Above Photo: From patch.com
15 people were arrested in D.C. as they demanded the senator stop Spectra from continuing its expansion project.
CORTLANDT, NY — Opponents of the Algonquin Pipeline expansion projects demonstrated Wednesday at Senator Schumer’s offices in Peekskill, Rochester, Binghamton, Albany, Long Island, Buffalo, Syracuse, and Washington DC.
Organizers said they estimated 250 people gathered and heard from health professionals, indigenous leaders and residents of the Hudson Valley where the natural gas pipeline is being built.
They also said 15 people were arrested after refusing to leave Schumer’s Washington, D.C. office unless Schumer took action.
Several groups read a statement from Courtney Williams, a Peekskill resident whose home and children’s school is in the blast radius of the pipeline. “Senator Schumer, I speak on behalf of the hundreds of people at every one of your offices in New York and the millions threatened by this pipeline: You must stop making excuses for your inaction. Spectra’s AIM Pipeline is a man-made and entirely avoidable disaster in the making and you have the power to stop it!”
Spectra’s plan to enlarge the pipeline, which runs from New Jersey to New England, includes three projects so far.
- The AIM Project involves the construction, installation, operation, and maintenance of 37.4 miles of pipeline and related facilities in New York, Connecticut, and Massachusetts. Most of the pipeline installation will replace existing pipeline with larger diameter pipeline.
- Atlantic Bridge includes replacement of another 10.9 miles of existing pipeline with new larger diameter pipe.
- Access Northeast includes the expansion of approximately 125 miles of the existing Algonquin pipeline system, plus new lines and facilities, including a new Liquified Natural Gas Storage Facility in Acushnet, Massachusetts.
Pipelines are prone to accidents, organizers allege, saying that according to the Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration (PHMSA), there were roughly six pipeline incidents every week in the United States in 2015, and the number of pipeline incidents is increasing with newer pipelines. And Peekskill is not the only part of the state that is being overrun by fracked gas infrastructure, they said.