Audio Report: Tree Sit Resists Mountain Valley Pipeline in Appalachia

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In this audio report, we talk with people on the ground in West Virginia who are fighting the Mountain Valley Pipeline (MVP), which along with the Atlantic Coast Pipeline (ACP), threatens to displace residents, pollute watersheds, and destroy ecosystems and land across Appalachia. In the last two days, it has been announced that a tree sit is now sitting in the direct path of the pipeline that is being constructed. As Appalachians Against Pipelines on Facebook wrote:

On February 26, Mountain Valley Pipeline LLC set out to continue preparation for a horizontal drill pad on the West Virginia side of Peters Mountain — but they found that a number of resisters had already taken to the trees. The tree sit is stationed near Peterstown, WV, on the site where the company intends for the 42-inch pipeline to cross under the Appalachian National Scenic Trail.

The proposed Mountain Valley Pipeline would carry fracked gas from shale fields in West Virginia to intersect with the existing Transco Pipeline, a major highway for transporting gas to markets overseas. The pipeline would destroy water, mountains, forests, and family farms. Neither West Virginians nor Virginians will see any of the profit — instead, they will bear the destructive consequences of extraction and construction.

The tree sit is located on Peters Mountain, and is currently occupying space where the pipeline company hopes to drill horizontally through the mountain and under the Appalachian National Scenic Trail:

The Karst limestone terrain of Peters Mountain generates and filters fresh drinking water, and is especially susceptible to landslides and sinkholes. Pipeline construction in this area would destroy a unique biome filled with caves, underground streams, and springs inhabited by life found nowhere else in the world. Precision Pipeline, one of the companies contracted to build the MVP, has been cited repeatedly for violations of erosion and sediment control as well as water contamination during the construction of the Mariner East 2, Rover, and Stonewall Pipelines.

With things heating up in West Virginia, both in terms of pipeline resistance but also in terms of the teachers’ strike, we caught up with people at the tree sit to hear what was going down.

More Info: Appalachians Against Pipelines and No ACP on Twitter.