It has been a difficult couple
weeks for the communities of the Upper Delaware River watershed, and beyond,
where the Tennessee Gas Pipeline Company has been cutting a path for its
Northeast Upgrade Project (NEUP).
Chainsaw gangs have been invading the forests, private properties and
communities in order to do the tree felling which is the first step in their
forced pipeline project.
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| Gifford Pinchot in the trees |
In response, residents have
been rising up – young and old – rural and urban. Protests, vigils, rallies, blockades, watch-dogging
the cutters, marches, as well as thousands of calls and emails to
decisionmakers, all have been a focused commitment of our
watershed community in order to protect the communities and mature forests
under attack by Kinder Morgan’s Tennessee Gas Pipeline Company. “Gifford
Pinchot”, carrying forth his family’s
honorable and long-standing commitment to protecting forests and trees, climbed
up into the trees, to valiantly challenge the tree cutters and protect what
piece of the forest he could. Eventually
the pipeline company forced him down – after 9 days. But his commitment to
protecting the trees is honorable.
Meanwhile strategic legal actions of the Delaware Riverkeeper
Network grind on, as does the ongoing effort to prevent the Army Corps from
issuing a freshwater wetlands permit the project needs.
More vocal and visible is
the ongoing effort to demand the Delaware River Basin Commission take the action it legally and morally should
with regards to the NEUP and all pipeline projects. Among the efforts building towards securing action by the DRBC, and focused on getting that action at their March 6th meeting were the following:
- On February 15 the Delaware Riverkeeper Network filed a hearing request – challenging the Executive Director’s determination that the DRBC would not review the TGP NEUP project for its cuts through the woods, wetlands and streams. (http://www.delawareriverkeeper.org/resources/Letters/DRBC_NEUP_Hrg_Reqst&Attach_2.15.13.pdf)
- On March 1, 67 organizations, religious, labor?, community and environmental, filed a renewed petition urging the DRBC to exercise its legal authority over all pipelines, including the 13 we know the pipeline companies are pursuing as well as those yet to come. (http://www.delawareriverkeeper.org/resources/PressReleases/Pipeline_Petition_3-01-2013.pdf)
- A letter was sent on March 1, demanding that the DRBC take action on these two requests at its March 6th meeting to be held in West Trenton – and made clear that a failure to act was a conscious choice not to act that would not be acceptable to the people. The pipelines are here and coming – a decision not to act is a choice to allow ongoing devastation and the forward march of the pipeline invaders. (http://www.delawareriverkeeper.org/resources/PressReleases/Cover_Petition_Submission_%20to_DRBC_3.1.2013.pdf)
Recall in December, when
there were similar but different pipeline requests that had been placed before
the Commissioners and they suddenly, with no opportunity for public comment, a
public hearing, and with no advance public notice whatsoever – suddenly voted
against taking action. We are not going
to make the same mistake of trusting that the DRBC will treat the public with
equity and fairness and give us an opportunity to be heard, in a timely
fashion, before they render decisions that hurt us. (For video to remind what happened:
And so on March 6 we are
asking you to come to the DRBC’s meeting and help us be heard before the
Commissioners take a vote, or before they end the meeting without addressing the
issue at all. Bring your friends, take off work, call in sick – join us for
this important day for our water, air and communities. We need you there.
People,
communities, woodlands, wetlands, streams and the Delaware River are being
hurt.
People
are taking action, thank goodness. But
we need you to join the effort, if you are not already engaged and we ask that
you get your friends engaged too.17 million people rely on the Delaware River
Basin for their water – we need more folks to speak out and stand up and you have
the power to make that happen – we don’t have the multi-million dollar budgets
of the fossil fuel industry but we do have our voices and bodies.
There are
4 ways you can help right now:
1) Sign
the Citizens Petition that we will submit on March 6th at the next DRBC meeting
& share it with your friends on Facebook: http://tinyurl.com/DRBC-Stand-Up
2) Take a
day and make your voice heard on this critical issue on March 6th at 12:15 in
West Trenton— speak directly to the DRBC Commissioners or help us pack the room
and support others who will be speaking: http://www.delawareriverkeeper.org/about/event.aspx?Id=333
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| Cuts as seen from the sky |
3) Send
an email to urge DRBC to take immediate action on the upriver pipeline
Tennessee Gas Pipeline Company/Kinder Morgan is imposing upon us. Our
neighbors up river are suffering and need our help to magnify their voice and
get DRBC to act today: http://www.delawareriverkeeper.org/act-now/urgent-details.aspx?Id=139
4) Sign
the Pledge of Protection to let decisionmakers know that you are among the
growing number of people willing and wanting to stand in defense of our River
and all the communities that depend upon it, its waters, watershed, streams and
irreplaceable ecosystems. http://www.protectdelriv.org
