The lone yellow pine that helped stop a giant

 

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Painting of the pine on the Winstead farm by Nathalie Worthington

By Catherine Cralle Jones, July 12, 2020

The Law Office of F. Bryan Brice, Jr.

On July 9, 2020, the Atlantic Coast Pipeline (ACP) dropped its two and a half year legal conquest to condemn land and cut down miles of trees in Halifax, Nash and Wilson Counties, North Carolina, including a lone pine on the Winstead Farm in Nash County. The dismissal of the five lawsuits by ACP comes in the wake of the announcement on July 5th that ACP’s partners, Dominion Energy and Duke Energy were pulling the plug on the project to build a 600-mile pipeline to transport natural gas from fracked shale fields in Pennsylvania, through West Virginia, Virginia, and across North Carolina from Northampton County to Robeson County. In its own way, that lone pine in Nash County helped to stop the project that seemed inevitable, especially after the US Supreme Court ruling on June 15th allowed the pipeline to cross the Appalachian Trail.

The lone yellow pine stands watch over the Winstead Farm in Nash County. Protected by Marvin Winstead’s mother decades before, the tree in 2018 became the bull’s eye target for the Atlantic Coast Pipeline as it sought to cut a more than 130-foot-wide path diagonally across planted fields and forest of the farm, taking 12 of the 70 acres that had been farmed by the Winstead family for almost 100 years and three generations.

Other landowners refused to bow to the threats. They could not offer their sacred lands for a project that would destroy miles of trees and wetlands and would support the buildout of an infrastructure dedicated to fossil fuel extraction and further speeding climate change.

After receiving authorization from the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) to move forward with construction, in January of 2018, ACP filed 29 federal condemnation lawsuits against North Carolina landowners seeking to take the easements they wanted and requesting to begin cutting down trees. One of those lawsuits took dead aim at the Winstead tree.

The tree did not stand alone to face the giant. Other landowners, environmental advocates, and community groups across West Virginia, Virginia and North Carolina also worked to stop the ACP. Communities organized, spoke out, and formed teams to monitor and help one another understand on-going and potential construction impacts. The Blue Ridge Environmental Defense League, The Allegheny Blue-Ridge Alliance, the Sierra Club, Appalachian Voice, Clean Water for N.C., and other groups helped to educate and empower landowners and residents. The Southern Environmental Law Center and other attorneys on behalf of landowners, river keepers and environmental groups, filed legal challenges to the FERC permit itself, and against the weak permits that ACP was able to obtain from federal agencies under the Trump administration. These legal efforts led to permits being vacated, an eventual stop work order from FERC, and a voluntary cessation of construction since December of 2018. Nevertheless, ACP continued to push forward to compel landowners to give up their land rights by force of law.

In March 2020, as the COVID-19 pandemic spread, ACP continued to press landowners into mediation and pressed them to allow an out-of-state appraiser to come onto their property and into their homes to prepare its expert reports on the value of their land. When stay-at-home orders were issued in North Carolina, Virginia, and Maryland (where the appraiser was from), landowners stood firm and denied ACP their request to access their land.

In mid-April, a federal judge in Montana reviewing the Keystone XL Pipeline struck down the Nationwide 12 Permit issued by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and relied on by Keystone to cross wetlands and streams from Canada to Texas. The order covered not only the Keystone Pipeline but all pipeline construction that relied on a Nationwide 12 Permit, including the ACP.

At 3 pm on Sunday, July 5, 2020, Dominion Energy and Duke Energy suddenly announced to the world, including its condemnation attorneys, that it was canceling the ACP. The companies noted that the estimated project costs, $4.5 billion at permitting, had grown to $8 billion, with a three-and-a-half-year delay and uncertainty remaining. Landowners, communities, and environmental groups began celebrating the unprecedented victory after a long six-year battle.

As a result of their resistance and the abandonment of the ACP, Celena and Robert Bissette will continue to enjoy the wetlands and woodlands on the edge of their Wilson County farm that would have been destroyed under the Nationwide 12 Permit, now under national challenge.

By raising their voices in opposition and refusing to negotiate, Valerie Williams and son, Travis Privott, can enjoy and continue to develop the spiritual sanctuary and retreat, farming operation, and eco-tourism opportunities on the Otto Williams Farm, with their family’s Halifax County legacy still intact.

By refusing to back down, Mrs. Normandy Blackman, on behalf of the Solomon Heirs, secured their legacy in the fields and woodlands of the Solomon Farm in Halifax County so that the descendants of freed slave, Artelia Scott Solomon, can now build homes and raise proud Americans.

Because of Marvin Winstead’s refusal to sell out his farm in exchange for dirty energy, the lone pine continues to stand watch over the Nash County Winstead farm.   

LEAGUE LINE DIRECTOR’S REPORT: The value of life or Knowing the price of everything and the value of nothing*

 

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~Louis A. Zeller, Executive Director

July 2020 

 

There is another global pandemic.  Like COVID-19, it is filling hospitals and causing deaths around the world.  Although its cause is not a virus, the illness it inflicts on the population can likewise be mitigated and even prevented with available and economical means, if only the necessary steps were taken to put an end to a ghastly calculus.   

 

Pollution. Air, water and soil contamination caused by industrial, commercial and transportation sources are responsible for 9 million deaths per year—triple that of AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria combined, and fifteen times the total of wars and other deadly violence worldwide.**

 This toll of human suffering is not solely an environmental issue; it is a public health, humanitarian, social justice and moral problem which demands our attention.  The means of reversing and correcting pollution-caused illness have been implemented in nations with the political will to do so.  Fifty years ago, a grassroots outcry helped to create the political consensus necessary to enact legislation on air pollution, water pollution, waste management and other controls badly needed in the United States.  These measures forced changes, ending business as usual.  However, we took our eye off the ball.  Today these sensible measures are in jeopardy. In the legal and technical analysis presented in Priceless:*

 “At the start of the 21st Century, the clock is starting to run backwards as laws and regulations protecting health, safety and the natural environment…are now under attack.  The attackers do not explicitly advocate pollution, illness and natural degradation; instead, they call for more ‘economic analysis.’”

 Such economic analyses are designed to favor the bottom lines of corporate persons over the well-being of human persons.  People seeking to protect their neighbors and families are confronted with vague claims of economic growth and jobs. The claims are often specious but crudely effective, and environmentalists are framed as being not-in-my-backyard or worse.  Never mind that job loss simply cannot be tied to environmental policy or regulations.

 According to the US EPA, financial estimates of reductions in death rates are tallied as the "value of a statistical life”; that is, the dollar amount a given number of people would pay to save one life in the group annually.  Here is the mathematical formula used to make annual adjustments in a given group:

Where:

0 = Original Base Year

T = Updated Base Year

Pt = Price Index in Year t

It = Real Incomes in Year t

Ɛ = Income Elasticity of VSL

 Although presented and described as a neutral formula for determining risk, the analysis ignores a fundamental truth.  Again, in Priceless:* “The basic problem with narrow economic analysis of health and environmental protection is that human life, health and nature cannot be described meaningfully in economic terms; they are priceless.”

 The reality, the moral dilemma, facing global society is that the so-called statistical person, the one-in-a-million whose life is cut short, is someone’s brother, sister, parent or child.  An act of violence which no one would accept as the price to be paid for weed-free lawns, electric lights or paved roads is no less abhorrent because it is calculated and methodical.  To know the price of something means little without comprehending its real value to others. It is to know nothing. 

 Sources - Director’s Report:

*Priceless: On Knowing the Price of Everything and the Value of Nothing, Frank Ackerman and Lisa Heinzerling, The New Press, 7/15/2005, ISBN-1565849817

**British medical journal, The Lancet, Commission on Pollution and Health, 2018;391: 462-512

 

Welcome BREDL Summer 2020 interns!

 

We will be blogging individual articles from The League Line, our quarterly newsletter

Summer 2020 Issue: http://bredl.org/theleagueline/Summer2020.pdf

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Hi! My name is Addyson Rowe. I grew up in Nashville, Tennessee, and am now entering my senior year at Duke University. I have always had a passion for the environment and social justice, so I decided to focus my undergrad studies on environmental justice! I'm also studying education and Spanish alongside this. I'm hoping to pursue a career in environmental law so I can hold the government and companies accountable for their mistreatment of marginalized communities. I love spreading awareness for these issues through art, music, and educational curriculum, and I am excited for the opportunity to work on it in a new way with BREDL this summer!

Originally from Chapel Hill, NC, Anne Crabill is a rising junior at Duke University majoring in public policy. Outside of her coursework, Anne is an Alice M. Baldwin scholar and plays defense for the varsity lacrosse team. Anne is a lifelong North Carolinian and honored to work with BREDL to investigate the incidence of COVID-19 in environmental justice communities.

Gabrielle James was born and raised in Pembroke, NC. In 2019, she received her B.A. in Political Science and American Indian and Indigenous Studies with a minor in Social and Economic Justice. Gabrielle is a double Tarheel, currently entering her second year of law school at the University of North Carolina School of law. Gabrielle is a member of the Broun National Trial Team, the Pro-Bono Board, and a Dean’s Fellow. Gabrielle has always dreamed of attending law school and looks forward to one day using her J.D. as a tool for social change.  Gabrielle is currently working with BREDL and at the Law Offices of F. Bryan Brice, Jr. as a summer clerk aiding in our work against the Atlantic Coast Pipeline. Gabrielle is also serving as the Community Legal Project coordinator at the Compass Center for Women and Families.  In her free time, Gabrielle enjoys baking for her friends and family and spending time with her rescued cat, Hamilton.

George Jones 3rd is from Augusta, GA and is attending Paine College.  He recently completed his undergrad as a history major at Paine College. His future endeavors involve furthering his education to obtain a Master of Arts in Education as he begins his teaching career in August, 2020. His interests involve learning the relationship between the aboriginal people and the European colonizers and how their relationship shapes today’s society. In 2019, he worked as a BREDL intern with The Reverend Charles Utley to bring community awareness to the problem of heired property and how it is being “stolen” by major companies. His focus during the 2020 BREDL internship with his advisor The Reverend Charles Utley is getting the community and youth involved in Zero Waste and bringing awareness about recycling. His hobbies involve working with youth, sports, and spending time with family.

As a master’s student at Duke University, Nandagopal Suresh is currently pursuing his graduate studies in Engineering Management from the Pratt School of Engineering. Hailing from the tranquil and naturistic southern state of Kerala, part of the world’s second most populous country – India, with a population of over a billion people, Nandagopal is an international student who comes with a wealth of experience both professionally and personally. As a data analyst, he is currently studying the impacts of fine particulate matter – 2.5 on the health of people in the states that come under BREDL’s service area. Working in a grass roots organization like BREDL to help create value and draw insights aligns perfectly well with his career goals and aspirations.  An ardent humanitarian, an avid sports fan, a technology enthusiast and a nature-lover at heart, he believes in the principle of loving, giving and serving. He hopes to make this world a better place to live. 

Victory! Never give up – the Atlantic Coast Pipeline is dead

 

We will be blogging individual articles from The League Line, our quarterly newsletter

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By Therese Vick and Sharon Ponton

On Sunday afternoon, July 5, 2020, we got wonderful news. After 6 years, Dominion and Duke Energy had abandoned their plans for the unneeded, unwanted, and unjust Atlantic Coast Pipeline! First emotions, disbelief, distrust, then pure joy and jubilation. Tears, screams, dancing, laughter.

BREDL staff called, texted and emailed each other, we contacted our members who have been fighting on the frontlines, our allies, our families. You may have heard us holler from where you were. The victory belongs to the thousands of grains of sand thrown into ACP's gears, most of all to the

frontline communities that stepped outside their comfort zone to fight for environmental justice.

Impacted landowner Valerie Williams, from BREDL chapter Concerned Stewards of Halifax County, is one of those powerful grains of sand. After learning of the cancellation of the ACP, she declared, “It’s been a long and winding road to this victory, but when you have a determined people – with legacy, memory

and heritage – we must be committed to never give up. I want to thank all those involved in the project, and especially reinforce how important it is to all landowners that private property is still private property! And now we can breathe fresh air and drink clear water.”

Communities like Union Hill threw many of those grains of sand, standing tall throughout this fight to protect the historic community their freedmen ancestors settled after the Civil War. Kathie Mosley, who serves as chair of the BREDL chapter, Concern for the New Generation, said, "Dominion chose to ignore

the Union Hill community, but we stood up, never stopped fighting. They tried to divide our community, but we never, ever gave in. It feels good today to know we slayed the giant." John Laury, a long-time member of Concern for the New Generation and supporter of the pipeline fight, said in response to the cancellation of the ACP, "I am so elated it's hard to put into words. I can say

beyond a shadow of a doubt we knew we were fighting a giant, a giant that had many more resources than we could ever obtain. We also knew that we serve an unlimited God, a just and righteous God. We knew this project, itself, was destructive to our natural environment. We thank God today...to God be the glory."

Others, like Frank McManus from Nelson County, VA’s Protect Our Water chapter spoke eloquently: "I have been part of many victories in my life, but none could be more satisfying than the news that the proposed Atlantic Coast Pipeline has been cancelled. To be a small part of such a David defeats Goliath moment is something that makes the heart swell, for reward is not awarded to a single champion but to

everyone, for WE all share in this victory. For so many came together to form one voice, to push back against corporate America, saying, not this time. It feels really good."

Hands Across Our Land Action at James River Bridge at Nelson and Buckingham County Line  -  August 18, 2015 Photo Credit: Marion Kanour

We were ecstatic when we saw the Facebook notification “Atlantic Coast Pipeline Cancelled” pop up in our newsfeed. We immediately started planning how to make Dominion vacate landowner easements and replant the trees they had felled.

So many said that this pipeline was a "done deal." But we didn't give up. BREDL's founder, Janet Marsh used to say "We only have to last one day longer than they do."

We did!

BREDL welcomes Pittsylvania County Preservation League

 

We will be blogging individual articles from The League Line, our quarterly newsletter

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By Ann Rogers

During the first week of July, residents of Pittsylvania County, VA voted to form a new chapter of BREDL, named Pittsylvania County Preservation League. This chapter was formed for the purpose of stopping the Southgate extension of the Mountain Valley Pipeline, which is planned to connect to the southern terminus of the Mountain Valley Pipeline (MVP) at Transco Village in Chatham, VA, then run parallel to the existing Transco pipeline for 26 miles in Pittsylvania County.

As planned, the Southgate extension consists of approximately 73 miles of new 24-inch and 16-inch-diameter pipeline in Virginia and North Carolina, a new compressor station, and associated facilities. The Southgate is planned to terminate at a delivery point with Public Service Company of North Carolina, Inc. near the City of Graham in Alamance County, NC. The Project is designed to create 375,000 dekatherms per day of new pipeline capacity.

The Southgate received approval from Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) in the form of a certificate of public convenience and necessity, issued on June 18.

 

Transco vs. Southgate

The Southgate is the focus of controversy centered on an agreement between Transcontinental Gas Pipeline Company, LLC (Transco) and Southgate developer, MVP, regarding the use of the existing Transco pipeline right-of-way for the construction of the Southgate. In its Motion to Intervene Out-of-Time issued to FERC in January, Transco states,

 

MVP has only recently provided Transco with information regarding the precise locations of MVP's proposed new pipeline and workspace. A substantial portion of MVP's proposed Southgate project would be installed adjacent to Transco's existing system of three and four parallel, large-diameter pipelines. The new information MVP has made available to Transco indicates that construction and operation of the Southgate Project as proposed would severely encroach upon Transco's existing pipeline rights-of-way and could jeopardize the safety, integrity, operations, and expandability of Transco's pipeline system.

 

Transco's Motion to Intervene further describes the dangerous encroachment of the Southgate on its existing pipeline operations, stating, “It simply would be irresponsible to allow a pipeline with zero operating history to have this type of direct overlay on Transco’s multi-line mainline system . . . Any failure on MVP’s part to properly construct, manage, operate, and coordinate its activities could cause material damage to Transco’s pipelines, hindering Transco’s ability to provide safe, reliable, and critically important service to its customers. . . . Plainly, in the event of any maintenance or unscheduled activities, MVP’s encroachments would present a real risk of leaving Transco unable to access its pipeline, thereby impeding Transco’s ability to safely operate its system and provide reliable service to its customers.”

 

One cannot help but detect the urgency of Transco’s request for help from FERC in managing MVP’s facile appropriation of right-of-way needed for safe operation of the existing Transco pipeline system.

 

On April 6, FERC denied Transco's request for rehearing.

 

Our main concern – impacts to aquatic resources

The members of Pittsylvania County Preservation League have expressed an interest in the chapter's participation as a party in administrative and legal proceedings challenging the Southgate as undertaken by Appalachian Mountain Advocates, a public interest law firm headquartered in Lewisburg, WV. In this context, it is anticipated that Pittsylvania County Preservation League will participate as a party in Appalachian Mountain Advocates' Request for Rehearing challenging the Southgate.

 

David Nimer, employed by BREDL as a research consultant this summer prior to his entry into law school in August, is working with Appalachian Mountain Advocates in developing the factual basis for the Request for Rehearing, with a filing deadline of July 17.

 

Among the issues that David is focusing on is the Southgate's resources. In its 26-mile traverse of Pittsylvania County, the Southgate crosses several water bodies.

 

Please see map of the Southgate's path across 1.5 miles of wetlands associated with White Oak Creek, in Pittsylvania County: 

 

The Southgate's path through an area dense with freshwater streams and rivers raises concern over impairment to those water bodies, including sedimentation, warming of streams through suppression of tree cover on streambanks for the duration of the commercial life of the pipeline, dynamic runoff from tree-free areas during rain events along the entire length of the pipeline, and the planned use of herbicides to control invasive plant species along the pipeline corridor during the first two years after construction. Additionally, the sediment flowing downstream from the Southgate water body crossings will flow into and further damage the Dan River, which has already suffered critical impairment to water quality as a result of the coal ash spill of 2014.

 

Kudos to PCPL!

BREDL is exceedingly pleased to welcome Pittsylvania County Preservation League as our newest chapter. We look forward to working with these protectors of Virginia's water-rich Piedmont.