Local pipeline activists stand with Standing Rock

By Anya Tikka
MILFORD — The ongoing protest at the Standing Rock Indian Reservation in North Dakota over the Dakota Access Pipeline bring to mind among local activists recent standoffs over pipelines, hydrofracking, and the compressor station here at home.
On Nov. 15, a Global Action Day, the Damascus Citizens for Sustainable Development staged a water rally on the Narrowsburg Bridge in support of Native Americans at Standing Rock. About 50 people took part in the pouring rain.
Barbara Arrindel, Damascus Citizens director, and Josh Fox, a nationally known activist originally from Milanville and "Gasland" filmmaker, explained why it's important to support resistance efforts in other parts of the country.
“We had the rally to express solidarity with the people at the Standing Rock," Arrindel said. "Similar events took place across the country. Native Americans are exerting their rights of land. They’ve been subjected to violation of treaties.”
She quoted protestant pastor Martin Niemoller, who spent the last years of the Nazi regime in a concentration camp and regretted not speaking up for others earlier.
“It’s all about water in a very basic way," she said. "The pipeline was moved from above the town of Bismarck upstream because the residents feared it would contaminate their water. So they moved it to the Native American Reservation into lands that are in Standing Rock Sioux tribes' treaty lands (Treaty of 1851) and sacred sites, knowing it would damage their water.”
Her sign at the bridge said, “NO DAPL — Not safe for Bismarck — Not safe for Standing Rock — or for the World climate.”
“We had a water rally standing with the Standing Rock Indian Reservation," said Fox. "We are the people who are protecting the Delaware River that provides water for about 16 million people. The Missouri River provides water for about 17 million people, so it’s a similar situation.
“The fight against fracking in the Delaware River Basin fired up people all across the world. The battle has intensified, and we have a very strong movement all across the world against fracking.”
Crossing the LackawaxenAlex Lotorto of Milford, Shale Gas Program Coordinator for the Energy Justice Network, sees similarities between the Dakota Access Pipeline and local pipelines, like the ones built locally by Tennessee Gas and Columbia.
“Shale oil and shale gas are both obtained using the controversial method of hydraulic fracturing, or 'fracking,' and pipelines are used to transport both,“ he explained.
When an oil pipeline breaks, he said, it will spill crude oil that contaminates water. And when there's a break in the gas transmission pipeline, like those built by Tennessee Gas or Columbia, “high pressure gas can ignite and explode," he said.
Lotorto said the risks to water are limited to the construction period. But gas pipelines cause different kinds of hazards, like those posed by the upgrades and construction of gas pipelines in Pike County in the works right now, he said.
“Next year, there is a proposal to install a third pipeline in the Tennessee Pipeline right-of-way from Wayne to Pike County called the Orion Upgrade Project," he said. "It will be crossing the Lackawaxen River.”
Lotorto said two pipeline construction methods are used to get across streams.
“When they cross streams and rivers with an open trench method, they build a gravel or timber road across the river, preventing boat liveries from using that section, and dig a trench directly in the river or stream bed," he said. "The other method they use, which is more expensive, is called Horizontal Directional Drilling, or 'HDD,' which involves boring a tunnel underneath a water body to avoid surface disturbance.”
Using the open trench method, he said, the clearing and construction in Lackawaxen caused a landslide in 2011 during Tropical Storm Lee.
"The Pike County Conservation District cited dozens of erosion and sediment violations against Kinder Morgan for that landslide and other failures," said Lotorto. "In 2013, the July floods during pipeline construction in Westfall Township caused a similar landslide into Cummins Creek that was also cited for violations."
Even HDD, the proposed method for the Dakota Access Pipeline to go under the Missouri River, is not foolproof, he said.
When crossing the Delaware and Susquehanna Rivers in 2013 with HDD, said Lotorto, "Kinder Morgan's contractors had two blowouts of drilling mud into wetlands in Montague and Wyalusing.”
The result was a toxic mixture dangerous for trout. And in the Missouri River, a drilling mud blowout or an oil spill from the pipeline would affect water quality there.
“The decision to cross at the reservoir is going to be made by the Army Corps of Engineers under the direction of the Obama administration, just like the decision to build the Tennessee and Columbia Pipelines across the Delaware River and its tributaries," he said.
He has no faith in their concern for the environment, as shown by their rulings.
“There is still a lawsuit being heard on appeal to the Supreme Court regarding the indigenous rights to the land," he said. "Unfortunately, the Obama-appointed judges that heard the case at the federal magisterial level and 3rd Circuit Court of Appeals ruled in favor of the Dakota Access Pipeline and against the Standing Rock Sioux. But, what do you expect from a U.S. federal government that committed a genocide against these people's ancestors and never made reparations for it?”