Above photo: From No Potomac Pipeline Facebook Page
Standing Rock to Hancock: CampOut to Stop the Potomac Pipeline
From Standing Rock to Hancock people are rising up to resist fracked gas pipelines in their community. Following a historic fight in Maryland, where we became the first state with gas reserves to legislatively ban fracking, we still find our communities our under attack by Big Oil and Gas. TransCanada the same company behind the Keystone Pipeline that spilled over 16000 gallons of crude oil on South Dakota land now wants to build a pipeline that would transport fracked gas between Pennsylvania and West Virginia. How are they going to do this? They are going to do it through the shortest and cheapest route by cutting through Maryland and underneath the Potomac River that serves as the source of drinking water for millions of residents in our state and the DC suburbs.
We are not going to allow this to happen.
That’s why we are forming a resistance to stop the Pipeline under the Potomac. During the summer months we will be calling on Governor Hogan to deny the permit that would allow TransCanada to drill under the Potomac in Maryland.
The Eastern Panhandle Protectors Weekend encampment is set for July 21st and will be held at the Antietam Creek Campground, a few miles south of Shepherdstown, WV. If you would like to take part in this camp-out please email me ASAP!
Background:
TransCanada, the same corporation behind the Keystone Pipeline, has proposed the Eastern Panhandle Expansion project, a pipeline which would run through Western Maryland. It would connect a TransCanada pipeline in Pennsylvania to a Mountaineer Gas line in West Virginia, and would travel through Maryland just west of Hancock.
While this pipeline would only span about three miles, it would endanger millions by crossing under two key bodies of water: the Potomac River and the C&O Canal. More than 6 million people downstream of the Potomac, including many Marylanders and all D.C. residents, rely on it as their primary source of drinking water. If the construction of this pipeline were to move forward, the drinking water of millions of people would be jeopardized.
Luckily, the pipeline can’t be constructed until Governor Hogan’s Department of the Environment signs off on the project under section 401 of the Clean Water Act, certifying that it will not negatively impact water quality in the state. We know that all pipelines are inherently dangerous. Join us in calling on Governor Hogan to deny the 401 certification for the pipeline under the Potomac!