Community Activists In Virginia Fight Gas Pipeline & Environmental Injustice

Community activists in Virginia are continuing their fight against a non-viral public health threat, E&E reports. The already-behind-schedule and over-budget Mountain Valley Pipeline would transport gas 303 miles from West Virginia to southern Virginia and potentially an additional 75 miles into North Carolina. A compressor station for that “Southgate Extension” would be located less than half a mile from two other similar facilities and local advocates say the pipeline’s developers have failed to prevent disproportionate harm from the compressor station on residents.

Last year, a federal appeals court blocked a similar compressor station for the now-defunct Atlantic Coast Pipeline for failing to account for the harm that the compressor’s pollution would inflict on the nearby mostly-Black Union Hill community. Elizabeth Jones and her husband Anderson, who live on land home to generations of Anderson’s Black and Native American ancestors and have already had a swath of their land seized for the Mountain Valley pipeline, hope to block it as well. “They have taken part of our century-old farmland,” Elizabeth said. “This so-called project has been doing nothing but undermining our property values, our health,” she added. “And we need to do something about it.”

Source: E&E $

terrific story by @niina_h_farah on “glaring similarities” btw this case & @FriendsofBucki1 4th Circuit fight to ensure thorough review of a project’s EJ impacts.

Va. pipeline tests landmark environmental justice ruling https://t.co/XAUDXFQSRN via @EENewsUpdates

— Lisa Caruso (@caruso_cbf) June 14, 2021