Calling all people who drink water (that’s you)!

Unless we act soon, Governor Terry McAuliffe is about to give final state approval to two massive and destructive pipelines for fracked gas across Virginia. You’ve heard a lot about the Atlantic Coast Pipeline and the Mountain Valley Pipeline. But right now, the only thing stopping their pending construction is YOU!

Join the “People’s Pipeline Protest” on September 12th, 13th and 14th at one of seven Department of Environmental Quality offices across Virginia. 350 Loudoun along with a coalition of Northern Virginia groups will be organizing for the office closest to NoVA; Woodbridge. For three days we’ll gather in seven Virginia cities to say “NO PIPELINES!” to Gov. McAuliffe and his DEQ. Join farmers, faith leaders, students and more as we sing, pray, speak, and chant until our voices are heard outside seven DEQ offices.

Spanning more than 1,000 miles, the Atlantic Coast and Mountain Valley Pipelines would take the tops off 38 miles of mountain ridges in Virginia and West Virginia. They would seize private property across 18 Virginia counties and threaten drinking water all along their routes. They would also trigger global warming pollution equal to building 45 new coal-fired power plants.

Yet Governor McAuliffe calls the pipelines “environmentally safe” and his DEQ agency is ready to approve them despite widespread public alarm and opposition. The DEQ has utterly failed its legal responsibility to make energy companies Dominion Energy and EQT Midstream prove that water quality will not be harmed by these pipelines. The agency has repeatedly misled the public, and its public hearings on the pipelines over the summer were a sham. Citizens’ requests for the agency to fully consider threats to water quality were utterly ignored.

Now it’s time for the “People’s Pipeline Protest.” For three days – September 12th, 13th, and 14th – we’ll gather at lunchtime outside of the Governor’s seven environmental offices in the cities of Richmond, Virginia Beach, Abingdon, Roanoke, Harrisonburg, Glen Allen and Woodbridge. We’ll sing, speak, pray and chant until our voices are heard.

Our goal is to stop these pipelines by demanding — once again — that Gov. McAuliffe simply exercise his legal duty under the Clean Water Act. The Governor and his DEQ have responsibility under this water-protection law to make companies prove that water quality standards will be met if the pipelines are built. But the DEQ has refused to do this. The agency has barely examined the harm that will result from crossing over a thousand Virginia streams and blasting away miles upon miles of steep mountain slopes. In short, McAuliffe and the DEQ have put their thumbs on the scale in favor of approving the pipelines, remaining irresponsibly tolerant of the public harm that will follow. The goal of our September protests is simply to ask the Governor to fulfill his responsibilities under the Clean Water Act. New York State has stopped two fracked-gas pipelines this way. Gov. McAuliffe must stop the Mountain Valley and Atlantic Coast Pipelines now!

Please join us for the People’s Pipeline Protest in Woodbridge on September 12th, 13th and 14th from noon to 1 PM each day.

Hope to see you in September. We’ve never needed you more.

THE PEOPLE’S PIPELINE PROTEST: THREE DAYS OF ACTION ON SEPTEMBER 12, 13 and 14: WHAT’S THE PLAN?

Day 1: Tuesday, September 12th – Lunchtime rally at noon at all seven of DEQ’s offices throughout Virginia.
Local citizens will attend lunchtime rallies on the public sidewalks outside the DEQ offices in Virginia Beach, Roanoke, Harrisonburg, Richmond, Abingdon, Glen Allen, or Woodbridge. Our top message: “Governor, we’ve been asking you for three years to do the right thing and reject these pipelines. Now we ask you to take 48 more hours to deeply reflect on your responsibility to protect human life and the environment BEFORE deciding to harm our state and your legacy forever.” We expect scores of people at each protest with key local leaders speaking to the issues. We’ll have banners and signs and invite local media.

Day 2: Wednesday, September 13th – Faith leaders and spiritual elders pray for McAuliffe at noon at all DEQ offices.
We have interest from spiritual leaders of many faiths, including Christian, Muslim, and indigenous leaders who will offer prayers and meditations for the Governor as he makes a decision of historic consequences very soon. Some venues will include sacred and ancient water ceremonies.

Day 3: Thursday, September 14th – Peaceful “sit in” at noon at all DEQ offices.
In a culminating appeal, a group of peaceful leaders – led by farmers and landowners affected by the pipelines — will sit silently across the office entrances in a time-honored act of dignified protest.

SO MARK YOUR CALENDAR AND PLEASE COME TO ONE OR ALL OF THE EVENTS ON SEPT. 12-14 IN WOODBRIDGE. We need your help. We need your voice.

KEY MESSAGES WE’LL WANT TO COMMUNICATE IN SEPTEMBER: Among the messages we’ll be emphasizing are these “PH3” headlines:

Political hypocrisy: Governor McAuliffe has embraced blatant double standards related to these fracked-gas pipelines. He has opposed drilling for fracked gas in Virginia because he thinks it’s a dangerous and unsafe drilling method for gas. Yet, by supporting the Atlantic Coast and Mountain Valley Pipelines, he offers direct support for mass-scale fracking across vulnerable communities in West Virginia. The pipelines will be filled with fracked gas from that state, and the Governor knows it. The Governor also says new jobs are his top priority, yet he is killing jobs, lots of Virginia jobs, by embracing and prioritizing high-pollution, low-labor fracked gas over jobs-intensive wind and solar.

Public health: Extensive data confirms widespread health threats from fracking and from fracked-gas pipelines. John Hopkins University confirms that birth outcomes are negatively affected when women live near drilling rigs. And the massive MVP and ACP would cross porous “karst” rock formations, threatening drinking water to farmers and communities across the state. Plus compressor stations for the pipelines will expose local communities to hazardous air pollution, including known carcinogens.

Planetary harm: The Governor condemns President Trump on climate issues and supports the Paris Climate Accord. But despite embracing a cap on carbon pollution from Virginia power plants – a good thing – the Governor, by supporting the MVP and ACP, is triggering the greenhouse gas equivalent of building 45 coal-fired power plants in Virginia due to CO2 and methane lifecycle emissions. If these pipelines move forward, Gov. McAuliffe will forever be remembered as the governor who practically doomed the state’s long-term efforts to meet the Paris Accord while deepening climate chaos, coastal flooding and economic harm from global warming.

Note on the Clean Water Act and DEQ: Throughout the regulatory process for the pipelines so far, the DEQ has focused on mitigating the harm these pipelines will inevitably cause. But mitigation is not enough to meet Clean Water Act requirements. McAuliffe’s DEQ has completely excluded waterbody crossings from its analysis, despite warnings from DEQ’s own scientists that construction could permanently alter streams. The agency won’t even consider the companies’ plans to control erosion and sediment until after it has certified the projects. Finally, the agency will not subject the pipeline companies to needed stormwater management controls. Read this important letter from the Dominion Pipeline Monitoring Coalition to learn more about the DEQ’s flawed process (http://pipelineupdate.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/07/DPMCLettertoGov.McAuliffe.7.25.17.pdf).