Save the Bluegrass; Stop the Pipeline

The Bluegrass Pipeline is an existential threat to Central Kentucky. Because of the porousness of karst limestone bedrock, even the tiniest leak - and all pipelines leak - of the toxic liquids could destroy groundwater supplies and agricultural health throughout the region.

That's the end of the horse industry. The end of the bourbon industry. The end of the tourism industry.

From the AP:

A company planning to build a natural gas pipeline in Kentucky says it has secured land-use deals in parts of nine counties along the pipeline's proposed path.Officials with the Bluegrass Pipeline say they have reached easement agreements with private landowners in nine of the 13 counties along the proposed route. The entire 500-mile pipeline route also stretches through Ohio and Pennsylvania.

A spokesman for the Williams Co. of Oklahoma, one of the energy firms behind the project, said he did not know how many miles of the proposed route in Kentucky have been secured.

A couple of points:

Fist, Williams Co. has been caught blatantly lying to the public and to individual landowners numerous times, and had to publicly confess to breaking the law by surveying on KSU land without permission. Don't believe a fucking word these admitted liars and trespassers say.

Second, Williams never says they have all the land easements they need in each of those counties. They don't claim to have contiguous easements through nine counties because they don't. At numerous points along the route, landowners are refusing surveys, much less easements, putting large obstacles in the pipeline's path and making Williams desperate to force landowners to sign easements.

Third, public pressure is growing to stop the pipeline by demanding the Army Corps of Engineers perform a full Environmental Impact Statement and the Kentucky General Assembly close the legal loophole that could allow Williams to steal land under eminent domain.

From stopbluegrasspipeline.us:

Concerned About the Bluegrass Pipeline?

Here Are Two Important Things That You Can Do!

1. Write a letter addressed to both James Townsend, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Regulatory Branch, P.O. Box 59, Louisville, KY 40201 and Ms. Kimberly Bose, Secretary, Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, 888 First Street NE, Room 1A, Washington, D.C. 20426, and urge them to:

· Require a comprehensive Environmental Impact Statement on new and repurposed portions of the Bluegrass NGL Pipeline Project.”

· Collaborate to conduct a full environmental analysis of the need, alternative routes and alternatives to the pipeline, and the social, environmental, and economic impacts of the project

· Advise the project proponents that no actions that would commit resources to a particular project route, including easement acquisition, so be allowed pending the completion of a comprehensive Environmental Impact Statement.

Include personal details of how the Bluegrass Pipeline could affect your land and your quality of life.

2. Contact your state Senator and Representative, and ask them to “co-sponsor BR 129 (in the Senate) and BR 198 (in the House) to limit condemnation powers for oil and gas pipelines to utilities regulated by the Kentucky Public Service Commission.” Senator Higdon and Representative Floyd are the lead sponsors. You can contact your state Senator and Representative by linking to www.lrc.ky.gov/Legislators.htm or by calling them at 502-564-8100 (this is not a toll-free call).

Learn more at stopbluegrasspipeline.us.