Upcoming Belmont Co. cracker plant/petrochemical hub informational meeting

LOCATION: Moundsville Public Library, Tuesday, February 26th @ 6 PM

From: Bev Reed, FaCTOV OhioValley — (reed.b1@yahoo.com)

Hello to Friends & Concerned Citizens:

Please join local Ohio Valley residents, the Sierra Club, FreshWater Accountability Project, and the Ohio Valley Environmental Coalition for an informational meeting pertaining to the potential Belmont County cracker plant/petrochemical hub on Tuesday, February 26th at 6pm at the Moundsville public library.

A few nonprofits are appealing [1] the PTTG air permit that was approved by the Ohio EPA. The permit was extremely deficient and is not adequately protective of human health and the environment.

There will be an attorney present who is involved with the appeal to answer questions and talk about some of the deficiencies. The purpose is to inform the public about the planned projects and potential hazards, talk about what can be done about it, and also to show solidarity as we continue to resist these projects.

Please share this announcement with others. Above is the flyer for the event, as well as the deficiencies of the permit. There are a plethora of reasons why this plant and the potential build-out from it will negatively impact the entire region, and also the planet as a whole. These will be discussed at the meeting.

Please let me know if you have any questions.

>> Thank you, Bev Reed — Faith Communities Together (FaCT-OV) — A voice in the Ohio Valley promoting responsible stewardship of the land, air and water. ( fact.ov.group@gmail.com )

[1] Environmental Groups Challenge Key Permit for Ohio Petrochemical Plant | Sierra Club, https://www.sierraclub.org/press-releases/2019/01/environmental-groups-challenge-key-permit-for-ohio-petrochemical-plant

Defend our Forests, Farms and Karst Geology

From an Article by Laurence Hammack, Roanoke Times, February 28, 2018

Chainsaw crews are cutting trees in Giles County, clearing a path for the Mountain Valley Pipeline. On a ridgetop high above them, protestors are waiting.

Since Monday, two self-described pipeline resisters have been sitting on platforms in two trees on Peters Mountain — about 60 feet off the ground and directly in the proposed path of the natural gas pipeline — with hopes of preventing the project from moving forward.

“We’re hoping to delay it, at least,” said Ashley Brown, speaking Wednesday by cellphone from one of the trees. “And I think we have the power to stop it.”

Brown is part of a loosely organized group of opponents who have taken a stand where the pipeline would cross the Appalachian Trail in Monroe County, West Virginia. The “tree sit” is being held just across the state line from Giles County, where Mountain Valley recently began cutting trees along a right of way for the 303-mile buried pipeline.

“It’s really beautiful up here,” Brown said. “Peters Mountain is stunning. The thought of a 125-foot right of way being blasted through this is really heartbreaking.”

The spot for a potential standoff with construction crews is on public land in the Jefferson National Forest.

“The Forest Service is reviewing the situation regarding the protesters and working to determine what our response might be to ensure everyone’s safety once Mountain Valley Pipeline LLC is authorized to begin tree clearing,” U.S. Forest Service spokeswoman Jessica Rubado wrote in an email.

Monroe County Sheriff Ken Hedrick said he has been in touch with Forest Service officials and is not aware of any need at this point for law enforcement to intervene.

It remains unclear when, or if, the tree cutters will encounter the protesters.

Before Mountain Valley can cut trees on national forestland where the protesters are staged, the company must receive approval from the Forest Service and the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission.

FERC has already given Mountain Valley permission to cut trees in certain parts of Giles and other counties in the Roanoke and New River valleys through which the pipeline would pass.

Natalie Cox, a Mountain Valley spokeswoman, said tree-cutting began in Giles last Friday, marking the first work on the pipeline in Virginia. Crews began felling trees several weeks ago in West Virginia, where the pipeline would originate before making its way to Pittsylvania County.

Although Cox did not respond to questions Wednesday about protesters, she addressed the topic in an email to The Roanoke Times last June.

“As a safety precaution, the MVP project team and their contractors will have security personnel available, in conjunction with law enforcement, to manage any potential protest-related activity that may occur onsite during construction,” Cox wrote at the time.

Pipeline resisters are making it clear that they have no plans to move out of the way.

Placing humans in trees would make it “impossible to cut the forest without threatening severe harm to those resisting,” a news release from the group stated.

Brown said she is willing to stay in her tree 24 hours a day for as long as it takes. Supporters are providing food and other supplies that are hoisted from the ground by ropes. She also receives a newly charged cellphone periodically to stay in touch with the outside world from a remote post that can only be reached by a long, uphill hike in the woods.

Members of the group were reluctant to talk about how many people are involved in the effort, or to discuss their strategies at length. A second person who, like Brown, is sitting on a platform in a tree did not want to be identified, she said.

Protesters say that at the least, they hope to slow down a tree-cutting operation that Mountain Valley is in a rush to complete.

Federal wildlife protections mandate that all trees known to be habitats for threatened bats must be felled by March 31, when the creatures begin to emerge from their hibernation caves.

If the trees are not down by then, Mountain Valley would have to wait until mid-November, when the bats hibernate again, before resuming work.

Company officials have said they are on schedule for construction to be completed by the end of this year, even though they still lack approval by Virginia state regulators of a sediment and erosion control plan. That plan would have to be in place before the next stage of work — removing the downed trees and grading the land — could begin.

In a news release and on the Facebook page of Appalachians Against Pipelines, which is not directly involved in the tree-sit operation, the pipeline resisters outlined the reasons for their opposition.

“The proposed pipeline would destroy water, mountains, forests and family farms throughout Virginia and West Virginia,” the news release stated.

Bill Hughes Photo — Clearcutting right-of-way for MVP in Wetzel County, WV

MVP -- From stress to distress and more

Letter from E. Scott Geller, alumni distinguished professor at Virginia Tech, Roanoke Times, September 11, 2017

Every societal or cultural issue influences human dynamics — psychology — and vice versa. The proposed Mountain Valley Pipeline (MVP) crisis is no exception, but the psychological impact of the MVP has not been given much attention. Yes, it is a crisis and it’s causing severe distress among numerous citizens of Southwest Virginia. I did say distress, not stress.

Stress is okay. It means we are under pressure to accomplish something — we’re under the gun to get things done. Stress is actually motivating and not debilitating.

In contrast, distress is debilitating and painful — both physically and psychologically. This proposed pipeline is causing severe distress among the majority of residents who understand the devastating environmental impact of the MVP. And this distress has caused severe, life-threatening illnesses for some folks in our community.

Why distress and not stress? The difference between motivating stress and debilitating distress is the perception of personal control. When people believe they can control a stressor they feel stress, and they work hard to conquer the stressor and move forward. The proposed MVP is a stressor, and for more than three years citizens throughout Southwest Virginia have worked diligently to remove that stressor. They sponsored rallies, conducted neighborhood surveys, wrote newspaper editorials, and produced and shared professional videos to increase public awareness and garner anti-MVP support.

They hired soil specialists, geologists, and lawyers to make the science-based case that the proposed MVP route is unsafe and dramatically destructive to the environment and its resources, including water—a life necessity. They wrote data-based opposition letters to the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC), explaining the irrationality of the proposed MVP. Yet it seems all of these stress-reduction strategies have fallen on deaf ears. None have yet worked to dissuade the construction of the proposed MVP.

At the same time, these dedicated and hard-working Americans must listen to the industry-oriented and ill-informed dialogue from those advocating for the proposed MVP. “It will bring us new jobs.” “It will bring needed industry to Roanoke.” “It will improve our economy.” Besides being grossly inaccurate and shortsighted, all arguments for the proposed MVP are about financial gain that disregards the irreversible environmental damage and the potential risk of devastating explosions and water contamination.

Those who understand the environmental destruction that will result from the proposed MVP realize that the advocates of the proposed MVP care only about time-limited monetary gain. And it seems the FERC is paying more attention to this self-serving and shortsighted rationale than the people-focused reasoning of those opposing the proposed MVP — those citizens who have spent more than three years becoming well-informed of the devastating and life-threatening consequences of the proposed MVP that will actually benefit only a few greedy individuals.

The result: A debate between rational perspectives to save environmental resources for generations of residents versus an obvious individualistic mindset that will destroy irreplaceable resources and put numerous citizens at risk for water contamination and gas explosions.

Realizing the proposed illogical MVP might actually be built, despite overwhelming evidence that the MVP would cause significant harm to people and their environment, fuels debilitating human distress. And such distress is fueled by the observation that the FERC has seemingly not even considered the data that shows the irrationality of building the MVP.

Psychologists call this “confirmation bias.” People listen to evidence that supports their initial opinion and self-serving consequences, and they deny opposing information. Confirmation bias and personal monetary gain (FERC personnel are paid from monies collected from the pipelines they approve) provide the impetus for the virtual rubber-stamping of pipeline approvals— time after time. Realizing this is truly distressing.

Any attempt to incorporate science-based rationality into the critical decision-making process regarding the proposed MVP could be therapeutic.

Specifically, it’s crucial that the leaders of all organizations involved in decision-making regarding the proposed MVP review carefully the critical information available from all sources regarding the proposed MVP that has been collected, analyzed, and shared with the FERC. We need these leaders to be well-informed of the devastating and multi-generational consequences this proposed pipeline would have on our environment and its invaluable resources.

Photo Exhibition of Shale Impacts

Marcellus Shale Documentary Project at YSU This Month!

From an Article of the Y.S.U. News Center, Youngstown, OH, March 7, 2014

The Youngstown State University Department of Art is sponsoring a series of free and public events called the “Marcellus Shale Documentary Project: MSDP,” including a photography exhibit, lectures and film screening throughout the month of March.

• Now through April 4. The photography exhibit in the Bliss Hall Gallery through April 4 features the work of Noah Addis, Nina Berman, Brian Cohen, Scott Goldsmith, Lynn Johnson and Martha Rial. The photos tell the complex story of Marcellus Shale gas drilling in Pennsylvania. For the better part of a year, the six traveled across the Pennsylvania, meeting people, listening to and recording their stories – farmers, homeowners, tenants, medical practitioners, engineers, legal professionals, casual protesters, full-blown activists, people who feel they have benefited from gas drilling, people who feel they have been victimized, and people whose lives have been forever changed, for better and for worse.
• Tuesday, March 25, 7 to 9 p.m. Lecture on “The Science of Shale Gas: Geology, Seismology and Environmental Impacts” by Ray Beiersdorfer, YSU professor of Geology, in Moser Hall Room 2000.
• Wednesday, March 26, 7 to 9 p.m. Lecture on “The Science of Shale Gas: The latest evidence on leaky wells, methane emissions, and implications for policy” by Anthony R. Ingraffea, Dwight C. Baum Professor of Engineering at Cornell University, in Moser Hall Room 2000.
• Thursday, March 27, 5 to 9 p.m. Gallery Talk/Gallery Reception with Brian Cohen, photographer and project director of the Marcellus Shale Documentary Project in Bliss Hall Room 2300.
• Friday, March 28, 4 p.m. The 90-minute documentary “Triple Divide” will be screened at the YSU McDonough Museum of Art. The film features exclusive interviews from the industry, experts, and Americans suffering in the wake of shale gas development. Academy Award-nominated actor Mark Ruffalo co-narrates the film that is co-directed by journalists Joshua Pribanic and Melissa Troutman. The film is a project by PublicHerald.org, a Pennsylvania based nonprofit organization.
• For more information, call the YSU Art Department at 330-941-3627.

One photo in the MSDP Exhibit by photographer Noah Addis shows three-year old Skylar Sowatskey, posing near her home in Connoquenessing Township (Butler County), PA. Her mother claims that their water was contaminated after several Marcellus Shale gas wells were drilled in the area between 2010 and 2011. The family plans to move from their home, where they have lived for 16 years.