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.

West Virginia pipelines are driven thru very rough terrain

>>> Community interest report by S. Tom Bond, Lewis County, WV, September 20, 2018

I have been noticing a clearing along I-79 between Lost Creek and Quiet Dell for a few weeks. It goes across the highway from hilltop to hilltop in an East-West direction. Lately it turned into a pipeline, something I am interested in, so decided to trace it across country by driving other roads.

First I found it along the old road to Clarksburg just north of Mt. Clare. I stopped to talk to the two women dressed in work clothes with the highly visible vests the gatekeepers along highways wear. When I asked the name of the pipeline one of them told me it was “Fullflow.” When I checked that on the net, there was no such entry, very strange. I judged she had been “spoofing” me.

Next time I went to Clarksburg I drove out through Quiet Dell towards Philippi. At the bottom of the hill beyond the tiny town, it showed up again. There is a supply company just beyond that sells the kind of things they might need on the pipeline and knowing these people like to use local businesses to get local support, I went in. An innocent looking young woman was at the counter. I asked if the pipeline people bought stuff there. Yes they did. “Do they pay cash?,” I enquired. “No,” was the now hesitant answer. “What company’s check is it?,” I asked. At this point the answer was evasive, noncommittal. I thanked her and left the store.

On the way back to I-79, I stopped to enquire of the two male gatekeepers at the road. One lazy guy slumped in a chair said he “forgot” the name of the pipeline. (“Forgot who pays your wage,” I thought, “liar with your pants on fire.”) The Puerto Rician, being more polite by nature, went on to give some more complicated answer, which did not contain the name of the pipeline. By this time I suspected everyone connected with it had orders to not give the name.

I stopped at the bank at Lost Creek, about two miles South of the pipeline, on the way back home. The official at the bank said he had no idea what it was called, either, averring he wasn’t interested so long as it was not on him. This I judged this to be true by his tone, but that only increased the strangeness, because he almost surely is a Chamber of Commerce type. We talked further and he suggested I go to the DEP site on the net.

That site , toward the bottom, lists the Goff Connector Pipeline with a description:

The project will disturb approximately 285.9 acres of land for the installation of 20.26 miles of 24-inch steel natural gas pipeline in Harrison County West Virginia.

Using the CLICK HERE button shows (after a long wait for the ArcGIS map to come up) the line running from a compressor station on an old strip mine in Easternmost Harrison County, near where Harrison, Barbor and Taylor Counties come together, to a point near Reynoldsville, just south of Simpson Fork. It swings south along the route to cross I-79 where I found it. There are many little yellow lines off the big yellow line, presumably spurs to be built. The map also shows several more pipelines in other colors.

The compressor station, located at the Eastern end, near Barbour and Taylor, is described in a legal ad in an obscure Clarksburg newspaper aimed at the Business community as follows:

The proposed natural gas compressor facility project is located in Harrison County, WV and will include the construction of a 13.7 acre gravel pad, vehicular access entrances, and stormwater management controls. This site is the re-development of a former coal strip mine. Goff Connector LLC’s gathering operations at this facility will include compressor skids, a control building, dehydration equipment, and various other natural gas equipment. 0.5902 acres of PEM wetlands occurring on mine spoil will be filled with on-site soils and a gravel pad cap. The fill impacts to these wetlands will be mitigated via on-site wetland creation.

The company named in the publication is out of state, of course: Goff Connector LLC, 17806 IH-10 Suite, 300 San Antonio, TX 78257. It is a typical West Virginia development, out of state company, out of state money, out of state labor, and definitely out of state benefit and profit. A few local businessmen provide services and that is it. West Virginia mineral extraction! The damage is left here in WV, of course.

Having a name to work with, I googled “Goff Connector Pipeline.” Among other things I found a North American Oil and Gas Pipelines article entitled North American Pipeline Project Roundup: June 2018 which includes this item:

“C.J. Hughes Pipeline was awarded a contract by Fullstream Goff Connector LLC to install approximately 20.5 miles of 24-in. pipeline in Harrison County, West Virginia. Headquarters is Clarksburg, West Virginia. The superintendent is Jackie Berryman. Approximate start date: April 19.”

Elsewhere The Federal Reserve Bank of Richmond mentions it as one of six big projects adding over 600 miles in WV.

If we assign an approximate cost of $10,000,000 a mile, based on a recent survey, the cost would be in the neighborhood of $200 million for the project.

This financial magnitude is a construction that normally would get a lot of newspaper and TV attention. It involves big money, and is carried out insight of thousands of people. Why the silence? As times pass, resistance grows. Natural gas has too many problems: damage to property and environment encourages those hurt to organize; gas looks less attractive because of sensational explosions and the publicity they get; and the ever growing certainty of global warming with more and more research and the hurricanes. Since there is a problem with the failure of fracking companies to make money, even the sources of money for fracking adventures have second thoughts.

Payment for pipelines is relatively secure, because utilities (with guaranteed profit) sign up to have them built, but the structure is rotting from the bottom, the production end.

Time has come when the resistance is having an effect and the industry would like to quietly slide into place and guarantee as much profit as possible before the now clearly visible end.

Protection of our land is essential for all our people

Fundraiser by Greg Yost : “Help Robie Goins Fight A Pipeline”

Brothers Robie and Dwayne Goins of Robeson County are members of the Lumbee Tribe and live in Prospect, NC, a majority Native American community. Dwayne lives adjacent to a site where Atlantic Coast Pipeline, LLC has announced plans to build a gas metering and regulation station and a 350 ft. microwave tower (to control the station remotely). Prospect, already burdened with two older pipelines and associated gas infrastructure, is now slated to become the 36 inch, 1400 psi Atlantic Coast Pipeline’s official southern terminus.

Robie and Dwayne have filed suit in Robeson County challenging a conditional use permit issued to the company by the county a year ago. They’re not seeking a monetary reward, but only to ensure that existing zoning laws are followed and their rights as citizens are protected. They’re also attempting to uncover the nature and extent of communications between county commissioners and pipeline company representatives before the vote was taken.

The Atlantic Coast Pipeline, if built, will bring fracked gas from WV to NC. The pipeline’s many critics, however, cite studies showing that extra gas capacity is not needed in the region. They say that the project’s principal sponsors, Dominion Energy and Duke Energy, are simply seeking the federally guaranteed 14% rate of return on large pipeline projects. Like these critics, the Goins believe that investor profits do not justify taking private land, risking health and safety, raising consumer energy rates, or damaging the climate.

This lawsuit is important because it represents a historic Lumbee community’s last line of defense against the siting of a metering station–an intrusive and dangerous piece of industrial infrastructure — in a residential area by an aggressive energy behemoth in violation of the law.

But the suit is also a vital link in a much longer chain of resistance stretching 600 miles across similarly affected communities in Virginia and North Carolina all the way back to fracking wells at the start of the route in West Virginia. The Goins’ case could slow or stop ACP construction in Robeson County, but more than that, it could establish durable legal precedent in North Carolina in similar cases to reclaim local control from abusive corporations aided and abetted by misaligned state and federal regulatory agencies.

The fight to stop the Atlantic Coast Pipeline is happening now and Robeson County is on the front lines.

Please support Robie and Dwayne with a contribution to help pay for their legal representation. Court proceedings are already in motion and donations are needed immediately. Your donation in any amount will make a difference to the outcome of this case. Please help spread the word! When we win, we win together.

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NOTES: The Alliance To Protect Our People and Places We Live (APPPL) is conducting this campaign as a project of its Legal Education and Action Fund. More info at apppl.org .

APPPL’s fiscal sponsor is Community Roots (cmroots.com ). This means that Community Roots serves as the nonprofit 501(c)3 umbrella under which donations to APPPL may be considered tax exempt and through which APPPL contributions are channeled. Contributors will receive written acknowledgment of their donation and, if an email address is provided, regular updates on the status of the case.

All monies contributed to this campaign minus GoFundMe service fees and fiscal sponsorship fees go in their entirety to pay Robie and Dwayne’s legal bills. Raleigh attorney Sean Cecil of Edelestein & Payne is representing the Goins family.

Are you local to the Robeson County area? Then check out EcoRobeson and join the resistance! Go to EcoRobeson for meeting dates and times.

To watch a free 20 minute video on the multi-racial, environmental justice work in Robeson County which seeded this legal action, go to www.robesonrises.com.

Thank you to the Southern Environmental Law Center for their permission to use video of Robie. Learn more about the ACP’s route and people at SELC’s excellent website, www.southernenvironment.org/inthepath.

Jeff & Kerri Bond speak on fracking issues

From an Article by Julie Grant, StateImpact PA, May 4, 2018

As the shale gas industry has moved west to Ohio, people there are concerned about the impact that new well pads, pipelines, compressor stations and diesel truck traffic are having on the environment and the quality of life in their rural communities. What can they learn from what has happened in southwestern Pennsylvania?

After forty years, Kerri and Jeff Bond are moving from their small farm in Seneca Lake, Ohio. The rural hillsides have changed in recent years. The trees in their yard started to lose foliage and die last year. Their sheep, chickens and cats died, and their dogs developed tumors. The Bonds, themselves, say their family has developed ongoing rashes.

“We’ve never had any of this before, ever,” Kerri Bond says. “And we’ve lived area our whole lives. We wanted to retire here. We can’t. We’ve got to move.”

LISTEN: “Gearing Up for Frack Fight, Ohio Residents Turn to PA Experts”

The Bonds blame the gas development that’s been building up all around them – numerous well pads, and the Crum Compressor Station sits about a quarter mile over the ridge from their farm. The night time sky lights up orange the compressor station is vented. Then, there’s all the diesel trucks creating traffic problems and emitting pollution. “My community has been inundated with drilling and fracking, and waste,” she says.

Many people in the Bond’s community support the fracking industry because of the jobs and money it’s brought. So, she says she’s not popular when she complains about the drilling activity that lights up the hillside next to her house after the sun goes down.

“No one ever knows what’s going on out there,” she says. “It’s constant. My house shakes. It’s like trying to sleep next to a jet engine out there, every night.”

Jeff Bond took a photo after being woken up in the middle of the night by the fracking operation just beyond his farm. The glow in the background is from the Crum Compressor Station which sits about 2500 feet from the Bond family farm.

“TOGETHER WE CAN STAND STRONG”

Bond was one of about forty people who gathered recently at Salt Fork State Park in eastern Ohio for a meeting organized and funded by the Freshwater Accountability Project. It was an opportunity for residents to voice their concerns, and to hear from experts about the environmental, legal, and health issues of fracking.

Environmental activist Teresa Mills says people like Bond aren’t getting assistance from Ohio officials. “The industry has everything locked down,” she says. “So people feel helpless.”

This feeling of helplessness is why Mills helped organize this community meeting.

NGL to be collected from OH, WV & PA for foreign countries

From an Article by Bill Rettew, Daily Local News, West Chester, PA, March 19, 2018

EAST GOSHEN >> Sunoco Pipeline was found guilty March 13 in district court of exceeding allowable noise levels during pipeline construction.

District Judge Thomas Tartaglio, of District Court 15-1-02, found Sunoco guilty of exceeding permissible noise levels in a residential community on seven instances occurring between October 11 and December 15. The judge found in favor of Sunoco on two other dates.

The township financed a study by Pennoni, a noise testing service, to test at a site of drilling for the Sunoco Mariner East 2 pipeline, near the Giant Market, at the Hershey’s Mill subdivision.

Sunoco was fined $1,000, plus costs, for each of seven violations for exceeding township ordinances limiting noise levels to 60 dBA, between the hours of 7 a.m. and 10 p.m.

The testimony presented by the testing firm showed that Sunoco was well over the threshold of the ordinance. Testing showed, noise levels reached more than 70 dBAs at the residential development.

Sunoco has attempted to remediate the situation by placing sound barriers at the site.

Township Supervisor Marty Shane said if Sunoco chooses it might appeal to the Court of Common Pleas. Depending on the outcome, either side might then appeal to Commonwealth Court.

“We had worked closely with Sunoco during the entire process,” Shane said. “It’s unfortunate that we had to cite them for the noise violations. “Our residents have been very patient; however, they are beginning to run out of patience.”

When asked for comment, Sunoco spokesman Jeff Shields said that Sunoco Pipeline’s policy is to not comment on pending legal matters.

Plans call for the now-under-construction Sunoco Mariner East 2 pipeline to stretch 350 miles from Marcellus Shale deposits in West Virginia, Ohio and Pennsylvania to the former Sunoco Refinery in Marcus Hook, Delaware County. The pipeline would carry highly volatile liquids within feet of senior care centers, schools and homes, through densely populated Delaware and Chester counties.

The Pennsylvania Senate Environmental Resources and Energy and Consumer Protection and Licensure Committees will hold a joint public hearing on pipeline safety, Tuesday, March 20 at 11 a.m.

The hearing will take place in Hearing Room No. 1 of the North Office Building in Harrisburg.

Mariner East 2 goes thru farmland & suburbs

Powhatan Point is across the Ohio River from Marshall County, WV

From an Article by Shelley Hanson, Wheeling News-Register, February 18, 2018

Powhatan Point, OH — Debris must be cleared from the site of a well pad explosion before work can begin to cap a leaking natural gas well in Powhatan Point, XTO spokeswoman Karen Matusic said Saturday.

Matusic said people within a 1-mile radius of the well site still are not allowed back in their homes. She did not have an estimate regarding when the well might be capped. Air and water in the area still are being monitored for methane, but Matusic said the levels have not been found to be harmful to people or animals.

“Today we’re basically getting ready for our well control crew,” she said, noting the company Cudd Energy Services will conduct the work. Matusic described Cudd as the “premiere” well control company, adding that is why XTO chose to hire that firm.

According to its website, “the Cudd family of companies offer a broad range of specialized oilfield services and equipment to businesses engaged in the exploration and production of oil and natural gas worldwide. Cudd Energy Services experienced professionals will design a solution, provide the engineering, and mobilize the resources required to safely execute the planned objective in both onshore and offshore environments. Services include stimulation, coiled tubing and e-coil, hydraulic workover, nitrogen, industrial nitrogen, slickline, braided line, electric line, special service, water management, and well control.”

Images and video from a drone are being used to give workers a better look at the site.

Matusic said no one was injured during the Thursday explosion, and XTO wants to keep it that way. That’s why the debris, such as a damaged crane, must be cleared before an attempt at capping the well can begin.

“Today the state director of the DNR and Ohio EPA were here visiting operations headquarters and looking at the drone footage,” Matusic said Saturday.

Matusic said when the explosion occurred workers were in the middle of the completion phase, which means the site already had been drilled and fracked and was being prepared for production. Earlier this week, officials said the work was being done on a fourth well on the Schnegg pad, located along Cats Run Road.

After the well is capped, Matusic said work will begin to try and figure out what went wrong.

She noted the Powhatan site is the first well that XTO has had blow in Appalachia. She said she was not sure how long the process to get it capped might take, adding she had not been involved in similar situations in other parts of the country.

Matusic said XTO will continue to pay for displaced residents’ hotel bills, along with reimbursing them for items, such as toilet paper, that they have had to purchase while away from home.

Local officials, including those with the Belmont County Emergency Management Agency and Powhatan Volunteer Fire Department, could not be reached for comment on Saturday.

Ohio River Islands -- National Wildlife Refuge

Ohio River in Marshall, Wetzel and Pleasants Counties Targeted in Proposal

From an Article by Casey Junkins, Wheeling Intelligencer, August 26, 2014

Gov. Earl Ray Tomblin believes leasing several miles worth of mineral rights located beneath the Ohio River for Marcellus and Utica shale drilling for at least a 20 percent share of the royalties will provide the state a financial windfall without disturbing the environment.

The West Virginia Division of Natural Resources wants a driller to pay at least 20 percent of production royalties for extracting minerals beneath the Ohio River.

A legal notice indicates the Division of Natural Resources – which is an arm of the Department of Commerce – is seeking bids for drilling into the oil and natural gas producing formations underlying the Ohio River in Marshall, Wetzel and Pleasants counties. Secretary of Commerce Keith Burdette is a member of Tomblin’s cabinet.

“The proposed development is in the best economic interests of the state and will not unreasonably disrupt use and enjoyment of the Ohio River or the division’s opportunities to develop other mineral interests in the area,” Tomblin stated in a letter to DNR Director Frank Jezioro.

Drilling is prevalent in Marshall, Wetzel and Pleasants counties, where firms may bid for the mineral rights by the September 25th application deadline. Officials will open the bids at 1 p.m. September 26th (Friday).

Tomblin’s letter states he wants a driller to proceed without deducting production costs from the state’s revenue. In many drilling contracts, the company is allowed to reduce payments to the property owner by making deductions for certain costs associated with getting wells online.

“The lessee shall be liable for royalty payments on mineral interests lost or wasted because of negligence or failure to comply with the lease or the law,” Tomblin added.

In addition to the 20 percent royalty, state officials are seeking a per-acre lease payment, as the procurement document states the contract will go to the highest bidder.

Any potential driller would likely reach the minerals by horizontal drilling, as the company could set up a rig about one mile from the river. Contractors can drill more than one mile deep before turning the bit horizontally to reach the oil and natural gas beneath the river.

NOTE: Drilling for oil & gas under the Ohio River, now being promoted by the Governor of West Virginia, is a flagrant act of disregard for the people, for the natural environment and for the lands along the River.   This is an idea that has not been explored with the people or the Legislature.  The federal government has not examined this question to see whether there will be impacts for other states and the natural environment.  One can assume that the oil and gas industry has walked into the Governor’s office and said, this is what we want to do!

< P.S. Let’s talk about earthquakes for a start!  Also, drilling and fracking above or near the Ohio River will result in hundreds of acres of disturbed land,  toxic chemical leaks, increased water pollution run-off, contaminated storm water, as well as significant air pollution from diesel trucks, pumps and/or compressors, gas leaks and flares.  The chances of fires, explosions, fish kills, worker injuries, and public health exposures are very real. >

Contact the Governor:  Gov. Earl Ray Tomblin, Office of the Governor, State Capitol, 1900 Kanawha Blvd. E.,  Charleston WV 25305