Frack Check WV » protest

Mother’s Day Potluck Against Pipelines in Summers County, WV

Duane Nichols — Sat, 11 May 2019 08:03:43 +0000

What: Mother’s Day Pie Potluck, and Proclamation

Where: BlackBerry Springs Farm, 437 Blackberry Spg., Alderson, WV. Summers county!

We are hoping that these will pop up all over the place.

When: Sunday, May 12, 3:33 PM

Who: EVERYONE who has a mother and cares about water and resists pipelines

On Sunday, May 12 at 3:33 pm, mothers and those who love mothers will gather to share stories, eat pie and proclaim their dedication to protecting and defending our sacred waters.

Across the world, dangerous pipeline projects are threatening communities. We will express our intention to defend our communities–human and natural– from the risks, threats and continued abuse of petro-colonization.

We will call upon our elected officials, our regulators and the corporate interests that are prioritized over the health of our children, families and communities to take heed of our warning: If they do not protect our waters, we the people will.

Contact:Beth Laferriere: (304) 923-3716, directmommy@gmail.com

Yes, grandmothers are getting arrested for stopping pipelines to protect your future!

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Support Camp Granny Smith and WV Pipeline Resistors

A new pipeline resistance camp has emerged in West Virginia’s Eastern Panhandle, where the Eastern Panhandle Protectors need your help in stopping an extension of the Mountaineer Gas Pipeline for a proposed Rockwool mineral wool factory.

The fracked-gas pipeline extension appears crucial to the viability of the factory, which will require natural gas, coal, and pet coke to fire its furnaces to a temperature hot enough to melt rock — and in the process release polluting emissions and endangering the local water supply.

Rockwool, based in Denmark, would be unable to build such a plant in that country because it would violate Danish environmental laws. Instead, Rockwool chose Jefferson County, W.Va., near struggling communities of color and low-income families.

Despite widespread opposition, the West Virginia Department of Environment approved the pipeline extention’s permit March 29, without a public hearing.

Eastern Panhandle Protectors has set up Camp Granny Smith to put bodies on the line to protect families and natural communities from poisoned water and air. Your help will support camp expenses and resistant efforts, as these protectors refuse to consent to ecocide.

Other ways to give. Designate “Eastern Panhandle”: Venmo: @iacjva; PayPal: iacjvirginia@gmail.com; Web site: www.iacjva.org/give

Check: Make out to Interfaith Alliance for Climate Justice with “Charis” in memo and mail to P.O. Box 184, The Plains, VA 20198

Protestors Arrested Blockading Gas Storage Facility on Seneca Lake, NY

Duane Nichols — Tue, 19 Mar 2013 16:59:00 +0000

: Seneca Lake Storage Facility Protest

Finger Lakes Protestors Arrested

From the Article by Green Umbrella, March 18, 2013. (See also EcoWatch.)

Twelve protestors, residents of the local Seneca Lake area and local college students, were arrested to oppose Kansas City, MO based Inergy, natural gas and liquid petroleum gas storage facility, which would lock in natural gas development in the Marcellus Shale region. Protesters linked arms and deployed a banner reading “Our Future is Unfractured, We Are Greater Than Dirty Inergy” across the entrance to the facility on NY State Route 14.

The blockade preceded a 250+ person rally opposing the Inergy facility starting at the Watkins Glen Village Marina at the south end of Seneca Lake.

Twenty-five demonstrators blockaded the Inergy facility, which they say is one example of numerous fracking infrastructure projects that the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) and Federal Energy Regulatory Commission have allowed to “slip in the back door” while New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo debates allowing the controversial and extreme process of horizontal hydraulic fracturing.

Sandra Steingraber PhD., biologist and author of Trumansburg in neighboring Tompkins County, was arrested. She said, “It is wrong to bury explosive, toxic petroleum gases in underground chambers next to a source of drinking water for 100,000 people. It is wrong to build out the infrastructure for fracking at a time of climate emergency. It is right for me come to the shores of Seneca Lake, where my 11-year-old son was born, and say, with my voice and with my body, as a mother and biologist, that this facility is a threat to life and health.”

The blockade joins a growing national movement to call attention to environmental injustices caused by unconventional and extreme fossil fuel extraction techniques, including Inergy’s hotly debated salt cavern gas storage facility proposed for Reading, NY.

A Cornell University Sophomore said, “This isn’t just a local issue—when students stand shoulder to shoulder with communities on the frontlines of the fight against extreme projects like Inergy’s, we’re one step closer to stopping fracking, and one step closer to protecting my generation’s future from poisoned water and devastating climate change.”

Inergy’s facility has generated widespread concerns for its proximity to Seneca Lake, New York State’s largest fresh water body and the source of drinking water for 100,000 people.

A resident of Seneca County, which contains a portion of Seneca Lake, said, “The priorities of Inergy’s project are all wrong. Drinking water and people’s health are more valuable than gas. The Finger Lakes region holds one of the largest pool of fresh water in the United States and needs our protection—we don’t need to lock in investments in dirty fracking infrastructure that will deepen our dependence on an inherently contaminating industry.”

A resident of Schuyler County, where the facility is located said, “Not only do salt cavern gas storage facilities like Inergy’s have a very high probability of ‘catastrophic equipment failure,’ but I do not want more truck traffic polluting our air, destroying our roads, and scaring tourists away.”

The DEC has received increasingly vocal criticism from local wineries and tourist businesses for refusing to conduct a comprehensive review of the potential environmental and economic impacts of Inergy’s plans to expand gas storage capacity of the current facility from 1.5 to 10.0 billion cubic feet.

For live updates on this action, click here.

Visit EcoWatch’s FRACKING page for more related news on this topic.

Over 5,000 People March in DC to Protest Fracking

Duane Nichols — Sun, 29 Jul 2012 07:19:44 +0000

: “Stop the Frack Attack” Rally in D.C.

Over 5,000 People Unite in DC to Protest Fracking

Stefanie Spear, www.ecowatch.org

Date: July 28, 2012

More than 5,000 people from all over the nation, and various parts of the world including Australia, united today on the West lawn of the U.S. Capitol demanding Congress take immediate action to stop fracking. After the rally that began at 2 p.m., rally participants marched for more than one hour, stopping at the headquarters of the America’s Natural Gas Alliance and American Petroleum Institute.

People impacted by fracking in their communities joined forces with 136 local and national organizations to call on Congress to Stop the Frack Attack and protect Americans from the dangerous impacts of fracking.

Rally speakers included, Bill McKibben, co-founder of 350.org; Josh Fox, producer of Gasland; Calvin Tillman, former mayor of Dish, Texas; Allison Chin, board president of the Sierra Club, and community members from swing states affected by fracking.

“As the increasingly bizarre weather across the planet and melting ice on Greenland makes clear, at this point we’ve got no choice but to keep fossil fuels underground. Fracking to find more is the worst possible idea,” said McKibben. “The amazing thing about this problem is that there’s a solution… We know that we can run the world on renewable energy. We know that we can run the world on the wind. And today, we have a reminder that we can run the world on the sun,” said Fox.

Today’s rally was part of the first national event to stop the frack attack. The rally is the culmination of three days of training to further escalate the movement to stop abuse by the fossil fuel industry. Large groups from swing states including Ohio, Colorado, Pennsylvania and North Carolina attended the training and rally to make sure that fracking is a key part of the upcoming election.

“Just weeks ago in North Carolina, our legislature ripped up decades of groundwater protections for rural drinking water, in order to allow fracking and invite in dirty industry campaign dollars. So we add our voices to the national movement calling on Congress to protect our homes, our drinking water and our health by repealing the 2005 oil and gas exemptions,” said Hope Taylor, a farmer near Durham and executive director of Clean Water for NC.

Rally participants have three key demands: an end to dirty and dangerous fracking, closure of the seven legal loopholes that let frackers in the oil and gas industry ignore the Safe Drinking Water Act, Clean Air Act and Clean Water Act, and full enforcement of existing laws to protect families and communities from the effects of fracking.

“It is time for us to come together as a people and let the law makers that work for us know that we are tired of being run over by the out-of-control oil and gas industry,” said Tillman.

While at the headquarters of America’s Natural Gas Alliance, rally organizers delivered six jugs of contaminated water in hazmat suits and then headed to the American Petroleum Institute where a 20-foot-high mock oil rig was smashed to the ground.

This event was a launching point for the movement, and will be followed by events in Albany, NY on Aug. 25, Philadelphia on Sept. 20 and Sept. 21, and subsequent events in other states and regions affected by fracking.

Note Added: The WV Sierra Club provided motor coach (bus) transportation from Morgantown, used by 41 marchers for this event. A number of other West Virginians were in attendance including many from the Doddridge County Watershed Association.

To see additional photos from the Stop the Frack Attack rally and march, visit EcoWatch’s Facebook page.

Auction for Mineral Leases in Wayne National Forest Upsets Local Ohio Governments

Nicole Good — Sat, 08 Oct 2011 18:03:49 +0000

Drilling on state-owned land has been a topic of discussion recently, and now the federal government is cashing in on its piece of the shale gas play as well. Oil and gas rights for more than 3,000 acres of the Wayne National Forest in Ohio will be placed on the auction block on December 7th. Environmental groups are not the only groups protesting the lease– the nearby city of Athens and Athens County Commission have written a request that four of the parcels be removed from the auction. Their letters express concerns about negative impacts to the tourism industry and that the leases do not protect the Hocking River and aquifer, which is downstream from the parcels and supplies 95% of the drinking water for several counties.

The forest sits over the Utica Shale formation, recently attracting a lot of attention in Ohio where it is estimated to contain 5.5 billion barrels of oil in addition to 15 trillion cubic feet of natural gas. Read more here…

According to the University of Colorado Law School, the federal government owns most of the land suitable for oil and gas development in the United States (mostly in the West). The process for developing these resources, such as the Wayne National Forest, involves the Forest Service identifying areas of national forest suitable for leasing, and then the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) is responsible for managing the leasing process and development activities. This system of leasing federal land was written in the Mineral Leasing Act of 1920, with several amendments being made since. Recent amendments have been made in an attempt to reverse the trend of an exponentially growing number of protests– from only 1% of parcels protested in 1998, to 49% protested in 2009, which resulted in half of them being withdrawn from leasing.

Protesters March while Chesapeake CEO Slings Slurs

Dee Fulton — Thu, 08 Sep 2011 02:29:04 +0000

Aubrey McClendon, CEO of Chesapeake Energy, described shale critics as “extremists” engaged in “unfettered fear mongering” at an industry conference in Philadelphia, PA according to an AP story. Wednesday was the first day of the two day conference dubbed “Shale Gas Ingight” and sponsored by The Marcellus Shale Coalition. Former Republican Governor Tom Ridge echoed McClendon with the words “phony hysteria.” Ridge is now a paid consultant/lobbyist for the natural gas industry.

But protestors outside the Pennsylvania Convention Center had a friend in former Democratic Governor Ed Rendell. “The things they’re talking about are not incorrect,” he said. “They’re raising serious and legitimate issues. They express the fears of not just a few militants, but the fears of a lot of good, hard-working Pennsylvanians. About what’s going to happen to their neighborhood. About what’s going to happen to their water supply. About what’s going to happen to their waterways. Those are things that we can’t continue to ignore.” Rendell then proceeded to lecture the energy industry for twenty minutes.

Meanwhile hundreds of protestors filled the streets outside the conference and called for a moratorium on drilling. Activists organized a two day rally called “Shale Gas Outrage”.

PhillyNow reported that the protest marched to Gov. Corbett’s office in Center City to deliver a letter written by Kimberlie McEvoy from Butler County. She wrote that her water tests show arsenic, manganese and ammonia in her water, and that her family “can’t play outside without getting a headache or a sore throat.” At the end of the letter, she wrote, “It’s not right to allow the gas companies to gamble with our lives.”

Rally for Moratorium on Marcellus in Charleston on July 11

Dee Fulton — Thu, 30 Jun 2011 04:37:09 +0000

The public is invited to attend a rally to demonstrate support for a moratorium on Marcellus shale drilling and fracking to be held from 10AM to 2PM on Monday, July 11, 2011 at the State Capitol Building in Charleston, WV. This event is sponsored by WV4MOM (West Virginia for a Moratorium on Marcellus). More info about an agenda, speakers, transportation, and parking will be released soon. For more information contact frackinquestions@gmail.com. For carpooling arrangements contact wv4momcarpool@gmail.com.

Drilling Protesters Spur City Council and County Commission to Action

Dee Fulton — Thu, 19 May 2011 16:15:32 +0000

Concerned citizens showed up in force at the City Council meeting on Tuesday evening in Morgantown, WV. About 20 people addressed the council members with concerns regarding a permitted Marcellus shale well near the Monongahela River within 3,000 feet of a public water intake that serves 100,000 people. Many inquired about getting an injunction to stop the drilling of the wells permitted to Northeast Natural Energy, a West Virginia company. The council responded with a letter to Randy Huffman, the Secretary of the WVDEP, supporting the permit modifications proposed by the Morgantown Utility Board. The letter was faxed on Wednesday the 18th. The WVDEP negotiated with Northeast and a modified permit which complies with the MUB requests is expected to be completed today. Drilling can be expected to start as soon as the permit is issued as modified.

Wednesday morning, an estimated 120 concerned citizens assembled at the Courthouse Square in downtown Morgantown to protest the controversial well permit. Delegates Barbara Fleischauer and Charlene Marshall addressed the crowd to discuss their work on the issue of regulation of hydraulic fracturing. Several citizens addressed the crowd, sharing their concerns about various aspects of hydraulic fracturing including the impact of industrialization on West Virginia, water contamination, air pollution, lack of regulation and lack of funding for the West Virginia Department of Environmental Protection. Attorney Hiram Lewis, who represents clients with water contamination problems in Wetzel County, told that water is being contaminated with acrylonitrile, a toxic substance that is not being checked by testing. He also observed that the concrete well casings may be incapable of withstanding the forces of fracking and may crack. He stated that there is no proof that well casings can withstand more than 7,000 psi and that frack pressures exceed 10,000 psi.

As the protest demonstration was going on in the square outside the courthouse, inside the courthouse the County Commissioners were meeting. Duane Nichols, representing the Mon Valley Clean Air Coalition, presented a position statement which expressed opposition to hydraulic fracturing in the Mon River Valley, noting in particular dangerous threats to air quality. ”The two Marcellus wells recently sited at or near the Morgantown Industrial Park are too close to the other facilities of the Industrial Park, too close to the Skyview Elementary School, too close to the Westwood Middle School, too close to the County Athletic Field between these schools, and too close to the City of Morgantown.” Marc Glass is a certified soil remediation specialist who lives near the controversial drilling sites. He described the Superfund site currently within the Morgantown Industrial Park where the wells are planned and the proximity of a hazardous waste dump, both of significant concern if these come into contact with drilling fluids. Glass also described the activities of the EPA and the Department of Energy toward developing best practices for drilling operations.

The three Commissioners agreed that that action at the state level is needed. They agreed to draft a letter to the governor to call for a Special Session to create law for hydraulic fracking and pointing out that an untenable situation exists in West Virginia due to risks and uncertainties involved in Marcellus gas projects.