From the great folks at the Chesapeake Climate Action Fund (CCAN):
Landowners Announce “Encampment” in Bath County to Stop Dominion’s Atlantic Coast Pipeline and Preserve Unique Old Growth Forest
Hundreds of activists expected as part of the “No Pipeline Summer” camp on the Limperts’ property.
Action represents the newest “front line” against radical fracked-gas pipelines, builds on recent court-ordered delay of MVP pipeline
RICHMOND, VA – Virginia landowners Bill and Lynn Limpert today announced a summer-long “encampment” on their property in Bath County dedicated to stopping Dominion Energy’s proposed Atlantic Coast Pipeline. The proposed pipeline right of way would destroy hundreds of old growth trees — some as old as 300 years — on the Limperts’ land and construction would decapitate much of a 3000-foot-long ridge on their land.
B-roll footage links here and here. Photos available upon request.
The encampment — called “No Pipeline Summer: Camp to Save the Limperts’ Land” — is expected to draw hundreds of short- and long-term campers who will maintain a continuous presence on and along the proposed route of Dominion’ Atlantic Coast Pipeline for the duration of the summer and into the fall. The protest is expected to draw concerned citizens from across the state and region, including high-profile public leaders and national celebrities, to this exceptionally iconic landscape directly in the path of Dominion’s unneeded and harmful fracked-gas pipeline.
“We are happy to invite folks to our property on beautiful Miracle Ridge,” said Bill Limpert, property owner in Bath County who is hosting the encampment. “Together we will share the beauty of our old growth forest, walk under the ancient trees, and learn about the devastating negative impacts that the Atlantic Coast Pipeline would bring to us, our neighbors, and tens of thousands of others on or near the proposed route.”
The Limperts were joined by leaders of the Chesapeake Climate Action Network, which is helping to coordinate the encampment and also involved in lawsuits against the Atlantic Coast and Mountain Valley pipelines.
Last week, the Fourth Circuit issued a stay of a crucial permit that the Mountain Valley Pipeline needs to build across waterways. Anne Havemann, Senior Counsel at the Chesapeake Climate Action Network, stated: “The problem is that Mountain Valley cannot comply with a West Virginia condition that requires stream crossings to be completed in 72 hours, rendering the entire permit issued by the Army Corps of Engineers invalid. Like MVP, the Atlantic Coast Pipeline can’t cross certain streams within 72 hours, calling its same Army Corps permit into question. Campers who travel to Bath County this summer will call on the Army Corps and other decision makers to suspend these invalid permits and take a closer look at the impacts. We’re confident a full review will lead them to conclude that there simply is no safe way to build the Atlantic Coast Pipeline.”
“Ultimately all of us are at risk from the catastrophic impacts of climate change that this and other natural gas pipelines would bring, so it is important to come together to draw attention to what is at stake,” said Limpert.
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