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PRESERVE FLOYD: CITIZENS PRESERVING FLOYD COUNTY NEWSLETTER SEPTEMBER 2014
Thanks so much for your patience with Preserve Floyd: Citizens Preserving Floyd Countyas we compiled this newsletter for you. There’s been a lot to keep up with and we appreciate that you’ve kept yourself informed through our website, our Facebook page and each other in the meantime. We intend to have updates via email more frequently as we move forward.
The environment is on everyone’s mind right now as the largest ever “People’s Climate March” strode through NYC and the issue entered into the dialogue in a more urgent manner. The Mountain Valley pipeline is the dragon standing on OUR mountain right now, and it is its own beast—but it’s also part of climate change. It’s intended to carry fracked gas and it deserves to be seen as a part of this larger issue. As we come together and agree to work towards sustainable energy solutions and to be environmental advocates for the continued health and well-being of our community, we also commit to work together to protect this land that we all love.
That means: STOP THE PIPELINE.
Here are some important upcoming events and we’ll share more as we create more:
On September 28, Sustain Floyd will be presenting the film “Gasland 2 .” Preserve Floyd will be represented there to share information, answer questions and educate ourselves and each other. Doors will open at 6 PM for food and conversation. A donation of $5 is requested for the movie and an additional $5 for the dinner The film will start around 6:30 to 6:45 PM.
Joe Waldo, a lawyer specializing in eminent domain, will visit Floyd on October 14. You can come see him—and ask questions – at the Floyd County High School at 7 PM.
Representatives from EQT will be attending the Floyd County Board of Supervisors meeting on October 28 at 7 PM. The meeting will be held at the Floyd County High School Auditorium.
Between now and October 28, citizens are encouraged to come to the Floyd Artisan’s Market on Fridays from 5-7 PM to create signs, sing songs and practice for the spectacle we’d like to present to EQT as they roll into town.
For those of you who want to help, we want you to know that there’s a lot you CAN do to help! We are just figuring out (as quickly as possible!) what, where, when and how. So keep asking and keep offering and keep sharing information.
One thing EVERYONE can do is to talk to your neighbors.
Pass this newsletter along. Keep updated on Facebook and share links, graphics and good connections. Join the Mountain-Valley Pipeline or the Virginians Against Pipelines discussion groups and engage. Social media is helping this movement tremendously. And if you know of landowners who might not have access to the internet, print out a copy of our landowner’s handbook or any other pertinent online information.
And write letters! We have a new “Letters to the Editor Toolkit” on our website that will help with that. Coming soon: A similar toolkit to assist with writing letters to politicians. The more the better. The more personal the better. And letters—actual letters—make much more of an impression than emails these days.
The very deepest of appreciation to each and every one of you who have attended community meetings, signed petitions, lent a hand at events and are committed to keeping yourself informed, active and participating. It is inspiring and encouraging to live in a community where so many people want to be involved.
Confluence: Water and the Pipeline
BY FRED FIRST
Many of you attended the showing of “To the Last Drop,” the locally-filmed Floyd County water documentary shown at the Eco-village on September 14.The ideas and interviews for that film started in the summer of 2013 long before there was any knowledge of Mountain Valley’s proposed interstate pipeline.So it was well timed that Partnership for Floyd’s efforts culminated with the premier showing at just the time that our water–and that of all impacted and down-stream counties–was rising to the top of Preserve Floyd’s concerns.
We began to consider the impact of natural gas pipelines on the water across more than 800 miles of landscape threatened by the combined length of Mountain Valley and the Atlantic Coast Pipelines.
While our attention still resonates with voices, places, hopes and concerns from the movie, let me just say a bit more about water as we continue to be vigilant against any forces or agencies that put tomorrow’s water at risk.
Towards that end, I’ll share a “this I believe” kind of statement I wrote recently in the process of trying to distill my thoughts:
Ninety-five percent of Floyd County residents get their water from wells. From an injury to any one, other neighbors can suffer. So we are vigilant to protect our ground and surface waters today, even as we also look ahead. Adequate clean water in our county is a right, far into the future, that we are not willing to put at risk. And as we care for the water that falls on this plateau, we are also mindful of its quality as it passes through communities between here and the Gulf or the Atlantic. Ultimately, water is a shared necessity to life that we care for together across space and across time.
Our actions to insure that our waters are protected today become a legacy of reliable water for generations to come. Water, adequate and clean, is a right, not a commodity. We are committed to the water commons, and resist any threats to it, from whatever source they might come.
Consider carefully these ten water-commons principles. They guide us towards sustained water stewardship that we stand FOR. The current frenzy of unsustainable over-building of natural gas wells, holding ponds and pipeline construction right-of-ways are not consistent with these water principles, and represent values, purposes, methods and ends that we stand AGAINST.
