The holidays are considered a great time for slipping in major infrastructure projects (it's a tradition for FERC to drop 1000-page Environmental Impact Statements, or for projects to get signed off while they think no one is looking). But we're on our toes and we're keeping the pressure up on the DEC and Governor Cuomo to deny the 401 Water Quality Certificate that is the last piece of paper the builders of the Constitution Pipeline desire. If they don't get it soon the window will close on their opportunity to start clear-cutting forests (restrictions on the timing exist due to migratory bird laws).
What needs to happen?
Call, write and email the governor and the new DEC Commissioner RIGHT NOW! These next two days before New Years are crucial. Here's how to do that: CLICK HERE.
Why is this important?
Because lives and livelihoods hang in the balance. A large swatch of land and the communities in the path of this pipe will be subject to multiple harms: the pollution from compressor stations; the risks from mud slides and flooding after forests are clear cut; the destruction of clear, cold streams that are trout habitats and a foundation of the local economy, just to name a few. Perhaps the best illustrations of the issues are these personal stories, of families whose property has been taken by eminent domain for the private profit of this company.
Photos and text developed by Stop the Pipeline and People, Not Pipelines
The Hubert Family
This is Diana and Phil Hulbert and their granddaughters Rebecca, Michaela and Dakota by their home in East Meredith, New York. Diana and Phil have lived here in the northwest Catskills since 1972. This year, the Constitution Pipeline Company used eminent domain to obtain permanent easements across their property.
Here’s how Phil describes his family’s situation: “FERC (the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission) granted easements for construction of this pipeline across our property. If the pipeline is built, portions of wooded land next to our home will be clear-cut. Making matters worse, a second proposed pipeline would cross even closer to our house, taking more of our forestland. Our quality of life and that of many other New Yorkers will be forever altered during and after construction of this 124-mile-long pipeline. Where is the wisdom in turning pristine land and watersheds into permanent corridors for moving fracked gas—a nonrenewable resource—out of the country?”
Jeff Strassenburg
This is Jeff Strassenburg and his golden retriever, Ixtapa (aka Pumpkin), in Sidney, NY. They're standing next to the solar panels that power their house and car. If built, the large-diameter "Constitution" and NED pipelines will run a few thousand feet from their home, transporting fracked gas under high pressure from Pennsylvania to Canada for export.
Bruce Baxter
This is Bruce Baxter, one of many enterprising landowners along the route of the proposed “Constitution” pipeline. He has made a living growing Christmas trees on his property in Bainbridge, NY, for more than 30 years. He also has plans to raise trout year-round using a solar-heated aquaponics system—an endeavor that would create several permanent local jobs. The pipeline company claims it would bring seven jobs to central New York. In fact, it would take more jobs than it brings. Their pipeline would ruin Bruce’s tree-farm business and render his new trout business impossible.
“Constitution boasts that construction jobs will be created for a few short months when the pipeline is built,” says Bruce. “But no one should get a temporary job by stealing another American’s land and putting them out of business.”
The pipeline company has been granted the power of eminent domain to take Bruce's land for this fracked-gas export line.
Dan and LJ Brignoli
This is Dan and LJ Brignoli standing on the route of the proposed “Constitution” pipeline, next to their home in Davenport, New York. If built, the pipeline would clear-cut more than 700,000 trees, including hundreds just uphill from Dan and LJ’s house. Here in the flood-prone northern Catskills, the couple has seen their road destroyed three times by raging floodwaters in the past decade. Without tree roots to hold the soil in place, the next big flood would be catastrophic.
In exchange for situations such as the Brignolis’, you’d think New York might be getting a lot of cheap gas. However, the majority of the fracked gas in this 30-inch-diameter line would travel from Pennsylvania to Canada and beyond. Even more unbelievable: The pipeline company has been awarded the right of eminent domain to take the Dan and LJ’s land for this export project.
“Eminent domain is defined as the power of government to take private property for a bona fide public need,” says Dan. “In the case of the Constitution pipeline, eminent domain is being used for corporate GREED instead of public need.”
Alicia Pagano
This is Alicia Pagano with her daughter, Janice, on their property in Sidney, NY. The 30-inch-diameter “Constitution” gas pipeline is slated to cross the creek behind them about a quarter mile downstream. Alicia was born and raised in these foothills of the western Catskills. In her 86 years, she has lived through several “100-year” floods, including three in the past decade alone.
"Water is a powerful thing," she says. "With every flood, Carrs Creek transforms from a quiet stream to a raging torrent. It pushes heavy rocks, huge trees and anything else in its way as it careens toward the Susquehanna River. It's even taken large swaths of our land. In a competition with the creeks up here, pipelines will always lose."
Chris and Tim Camann
This is Chris and Tim Camann with their dogs, Amelia (left) and Munchkin, at home in Sidney, New York. Nearly four years ago, the Constitution Pipeline Company informed the couple they would be installing a 2½-foot-diameter high-pressure pipeline next to their home and through their field and forestland. The company claimed it would bring cheap gas to New York and the northeast. In fact, this proposed pipeline is slated to take fracked gas from Pennsylvania through New York State to Canada for export, which will lead to higher prices here.
The company behind this scheme acquired the necessary portion of the Camanns’ land using eminent domain. Chris and Tim will still be required to pay taxes on land they can no longer use while the pipeline company profits from it for years to come.
Despite the unjust use of eminent domain and the danger of the massive pipeline, what devastates Chris and Tim most is how it will damage the woods and creek behind their home where they walk with their dogs every day. The couple has cared for their mature hillside forest for more than 25 years. Heavy machinery will clear-cut through these woods, leaving a treeless corridor at least 110-feet wide. Crews will bulldoze and excavate through the creek and its tributaries and blast through the rocky terrain of the Catskill foothills, forever degrading the forest-and-stream ecosystem.
