The part of northeastern Pennsylvania south of the heavily drilled Susquehanna and Wyoming counties has until now not seen large-scale gas infrastructure. But as anyone who is following this knows, hold on: That's starting to change in a big way.
Here in Wilkes-Barre, there’s a lot of discussion going on about five proposed pipelines which will all cross Luzerne County. The PennEast pipeline is one of those: It's a 36-inch diameter, 108-mile long pipeline that will create a 100-foot wide construction right-of way and cross and impact the Susquehanna, Delaware, and Lehigh rivers and dozens of quality streams, wetlands, and forests.
Uneasy about how this and other large projects will impact our communities and water statewide? We are, too, especially around how cumulative effects of these projects may reverse progress we've all made for Pennsylvanians' clean water. PennFuture collaborates with many organizations in its work leading two state coalitions protecting both the Susquehanna and Delaware Rivers' 27,000-square-mile watersheds in Pennsylvania -- both to be impacted by pipelines.
In recent comment letters
on another proposed pipeline, the Atlantic Sunrise project, we addressed forest fragmentation,
species displacement, danger to waterways, and methane emissions -- and
noted that the pipeline will disturb swaths of state forest, game lands, and
public lands. That project will run 192 miles through Pennsylvania, including this region, and have similar large-scale effects. Similarly, we'll be submitting analysis of the impacts of the proposed PennEast at a hearing in Wilkes-Barre on February 12. The Federal Energy Regulatory
Commission, known as FERC, oversees the process and holds public meetings to take community input along the proposed route. (UPDATE: FERC postponed two January hearings; please visit www.ferc.gov for updates.)
All of us as citizens can and should weigh in -- by sending comments to FERC online or by mail, or by speaking at the upcoming February hearings in Bethlehem, Jim Thorpe, and Wilkes-Barre. New to this process and have questions? FERC’s pages on citizen involvement are one resource; for more information, we'll be posting more next week in this space (or you can always email us). We recommend reviewing the route map, although a quick perusal shows that the map isn't detailed and has deficiencies that we expect others will also point out to FERC next month.
All hearings conducted by FERC begin at 6:00 p.m., and representatives of PennEast will attend one hour before to answer questions. We support your involvement.
Tuesday, February 10, 2015
Northampton Community College
3835 Green Pond Road
Bethlehem, Pennsylvania
Wednesday, February 11, 2015
Penn’s Peak
325 Maury Road
Jim Thorpe, Pennsylvania
Thursday, February 12, 2015
Best Western Hotel & Conference Center
77 E Market Street
Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania
Kate Gibbons is PennFuture's northeastern Pennsylvania outreach coordinator and based in Wilkes-Barre.
