiser hired by Mountain Valley, put the value of the land and home at about $1 million. The pipeline would diminish that by 15%, he told the jury, arriving at a just compensation amount of nearly $170,000, which included temporary easements.

Virginia Beach appraiser Dennis Gruelle offered a much different picture when called by the Chandlers. By Gruelle’s calculations, the property was worth about $1.6 million, which was reduced 40% by the pipeline’s presence.

That meant Mountain Valley owed the Chandlers $665,391, Clarke argued. After deliberating for a little more than an hour, the jury returned with a verdict of $430,000 — roughly in the middle of the two requests.

The jury was not told how much Mountain Valley had offered to pay for the land, or the outcome of any negotiations. After the trial, Clarke said the $89,343 offer from Mountain Valley was made before the eminent domain suit was filed in 2017.

Although Mountain Valley’s right to take private land for its own profit was not a question for the jury, pipeline opponents hope trials like the Chandlers’ will draw more attention to the subject.

“Our constitutional girders rest upon private property ownership,” Jarrell said. He urged legislators to make changes to a law that allows property to be “literally stripped and quartered at the whim of a private gas company.”

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See also: DEQ denies MVP Southgate water quality permit — again, Lisa Sorg, Progressive Pulse, April 29, 2021

The North Carolina Department of Environmental Quality has again denied a key water quality permit for the proposed MVP Southgate natural gas pipeline, dealing another setback to the controversial project that would run through Rockingham and Alamance counties.

DEQ originally denied the water quality permit application last August. At the time Division of Water Resources Director Danny Smith wrote that because of “uncertainty surrounding the completion of the MVP Mainline project … work on the Southgate extension could lead to unnecessary water quality impacts and disturbance of the environment in North Carolina.”

MVP appealed the DEQ’s denial to the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals in Richmond, Va. But last month, appeals court judges determined that DEQ’s decision to deny the permit was consistent with state and federal law. The agency also adequately explained its concerns about the viability of Southgate in the context of the delayed mainline project. But where DEQ erred, the court said, is that it failed to fully explain why it chose to deny the permit outright rather than granting a conditional one, contingent on the successful construction of the main line.

Today’s denial corrects that error and explains the agency’s reasoning, DEQ said.

Theresa Terry stayed in this “tree house” for three weeks protesting the MVP

From an Article by Mason Adams, Mother Jones Magazine, 5/25/20

“Life in these mountains ain’t always been easy, so people around here take a stand when they see something they don’t agree with—and I’m one of them,” says walrus-mustached Jammie Hale in his thick southwestern Virginia mountain accent. “People that grow up in places like this, seeing their environment destroyed, it stirs them, it causes people to want to get involved, and that’s why I’m here.”

In a documentary-style video produced by Unicorn Riot, a left-wing media collective, in 2018, Hale explains his decision to join a protest movement taking on the Mountain Valley Pipeline (MVP), a 303-mile long, nearly 42-inch-wide pipeline intended to move natural gas from the fracking fields of northern West Virginia to a terminal in southern Virginia that connects to markets and export terminals on the East Coast.

Settled in among the hardwood trees on Peters Mountain, near where he’s been occupying an aerial platform with another (pseudonymous) activist known as Nutty, he talks of his family’s 150-plus years in Giles County, Virginia, and how that history motivates him to do all he can to prevent the pipeline from crossing the Appalachian Trail.

Yellow Finch, as the encampment has come to be called, is giving its full-time activists, most of whom are in their 20s, an on-the-ground education in Appalachian direct action. They’re learning how to talk to media, to establish and maintain a defensible blockade in the forest, and to survive a winter in the mountains, all in a region written off by much of the US as “Trump country.”

Less explored is the region’s significant history of activism that brought together outsiders and locals to resist corporate exploitation, from the labor organizing by Mary Harris “Mother” Jones on behalf of West Virginia miners in the 1910s and ’20s, to the Mountain Justice campaign against mountaintop removal coal mining a century later. Some veterans of the latter campaign are now working with the folks at Yellow Finch, applying lessons learned in the current fight against fossil fuels.

The camp lies at the base of the steep Blue Ridge Plateau; to reach it, you must drive carefully up a twisting mountain backroad and then back down a dirt road that follows a stream. Steep slopes rise up on either side, and the contrast between sides of the hollow stand as a testament to the activists’ success in delaying pipeline construction. On one side, the forest has been stripped bare, replanted with grass, and shored up with silt fences and green, mulch-stuffed fabric socks to prevent erosion. The other side of the hollow, home to the Yellow Finch encampment, remains wooded.

The camp is set about 50 yards up from the road, firmly planted into the hillside. A couple of hastily erected plywood buildings covered in handmade art and cardboard signs serve as a sleeping area and pantry. Tarps nailed to the side of the bunkhouse and nearby trees cover a makeshift kitchen, scattered with dishes, cooking gear, herbal tinctures, nutritional yeast, and other supplies.

The number of activists that call the camp home fluctuates with the weather and the need for additional people to sustain the camp. A 27-year-old activist called Gator fondly describes the camp’s occupants as “a bunch of badass queer anarchists that held it down for a long period of time.” They come from all over and vary in age, ethnicity, socioeconomic status, and family backgrounds, but they’re united in their desire to protect the mountains.

They found the camp through a variety of paths; several cut their teeth in other movements, organizing against the mining of frac sand, the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, mass incarceration, and police violence. They discovered Yellow Finch through word of mouth, on news sites popular with anarchists like It’s Going Down and Unicorn Riot, and Appalachians Against Pipelines, the campaign’s quasi-official Facebook page. Several came after seeing the video that featured Hale.

§ To be continued as Part 2.

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See also: Judge dismisses lawsuit that contested Mountain Valley’s power of eminent domain — Article by Laurence Hammack, Roanoke Times, May 14, 2020

Legal action has failed, once again, to undo the taking of private land for a natural gas pipeline through Southwest Virginia. “This case presents the latest trickle in a veritable flood of litigation” against the Mountain Valley Pipeline, U.S. District Court Judge James Boasberg wrote in an opinion last week dismissing the lawsuit.

Three couples with land in the pipeline’s path had sued Mountain Valley and the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, alleging that the commission should not have given a corporate venture the right to seize their property by eminent domain.

HOWEVER, LEGAL CASES HAVE RESULTED IN THE FOLLOWING:

Three sets of permits — for the pipeline to pass through the Jefferson National Forest, to cross hundreds of streams and wetlands, and to be built in a way that does not jeopardize endangered species — were set aside after lawsuits were filed by environmental groups.

Construction is currently stalled as Mountain Valley works to regain permits from a variety of federal agencies. Executives with EQM Midstream, the lead partner in a joint venture of five energy companies building the pipeline, said in a conference call Thursday that there was still a “narrow path” to their goal of completing the project by the end of the year.

The Delaware River Basin is in NY, NJ, PA, MD, and DE

From an Article by Rob Friedman, Natural Resources Defense Council, March 30, 2018

Today marks the conclusion of a four-month long comment period on proposed fracking regulations in the Delaware River Basin. The draft regs were put forward by the Delaware River Basin Commission (DRBC), the body responsible for regulating activities affecting water quality in the Delaware River Basin. Securing a fracking ban would be a huge victory in the fight for clean water and against dirty fossil fuels.

The Delaware River Basin extends from the Catskills in New York to parts of New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Delaware, and Maryland, and is a vital water source for over 17 million people, about five percent of the nation’s population. Due to the watershed’s outstanding natural, cultural, and recreational contributions to the nation, Congress has designated several segments of the Delaware River and its tributaries for protection under the Wild and Scenic Rivers Act.

The Commission took a big step in proposing a fracking ban for the River Basin, but the proposed ban does not go far enough, as it leaves open the potential for activities that could undermine the ban. These include permitting fracking wastewater storage, treatment and disposal in the basin, and allowing for the export of freshwater from the basin for use in fracking elsewhere. Over the course of the comment period, hundreds of citizens from across the watershed came out to six listening sessions to speak in support of a full ban.

NRDC’s comment letter on the proposed ban makes three main points:

1. The DRBC rightly proposes a ban on fracking in order to protect the region’s environment and economic livelihood: Fracking industrializes communities, contaminates drinking water and destroys fragile ecosystems.
2. The DRBC should ban the treatment and disposal of fracking wastewater in the watershed: Fracking generates massive amounts of polluted wastewater that threaten the health of our drinking water supplies, rivers, streams, and groundwater. These threats to water quality are present well beyond the footprint of the fracking well, even into areas where fracking itself is banned. Even industrially-treated fracking wastewater can harm water quality.
3. The DRBC should ban water withdrawals for fracking where it is permitted: Fracking is a highly water-intensive process, requiring millions of gallons of water to frack each well. Removing water for fracking would harm the watershed by threatening regional drinking water security and creating drought conditions that harm aquatic species, among other impacts.

For these reasons and more, NRDC stands with our allies across the region in supporting a full and complete fracking ban in the Delaware River Basin. You can read our full comments here, which includes a detailed report on the public health and environmental impacts of fracking wastewater.

Despite the critical role it plays in the lives of millions of Americans, this unique area has been at risk to fracking for over ten years. While home to bass, spawning shad, trout, and one of the healthiest American eel populations in the country, the Delaware River Basin also sits on top of the Marcellus Shale, a prominent source of natural gas. For over seven years, NRDC and our allies have urged the DRBC to stop fracking in this important region. And since 2011, there has been a de facto moratorium on fracking and its associated activities.

NRDC commends the DRBC for proposing a ban on fracking in the watershed. While an important step, a ban on drilling alone is insufficient to protect the Delaware River Basin. The time has come to make the moratorium a full ban.

Who can predict the future?

From an Article by Laurence Hammack, Roanoke Times, January 31, 2018

With just a few hours remaining until Thursday, the day that Mountain Valley Pipeline had hoped to start work on a natural gas pipeline through Southwest Virginia, a judge put a pause to those plans.

The decision by U.S. District Court Judge Elizabeth Dillon came during a proceeding in which Mountain Valley had sued nearly 300 property owners who refused to surrender their land for the controversial project.

Although the laws of eminent domain give Mountain Valley the power to obtain forced easements for its buried pipeline, Dillon ruled, she rejected the company’s request for immediate access to the parcels.

“This is a victory for the landowners along the pipeline, absolutely,” said Stephen Clarke, one of their attorneys. “There’s no way that they [Mountain Valley] can start construction on a vast majority of the properties,” he said — at least not now.

Facing a tight deadline to have trees felled along the pipeline’s route by March 31 to meet federal wildlife protections, Mountain Valley executed what’s called a quick-take condemnation. That process might have allowed the company to start work by Thursday on the disputed properties.

But first, Mountain Valley was required to demonstrate it could pay the property owners just compensation for the easements — at prices to be determined at trials later, likely well after construction had begun. Such a demonstration would have included paying a bond or deposit with the court.

At a hearing earlier this month, Mountain Valley presented appraisals for just nine of the nearly 300 properties, which Dillon said was insufficient information on which to base an appropriate bond amount.

“Until MVP can provide a more fulsome basis on which the court can assure that just compensation will be paid, the court cannot allow immediate possession at this time to nearly all of the properties,” Dillon wrote in a 52-page decision released shortly before 6 p.m. Wednesday.

The judge gave the company seven days to report back to her with a timeline of how long it might take to conduct more appraisals and gather additional information needed to determine a bond.

Only after that happens would Mountain Valley be allowed access to the land it needs in the counties of Giles, Craig, Montgomery, Roanoke, Franklin and Pittsylvania for its 303-mile pipeline. In the meantime, Dillon allowed immediate entry on the nine properties that were appraised, but only after a bond of three times their established value is posted.

“We are reviewing the court’s order and look forward to continuing to work with landowners and stakeholders on this important infrastructure project,” Mountain Valley spokeswoman Natalie Cox wrote in an email Wednesday night.

Through voluntary agreements with many landowners, the company has acquired easements on about 85 percent of the land through which the pipeline would pass. But the holdouts caused a headache for Mountain Valley.

Although tree-cutting and other preliminary work could begin on the non-disputed property, “possession of all the tracts along the route is needed for efficient construction,” Dillon wrote in summarizing earlier testimony from the company.

How soon that could happen seemed unclear Wednesday. Clarke, a Norfolk attorney who represents some of the landowners, said conducting more appraisals and gathering additional information that the judge has asked for could be a time-consuming process.

“I’m sure there’s some wiggle room, a day or two or maybe a week,” he said of Mountain Valley’s self-imposed deadline of starting work by Thursday, a date it had held fast to during nearly three months of court proceedings.

“But at some point when you’re talking about building a 300-mile pipeline through mountainous terrain … it’s a difficult endeavor.”

If all the trees along the pipeline’s route are not felled by March 31 — when federally protected bats begin to emerge from their caves and roost in trees — Mountain Valley would have to wait until mid-November to resume work, after the bats go back into hibernation.

Such a delay would cost up to $200 million in contract cancellation fees and other expenses, along with up to $50 million in lost revenues for every month the project is delayed, Mountain Valley contends.

Dillon agreed that would pose “irreparable harm” for the company, which was one of four standards it needed to prove before getting a preliminary injunction that would provide immediate access to the land.

The judge’s decision granted the injunction on a conditional basis, meaning that Mountain Valley could conceivably start construction as soon as a bond is posted. Dillon also gave the company a victory on its argument that it was entitled to the easements despite landowner objections.

When the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission approved the project last October, it gave Mountain Valley the power to take private land for a public use, in this case a pipeline that would serve a growing national market for natural gas.

“The court recognizes that many landowners, and others, vehemently disagree that this project serves the public good,’’ Dillon wrote. “But that decision is not for this court.”

Contact: Kirk A Bowers, PE, Virginia Chapter, Sierra Club, kirk.bowers@sierraclub.org

Protest rally set in support of Sisters Chapel

RE: Atlantic Sunrise Pipeline in South Central Pennsylvania

On Monday, twenty-three courageous members of our movement were arrested in front of an excavator on land belonging to the Adorers of the Blood of Christ in West Hempfield Township, in Lancaster County, PA. Those arrested ranged in age from 16 to 86, and included three pastors. (They are now the “Chapel 23.”)

Their love of this land, their willing sacrifice, and their inspiring poise declared that our work is driven by something deeper than Williams’s greed and gasoline. The arrested have touched our hearts, taught us the power of peaceful resistance, and strengthened our resolve more than ever.

An incredible outpouring of unity and support continues today as the Chapel 23 recover. Hundreds of thousands of people have viewed our live feed videos online, with 100,000 viewing our video of the arrests; our Facebook page received more than 500 new followers; the events were reported by _NBC_, _Democracy Now_, and _Al Jazeera, _ as well as most local media outlets and practically every Catholic publication there is.

And we’re just getting started! In the days ahead, we’ll look back on the Chapel 23 as a turning point in our movement. Which is precisely Williams’ worst fear.

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_SO, WHAT’S NEXT?_. COME OUT THIS SATURDAY, OCTOBER 21, FOR A DAY OF CELEBRATION AND ACTION!

AT 10:30 AM, WE’LL MEET AGAIN AT THE SISTERS’ CHAPEL AT 3939 LAUREL RUN IN COLUMBIA, PA 17512. First, we’ll celebrate that site of Sacred Resistance with a spirited rally. Second, we’ve planned another creative Mass Action to halt pipeline construction for another day in Lancaster County.

Come ready to sing, to celebrate the power of communities rising, and to shut down some heavy equipment. There will be plenty of roles to play across the full range of risks levels, most being entirely non-arrestable.

Note: Immediately _preceding_ LAP’s 10:30 gathering, the Lancaster Friends Quaker Meeting will be hosting a service of quiet reflection at the Chapel at 9:30 AM. All who wish to attend are welcome!

“WE REALLY APPRECIATE THE SUPPORT WE’VE GOTTEN,” SISTER BERNICE, WHO WAS WITH US ON MONDAY, TOLD THE _CATHOLIC NEWS SERVICE._ “WHEN PEOPLE PUT THEIR LIVES ON THE LINE FOR YOU, IT’S MEANINGFUL.”

The major victory of Monday was that our courage exposed the radical injustice of corporate tyranny, whereby the current system gives communities no legal avenue for protecting our land, water, and homes against even the most appalling corporate harms.

Our actions announced that we’re no longer willing to accept this system of legalized endangerment. We can no longer look the other way, or passively accept that poisoned water and condemned farmland is simply “the way it is.”

So we’ll continue to challenge this system, head on, with a relentless campaign of joyful Civil Disobedience. Our goal? To force our elected officials, law enforcement, and local judges to side with us — the people — by refusing to participate in the raw exploitation of their own communities.

We’re not just stopping a pipeline. We’re breaking a system that’s killing us.

>>> Lancaster Against Pipelines

See also: http://www.wearelancastercounty.org/

Proximity of drilling, fracking, seismic surveys of concern

From an Article by Dillon Carr, Pittsburgh Tribune Review, October 13, 2017

Monroeville council has approved an ordinance that limits Marcellus shale drilling to heavy industrial zones.

The ordinance was spurred by residents’ concerns that seismic testing planned by a Monroeville oil and gas exploration company would lead to hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, in the area.

Resident and founder of the anti-fracking Sustainable Monroeville advocacy group, Elisa Beck, called the vote a step in the right direction. “We’re all paying attention to make sure we’re protected to maintain fresh and clean water,” she said.

Huntley and Huntley, the company having seismic testing done throughout the region, has said it has no plans for gas wells in Monroeville.

But resident David Mintz, who has expressed support for the zoning amendment, remains uneasy about the possibility of fracking in the municipality. “There’s a lot of residents who live near the industrial area,” he said during a recent council meeting.

Mintz also asked whether the municipality could ban fracking. “We have to allow that activity take place somewhere,” Solicitor Robert Wratcher said. “The trick is in trying to minimize it … we can’t just have a blanket prohibition.”

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Fracking Surveyor Hauls Obstinate Town to Court

From an Article by Lana Morelli, Courthouse News, October 13, 2017

PITTSBURGH (CN) – Saying the small city of Monroeville, Pennsylvania, is hurting its business with strict regulations, fracking surveyor Geokinetics asked a federal judge to intervene.

Just east of Pittsburgh, Monroeville became the area’s third community to regulate seismic testing with a unanimous vote last month by the city council.

In its October 11th complaint filed in the Western District of Pennsylvania, Geokinetics scoffs at the notion that lawmakers had a valid reason for their interference.

“Upon information and belief, Monroeville’s intransigence is not motivated by any legitimate concerns for the health and safety of its citizens but rather by its council’s concerns about November elections,” the complaint states, filed by Steptoe & Johnson attorney Kevin Gormly.

Otherwise known as hydraulic fracturing, the process of injecting high-pressure mixtures of chemicals into the earth to extract oil and gas from rock was once widely embraced by communities on the gas-rich Marcellus Shale. In recent years, however, pressure from environmental groups and science connecting fracking to earthquakes has shifted the tides.

Monroeville has not returned a request for comment on the complaint, which paints Geokinetics as an innocent victim caught in political crossfire.

“At issue is solely Geokinetics’ need to collect data using Monroeville roads and rights-of-way through use of vibroseis vehicles, which PennDOT has determined to be safe, and temporary placement of receivers,” the complaint states. “No opening of the surface of the roads is necessary. Geokinetics is willing to post a bond and hold Monroeville harmless against any claims.”

Geokinetics is one of the world’s largest independent land and seafloor geophysical companies, specializing in acquiring and processing seismic data. It set its sights on Monroeville this year as part of a 191-square-mile project with the oil company Huntley & Huntley Exploration involving Allegheny and Westmoreland counties.

While seismic testing can require the “drilling of shot holes on parcels of land,” according to the complaint, it principally involves the use of sound waves to map rock layers underground.

Geokinetics emphasizes that the minor shock waves caused by its Pennsylvania Department of Transportation-approved vibroseis trucks “virtually preclud[e] damage to the highways,” the complaint states.

Monroeville had no ordinance in place regarding seismic testing, Geokinetics notes, when it first requested permission to use the city’s roads for its survey. Aiming to complete its survey by February 2018, Geokinetics says it has no option but to get an injunction.

Land Ethic of the Adorers of the Blood of Christ

This is a mass call for action to every one of you who has committed to stopping the Atlantic Sunrise pipeline. Williams, the builder, has told the Sisters that they will begin construction on Monday. We will be there, together.

MONDAY, OCTOBER 16, 7 AM at 3939 LAUREL RUN, COLUMBIA, PA 17512

Over the past four years we have prepared for this. We have exhausted every legal, regulatory and political means possible. Our legislators, courts and and regulators have instead sold out our health and home to Williams’ industrial invasion. They have given us no choice but to put ourselves between Williams and our futures.

Please read our statement below for more details about the Sister’s lawsuit, Judge Schmehl’s allowance of US Marshals, and our plans for Monday.

ON MONDAY, SOME MAY CHOOSE CIVIL DISOBEDIENCE, RISKING ARREST; OTHERS MAY STAND ON PUBLIC OR PRIVATE LAND OUT OF THE RIGHT OF WAY. OUR SEASONED LEGAL TEAM WILL BE ON HAND TO HELP US DECIDE WHAT RISK LEVEL, IF ANY, IS BEST FOR US. WHATEVER YOUR INTENTIONS, WE HOPE YOU WILL COME STAND WITH US, UNITED.

Here we go! We are right. We are ready. Together we can stop this pipeline.

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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: CALL TO ACTION FOR MONDAY, OCTOBER 16 @ 7 AM

//////. LANCASTER AGAINST PIPELINES: STATEMENT //////.

Monday, October 16, 2017, 7:00 AM, at 3939 Laurel Run, Columbia PA 17512

Outdoor Chapel, Adorers of the Blood of Christ

THE TIME FOR ACTION IS NOW. WILLIAMS HAS INDICATED THEIR INTENTION TO BEGIN WORK ON THE PROPERTY OF THE ADORERS OF THE BLOOD OF CHRIST THIS COMING MONDAY, OCTOBER 16, 2017.

Whatever you have planned for the day, we urge you to set those plans aside and gather with your friends and neighbors to stand in solidarity with the Adorers of the Blood of Christ in challenging Transco/Williams’ plans to violate our religious rights, community rights, property rights, and rights to clean air and water.

Williams has indicated their plans to begin construction on the Adorers’ property beginning Monday, October 16. The lawsuit that the Sisters have filed against Transco and FERC, alleging a violation of their Religious Freedom, is still winding its way through the Third Circuit Court of Appeals. If the Court were to rule in favor of the Sisters, the pipeline could face a devastating setback. For this reason, Williams is rushing to complete work on the property before the Court has a chance to stop them.

ACCORDING TO A COURT ORDER BY DISTRICT JUDGE JEFFREY SCHMEHL OF READING, PA, TRANSCO/WILLIAMS HAS BEEN GIVEN THE AUTHORITY TO SEIZE THE ADORERS’ LAND AGAINST THEIR WILL, WITH THE AUTHORITY TO ENFORCE THIS SEIZURE USING US MARSHALS.

Just as Energy Transfer Partners ran bulldozers through ancestral Lakota lands last year, while the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe remained in active litigation against the company on religious principle, so Transco/Williams is poised to break earth on the Sisters’ land, long before they’d planned to do so, in a desperate—and grossly immoral—ploy to preempt a potentially devastating Circuit Court ruling in favor of the Sisters.

WE CALL ON PEOPLE OF GOODWILL ALL ACROSS LANCASTER—AS WELL AS THE STATE OF PENNSYLVANIA AND THE SURROUNDING REGION—TO JOIN US ON MONDAY MORNING TO DEMAND JUSTICE, TO CALL FOR MORAL ACCOUNTABILITY, AND TO STAND IN FIERCE DEFENSE OF OUR SACRED EARTH.

On October 12th, the Third Circuit Court of Appeals denied the Sisters’ request that pipeline construction be prohibited through their land until their Religious Freedom challenge against Williams and FERC is settled.

AGAIN, TO BE CLEAR: DESPITE THE FACT THAT THE SISTERS’ CASE UNDER THE RELIGIOUS FREEDOM RESTORATION ACT WILL, INDEED, MOVE FORWARD, THE CIRCUIT COURT INEXPLICABLY RULED TO ALLOW CONSTRUCTION TO BEGIN ANYWAY.

This is simply the latest in a long string of court-ordered rulings that legalize corporate exploitation of local communities and the natural environment, leaving us—as people of conscience—with no other option than a massive mobilization of civil defiance. The _status quo_ is not merely unacceptable; it’s suicidal, because the very building blocks of life—water, land, and air—are fatally imperiled.

BEGINNING AT 7:00 AM, WE WILL HOLD A PRAYERFUL, SONGFUL VIGIL AT THE VERY EDGE OF WILLIAMS’ DESECRATION CORRIDOR, WHICH THEY CALL THEIR “RIGHT-OF-WAY.” THOSE OUTSIDE THE EASEMENT HAVE A CONSTITUTIONALLY PROTECTED RIGHT TO BOLDLY STAND, RAISE THEIR VOICES AND BANNERS, AND BEAR WITNESS WITHOUT FEAR OF ARREST.

THOSE WHO CHOOSE TO PLACE THEMSELVES IN THE PIPELINE EASEMENT SHOULD BE PREPARED TO FACE ARREST BY US MARSHALS WHO, DESPITE THEIR DUTY TO SERVE AND PROTECT THE CITIZENS OF THIS NATION, WILL BE SERVING, INSTEAD, THE FINANCIAL INTERESTS OF A PRIVATE, FOR-PROFIT, OUT-OF-STATE, BILLIONAIRE-RUN, FOSSIL FUEL INDUSTRY. AS WE DEFEND OUR LAND AND WATER, FEDERAL LAW ENFORCEMENT OFFICIALS WILL BE DEFENDING THE PRIVATE COMPANY PUTTING OUR LAND AND WATER AT RISK.

We need friends and allies to participate in every aspect, and risk level, of this action: banner holders, picture takers, scripture readers, hymn leaders, legal observers, medics, and easement defiers.

TOGETHER, LET’S DARE TO EXPOSE THE MORAL BANKRUPTCY ON FULL DISPLAY RIGHT HERE IN LANCASTER COUNTY.

It’s a perverse coincidence that Transco’s bulldozers sit poised to gut the chapel of the Adorers just as these Sisters prepare to celebrate the 25th anniversary of the martyrdom of five Adorers who willingly faced mortal danger defending the rights of their brothers and sisters in Liberia.

DEFENDING JUSTICE IS NOT CHEAP. BUT CONCEDING IT IS INTOLERABLE.

Lancaster Against Pipelines

Contact: http://www.wearelancastercounty.org/

Loyalsock State Forest

PA DCNR Plans to Buy More Land to Protect Forests Against NatGas Development

From an Article by Jamison Cocklin, NGI Shale Daily, September 9, 2016

The Pennsylvania Department of Conservation and Natural Resources (DCNR) has finalized its latest State Forest Resource Management Plan (SFRMP), releasing with it an oil and gas development position statement that reaffirms no new leases will be sold for state-owned land.

DCNR’s Bureau of Forestry manages 2.2 million acres of state forest system, representing about 13% of the state’s forested land. About 1.5 million acres of the state-owned forest system lies within the prospective limits of the Marcellus Shale.

The statement supports an executive order issued by Democratic Gov. Tom Wolf in January 2015 that banned oil and gas leases in state-owned parks and forests. DCNR said in its new position statement that in order to better conserve the resources that it oversees, the agency will “not permit additional oil and natural gas leases on state forest and park lands where DCNR controls the subsurface rights.” The agency highlighted a number of initiatives that it would undertake to better manage oil and gas development.

Among them, DCNR said it would purchase and exchange real estate interests to acquire subsurface oil, gas and mineral rights to limit development on adjoining properties. The agency also said it would require subsurface owners to provide “definitive proof” of subsurface ownership and said it would continue to “closely” manage and monitor oil and gas development and its effects on leased lands and lands where DCNR does not own the subsurface mineral rights. The agency said it will cooperate with natural gas operators on state forest lands, as well.

DCNR spokeswoman Christina Novak said opportunities for purchasing or exchanging subsurface rights are explored on a case-by-case basis that is “subject to finding willing sellers and funding availability.” She said DCNR has added more than 40,000 acres to the state forest system over the last two years through a “variety of subsurface ownership situations.”

The Bureau of Forestry has released the SFRMP since 1955. It serves as a blueprint for how the lands will be managed and communicates the agency’s goals to the public. The last time it was revised was in 2007. For the latest plan, DCNR received more than 4,000 comments and hosted 12 public meetings over two years. 

“Management of our state forest system is an ever-changing undertaking, as there are constantly new challenges and best practices. Society continues to place increasing needs on state forest land such as recreational use and resource extraction and the forest also is under environmental stressors including climate change and invasive plants and insects,” said DCNR Secretary Cindy Adams Dunn in a statement. “The careful and deliberate approach to management outlined in the plan will help protect and sustain the forest’s ecological, social and economic benefits now and for the future.” 

Development and gas storage leases issued by DCNR in state forests total 343,915 acres. The agency has also identified another 330,000 acres that, through private leases where the state does not own subsurface rights, are exposed to development. Since 2008, DCNR has issued three shale-gas specific leases totaling 138,866 acres. The last time a shale lease was sold was in 2010.

The state began leasing land for oil and gas development in 1947 and the bonus payments from unconventional leases have generated more revenue than the cumulative total received by the program since it started. Shale bonus and royalty payments have brought in about $862 million.

“We’re disappointed, but not surprised in the agency’s actions. It shouldn’t be lost on anyone that safe, tightly-regulated non-surface taxpayer-owned energy development is an enormous source of revenue for the commonwealth, generating nearly $1 billion since 2008,” said Marcellus Shale Coalition spokeswoman Erica Clayton Wright. “Rather than pursue policies that restrict responsible natural gas development and jeopardize good-paying jobs, Pennsylvania elected officials should be encouraging greater production, infrastructure development and use of our abundant, clean-burning natural gas resources.”

Shale gas development began on state forest lands in 2009. Thus far, DCNR has approved 236 well pads and 1,026 shale wells since 2008. 

See also: www.FrackCheckWV.net

The rush to drill for unconventional gas, enabled by a process popularly known as “fracking,” or hydraulic fracturing, has brought with it much collateral damage. Close observers know about contaminated water, earthquakes, and climate change impacts of the shale gas boom, but few look at the entire life cycle of fracking from cradle to grave.

Until recently, one of the most underlooked facets of the industry was the “cradle” portion of the shale gas lifecycle: frac sand mining in the hills of northwestern Wisconsin and bordering eastern Minnesota, areas now serving as the epicenter of the frac sand mining world.

The silence on the issue ended after several good investigative stories were produced by outlets in the past year or so, such as Wisconsin Watch, PR Watch, The Wisconsin State Journal, the Associated Press, The Wall Street Journal, Orion, EcoWatch, and most recently, Tom Dispatch. These various articles, all well worth reading, explain the land grab currently unfolding in the Midwest and the ecological damage that has accompanied it. 

To put it bluntly, there could be no shale gas extraction without the sand. As Tom Dispatch‘s Ellen Cantarow recently explained,

That sand, which props open fractures in the shale, has to come from somewhere. Without it, the fracking industry would grind to a halt. So big multinational corporations are descending on this bucolic region to cart off its prehistoric sand, which will later be forcefully injected into the earth elsewhere across the country to produce more natural gas. Geology that has taken millions of years to form is now being transformed into part of a system, a machine, helping to drive global climate change.

Frac sand, which consists of fine-grained sillica, can cause the respiratory illness, silicosis. Washing the frac sand in preparation for the fracking process is also a water intensive process, particularly threatening in the age of increasing water scarcity in the United States and around the world.

“The state’s water supplies are also threatened as sand mining destroys sandstone formations which serve as giant filters for local aquifers.” Sara Jerving of PR Watch wrote. “The mining process can use thousands of gallons of water which can also deplete aquifers.”

The “frac sand rush” has been an uphill battle for small towns and municipalities that are trying to fight, or at the very least, attempt to negotiate with large corporations, with compartively little governmental oversight to deal with corporate behemoths such as EOG Resources, mirroring in many important ways the shale gas rush.

Cities and concerned citizens have done their best to keep up with the boom, but have no precedent to look for, no previous legislation to protect themselves, their infrastructure (see: roads and heavy trucks rolling through), their groundwater and their air.

Enter “Sand Land”

To further introduce the world to the impacts of frac sand mining, DeSmogBlog presents “Sand Land,” a short video report filmed and produced by Milwaukee, WI by photo-journalist and film-maker, Spencer Chumbley of 414 Wire, co-reported on with DeSmogBlog Research Fellow, Steve Horn. The film serves as a short audio-visual primer on the issue.

We encourage you to watch and share it with friends, colleagues, and family.