Police Give Mountain Valley Pipeline Protester Half Hour to Get Out of Her Tree

Police gave Red half an hour to get out of her tree. Numbers matter. Please show up if you can. Be calm and respectful. Listen to landowners. 8815 Poor Mountain Rd. Bent Mtn VA. Thank you.

Report from community member from yesterday:

“We are in Bent Mountain monitoring the progress of the Mountain Valley Pipeline as it crosses private properties. Unfortunately, there are no government agencies on the ground that monitor work, so we have to watch on our own to ensure no violations are made. The problem is that the Roanoke County police arrive (usually MVP calls them when they see us, despite the fact that we do not interfere with any progress), they claim to be “keeping the peace,” but they are actually simply flexing the muscles of MVP to try to make us go away. For example, today two people were arrested on Bent Mountain for “interfering,” despite the fact that they were well outside the Limits of Disturbance flagged by MVP themselves. The police cited a “conversation in the woods” with MVP that did not allow the people within a certain distance of the LOD – a rule that can be found nowhere in writing. This is very concerning. How can we feel safe and secure monitoring the work on landowner’s properties with a police force that can arrest us based on conversations we are not privy to and made-up rules?

This evening I was with landowners on their property on Bent Mountain where MVP is conducting an archaeological dig (contracting it out, actually). Because there is evidence that their land, including the section the proposed pipeline would run through, holds ancient Native American artifacts, FERC has required MVP to excavate the area. The landowner was on his land taking photos of the trees cut down today (in violation of a letter from FERC, but this is a whole other conversation). He was nowhere near the LOD set by MVP. The security crews called the police on him even after he identified himself as the landowner. When the police arrived, they were extremely discriminatory towards he landowners and their friends stating things such as that we were creating “civil disobedience” and that his officers could be “doing something else in the county.” We reminded the Sgt. that we did not call him, MVP did. He was extremely patronizing and told the landowner he would hear from them if any charges were made. The landowner was flabbergasted, as he had broken no laws.”