06/24/2019
Chance to fight the LNG pipeline: Join OWLT women at the FERC hearing & Rally on Tuesday 6/25 (there will be music and speakers at the Rally) and/or mail in comments by July 5. Read on for details of the event and things to talk or write comments about:
*Background*: The gas pipeline that was slated to go through Owl Farm has been rerouted, BUT now it's proposed to go just below Owl Farm's southern border. Unfortunately that means it's still very close to Owl Farm's living/garden area, and crosses our only access road. Additionally, it now goes through public land just west of Owl Farm. That public BLM land is an old growth Late Successional Reserve, meaning it's meant to be reserved for wildlife. The impacts of the pipeline clearcut to wildlife there will also impact the ecosystem we strive to protect on Owl Farm.
*Testify at Hearing*: Come between 1:00 and 8:00 PM to give oral testimony to FERC. Myrtle Creek, South Umpqua High School, 501 Chadwick Ln. Myrtle Creek.
(You won’t have to speak in front of a room full of people; this time FERC will take individuals into a room to take your testimony, which you can do anytime between 1 and 8. Just make a few notes and talk freely to whomever is taking testimony).
*Rally*: at 5:30 PM with local music, pizza and speakers outside while people continue to testify.
*Mail in Comments*: If you can’t attend the hearing you can mail in your comments BEFORE 7/5 to: FERC, 888 1st St. NE, Room 1A, Washington DC 20426. You must reference: CP17-494 and CP17-495.
Some things to talk or write about (pick any issues you are most comfortable addressing):
* The Pipeline threatens Owl Farm with increased fire danger, blocking in residents with no road to escape on. Local fire fighters are not equipped for an explosive high pressure gas fire.
* The Pipeline threatens Owl Farm privacy because Pembina will fly over it once a week to inspect, looking directly down on OWL farm activities, including our work in the garden.
* Pipeline construction will bring in a large population of temporary male workers living in temporary camps and RV Parks along the route. It is well known that s*x trafficking, drug trafficking and crime plague projects like this, impacting women and girls. Human trafficking, drugs and crime must be addressed by FERC and stopped.
* The Pipeline route will go up the Seneca clearcut where landslides occurred after they clearcut. Any future landslides caused by the pipeline could block our access road, and harm fish in the fish-bearing stream next to our road.
* The Pipeline will clearcut spotted owl reserves on BLM lands near Owl Farm, with no mitigation. (The new Trump BLM policy is not to require any mitigation for public land users). This project must be denied because it harms Oregon BLM forests and wildlife with nothing proposed to fix the damage.
* Because the BLM cannot legally allow clearcutting of our spotted owl reserves, the BLM will change their regulations to make it legal to clearcut the reserves. This is done by giving Pembina an 885 acre reserve along the pipeline route, making it legal clearcut in the new reserve. Never before has the BLM given a foreign corporation their own private reserve.
* The Pipeline will be Oregon’s highest greenhouse gas emitter, threatening our climate and the livability of the planet. All for money? We don’t need a new fossil fuel infrastructure made to last another 50 years. Just so corporations can make money? It does nothing for us.
