Movement to Stop Pipeline Intensifies with Public Outcry
More than 100 elected officials, environmental activists and local residents banded together Sunday at Riverfront Green in Peekskill to demand federal and state agencies listen to the concerns raised about the health and safety threats of the Algonquin Incremental Market (AIM) pipeline expansion to more than 20 million people in the region.
Braving high winds and frigid temperatures, the rally, organized by several grassroots environmental organizations, also addressed hydrofracking and the pending relicensing of the Indian Point nuclear power plants, but the focus centered on the pipeline project, which is already under construction in the area.
“Democracy lives and you are proof of that,” Paul Gallay, president of Riverkeeper, shouted to an enthusiastic, bundled up, sign-waving crowd. “We tried reasoning with FERC (Federal Emergency Regulatory Commission). We will not stop until this craziness is stopped.”
Spectra Energy is replacing 26-inch diameter methane gas pipeline with 42-inch pipeline. A portion of the pipeline runs within 1,500 feet of Indian Point’s nuclear reactors and 105 feet from critical safety infrastructure at the Buchanan facility. On March 3, 2015, FERC issued an operating certificate for the pipeline, basing part of its approval on an assessment from the federal Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) that the pipeline posed no risk to Indian Point.
“Nowhere else in the country is a pipeline placed this close to a nuclear power facility,” said Barbara Hough of Food and Water Watch. “We need a clean energy revolution.”
With the construction of the pipeline on track, Nancy Vann, a member of the Stop the Algonquin Pipeline (SAPE) who once blocked the cutting of trees on her Buchanan property by refusing to budge, emphasized opponents should now direct their attention to the natural gas that would be pumped through the pipeline at a rapid rate.
“The environmental damage to this area has already been done,” said Vann, who noted 23 pipelines were under construction or being planned in the Northeast. “This movement has been building and building.”
Paul Moskowitz, a nuclear physicist from Yorktown, said Spectra should be held accountable for refusing to address the existence of cancer-causing materials in the pipeline.
“This is dangerous stuff,” he said. “The fact that they don’t want to talk about it proves to me that it’s a real problem.”
On hand lending their support to the activists where state Assemblywoman Sandra Galef (D/Ossining), Peekskill Mayor Frank Catalina, Peekskill Councilwoman Kathy Talbot, Cortlandt Councilwoman Debbie Carter Costello and Ossining Supervisor Dana Levenberg.
“Today is an example of your courage,” Galef said. “We are never going to give up. There is going to be a win at the end of the day.”
Earlier in the week, advocates and landowners from four states filed a federal appeal to the pipeline following FERC’s refusal of a request for a rehearing.
“We’ve been raising valid concerns about this project since 2013, but when a captive agency like FERC is making the decisions and then reviewing its own conclusions it’s difficult to obtain a fair hearing,” Vann said.
Meanwhile, ResistAIM, a coalition resisting construction of Spectra Energy’s Algonquin Incremental Market (AIM) gas pipeline through New York, announced last week it will be holding a day of activation and resistance, called The Say NO Say YES Fest, on Saturday, April 16, at the Paramount Hudson Valley in Peekskill.
ResistAIM’s fundraising event includes activities and a show for children, the screening of a new film “How to Let Go of The World (And Love All the Things Climate Can’t Change)” and an activist-oriented show with music and comedy in the evening.
Rick has more than 40 years’ experience covering local news in Westchester and Putnam counties, running the gamut from politics and crime to sports and human interest. He has been an editor at Examiner Media since 2012. Read more from Rick’s editor-author bio here. Read Rick’s work here: https://www.theexaminernews.com/author/pezzullo_rick-writer/