For Immediate Release: Trees Protest Pipeline Expansion
Date: Tuesday, November 10, 2015
Location: Blue Mountain Reservation, Washington Street and
Montrose Station Road entrance, Cortlandt Manor, NY 10567 (Follow trail to the
left for approximately 100 feet.)
Media Contact: SAPE, Susan Van Dolsen, (914) 525-8886,
http://sape2016.org
“A grove of trees
in Westchester County’s Blue Mountain Reservation in the Town of Cortlandt is
staging a protest in an effort to save their fellow trees from being cut down
along the 1½ mile Spectra Energy AIM pipeline route through the reservation.
These trees also represent thousands of other trees to be felled along the
entire pipeline route from Ramapo, NJ to Boston, MA. Public parks are
everyone’s back yard, yet Spectra Energy Partners, a private corporation, was
granted permission to cut down over 1,000 trees to install their 42” diameter,
high-volume, high-pressure gas pipeline in the park. Blue Mountain, a 1600-acre
county preserve, is a vital haven for wildlife which provides countless
benefits to residents of the county. Westchester County, in providing the
license to Spectra for its construction in Blue Mountain Reservation, may have
illegally circumvented New York State law.
This morning,
hundreds of trees near the pipeline donned orange “Do Not Cut” tape in revolt.
As Spectra expands its right-of-way to 125 feet, many of these trees may be
felled and the surrounding environment will be degraded. Destruction of public
parkland, along with the threat posed by the same pipeline’s proximity to the
Indian Point nuclear facility in Buchanan, NY, has caused residents and elected
officials to call for the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) to review
its decision to permit the project. Although the federal Natural Gas Act
requires the agency to issue a decision on appeals within 30 days, FERC can
extend the deadline indefinitely by issuing what is called a “tolling order,”
as it has in this situation. In some recent cases throughout the country, FERC
issued its decision after the pipes were already in the ground with the gas
flowing.
The approval
process for the Spectra Algonquin Incremental Market project has been fraught
with unresolved concerns and irregularities. Authorities have called Spectra’s
Environmental Impact Statement woefully incomplete and misleading. Nuclear
safety expert, Paul Blanch, through a Freedom of Information Request, obtained
documents indicating that the Nuclear Regulatory Commission provided erroneous
and incomplete information to FERC, which subsequently approved the pipeline
expansion plan. FERC, according to its website, “has no jurisdiction over
pipeline safety or security, but actively works with other agencies with safety
and security responsibilities”; however, there has never been a thorough,
independent risk assessment of this high-pressure, high-volume gas pipeline 105
feet from vital structures at the nuclear facility. The new pipeline crosses
the Indian Point property for 2,159 feet.
The grassroots
group, Stop the Algonquin Pipeline Expansion (SAPE), learned about the trees’
protest from an anonymous source.”
Stop the
Algonquin Pipeline Expansion (SAPE) is a grassroots organization with a mission
to educate our fellow citizens and elected officials about the negative impacts
associated with Spectra Energy Corporation’s Algonquin Incremental Market (AIM)
Project. SAPE opposes the AIM gas expansion project because it may exacerbate
climate change, endanger our safety and quality of life, contaminate water, air
and soil, cause harm to domestic animals and wildlife, and threaten farmland
and property values.
Rob Buchanan adds: “The destruction of the natural
environment due to the Spectra pipeline project has begun here in Westchester
County NY. The pipeline and its 125ft right of way will cut through a county
park, Blue Mountain Reservation. There are many potential ceremonial stone
landscapes within the park (see http://rockpiles.blogspot.com/search?q=buchanan+blue+mountain ). Fortunately most sites are not close enough to the pipeline route to
be effected but there is at least one site that might be endangered. Please be
aware of new pipeline and pipeline expansion projects in your area. Recently
the New England tribes and USET (as I remember) developed a protocol to examine
any ceremonial stone landscapes threatened by pipeline expansion projects.
Also, please support your local community activists who are opposing the
pipeline expansion project…
Twelve tribal representatives have been trained to identify
and document ceremonial stone features as a part of an emergency avoidance plan
for proposed gas pipeline projects in the Northeast. Reprinted below is the
news release regarding this project.
Charlestown, RI, September 24, 2015: Under the
auspices of the Tribal Historic Preservation Offices (THPOs) of the
Narragansett, Mohegan, Mashantucket Pequot and Wampanoag Tribe of Gay Head
(Aquinnah), individuals from the four sponsoring Tribes as well as members of
the Mohawk, Shinnecock, and Passamaquoddy Tribes completed a week-long training
in ceremonial stone landscape (CSL) identification at the Narragansett Indian
Longhouse in Charlestown, RI, and were certified by the THPOs as CSL Field
Specialists. The training was conducted on an emergency basis in response to
proposed gas line development projects in the Northeast.
In October of 2002, the United South and Eastern Tribes
(USET) declared in Resolution #2003:022: “[F]or thousands of years before the
immigration of Europeans, the medicine people of the United South and Eastern
Tribal [USET] ancestors used ceremonial stone landscapes to sustain the
people’s reliance on Mother Earth and the spirit energies of balance and
harmony”.
In December of 2008, the National Register of Historic
Places acknowledged ceremonial stone landscapes as culturally significant to
federally recognized Tribes in the Northeast, pursuant to the tenants of the
National Historic Preservation Act (NHPA), which states: “The agency official
shall ensure that consultation in the section 106 process provides the Indian
Tribe . . . a reasonable opportunity to identify its concerns about historic
properties, advise on the identification and evaluation of historic properties,
including those of traditional religious and cultural importance, articulate
its views on the undertaking’s effects on such properties, and participate in
the resolution of adverse effects.” – National Historic Preservation Act, 36
CFR 800.2(c)(2)(ii)(A)
By law, Section 106 of the NHPA mandates that before
construction, religious and cultural properties of traditional religious and
cultural importance to federally recognized Tribes that attach cultural and
historical significance to the project areas should be identified and
documented in consultation with the affected Tribes. The Tribes, the federal
agency, and the project proponents, then work together to devise a plan to
avoid, minimize, or mitigate the impacts to the resources. This work must begin
as soon as feasible in order for project proponents to receive the necessary
permitting for construction from the lead federal agency (in this case, the
Federal Energy Regulatory Commission – FERC). The work cannot proceed without
additional trained Tribal representation, thus training Tribal representatives
was urgent.
The training at the Narragansett Longhouse was authorized by
Narragansett Medicine Man/THPO John Brown, and occurred under the guidance of
the THPOs and their landscape mapping partner Ceremonial Landscapes Research
LLC (CLR), an entity created in collaboration with the Tribes to assist in
mapping and documenting CSLs using traditional Tribal knowledge. The Tribal
representatives will work with a mapping team from CLR.
According to Doug Harris, Deputy THPO of the Narragansett
Indian Tribal Historic Preservation Office (NITHPO): “Through this training,
the Tribal Historic Preservation Offices (THPOs) hope to increase private
landowner, federal agency, and project proponent awareness and stewardship of
ceremonial stone landscapes that are sacred to our people, and to protect these
places from unknowing destruction by development.”
Federal agencies such as the Army Corps of Engineers, the
FCC, the FAA, the National Forest Service and the Army at Fort Drum, NY have
acknowledged the significance of ceremonial stone landscapes, and have
encouraged their protection. One hoped-for outcome of this project is to extend
that acknowledgement and spirit of stewardship to all regulatory agencies and
commissions. These ceremonial places have been identified in territories of
past Tribal use from the Atlantic to the Pacific, and with the cooperation of
local towns and landholders they should be protected wherever they are.
The training was initially funded by the National Trust for
Historic Preservation, with additional donations requested from Kinder Morgan,
and Spectra Energy. Ceremonial Landscapes Research, LLC, provided curriculum
development and training personnel.
Media Inquiries:
Doug Harris, Deputy Tribal Historic Preservation Officer
Narragansett Indian Tribal Historic Preservation Office
(NITHPO).
(401) 474-5907 or (508) 922-7673
Tribal Contacts for this Release:
Mashantucket Pequot Tribe
Marissa Turnbull
(860) 396-6887
Mohegan Tribe
James Quinn
(860) 862-6893
Narragansett Indian Tribe
John Brown
(401) 491-9459
Wampanoag Tribe of Gay Head (Aquinnah)
Bettina Washington
(508) 645-9265
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