Resolution of the Bertsch-Hokendauqua-Catasauqua Watershed Association (BHCWA) re:
Natural Gas Pipelines, Compressor Station Expansions, and Other Infrastructural Support for Transmission of Natural Gas Derived by the Hydrofracturing of Marcellus Shale & Other Such Formations.
Whereas BHCWA in its resolution adopted on March 14, 2011 re: “Hydrofracturing Marcellus Shale & Other Such Formations to Extract Natural Gas”, elaborated in detail on the threats such extractive technology poses to drinking water, water resources, ecosystems, the environment, and to people;
Whereas, in its resolution of March 14, 2011, BHCWA called for a halt to Marcellus Shale Drilling, prohibition of the hydrofracturing process, and called on governmental bodies to ban such extractive technology;
Whereas, the natural gas pipelines, compressor station expansions, and transit of fracking waste water-carrying freight trains provide infrastructural support for destructive extractive technologies and for increasing reliance on a fossil fuel whose burning puts greenhouse gases into the atmosphere, thereby worsening the climate crisis;
Whereas this infrastructure comes with its own array of destructive effects, including explosions, spills, venting of methane and other greenhouse gases, and the cutting of swaths through environments in the paths of its pipelines;
Whereas the natural gas being distributed by such infrastructure does not serve local needs but rather serves to enhance the profits of large corporations;
We call on the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC), the Department of Environmental Protection (DEP), and other such agencies, to demand a halt to all such projects and the denial of all requests to permit such harms;
We call on municipalities within the Greater Lehigh Valley to pass resolutions opposing the PennEast gas pipeline, as has been done by Lower Saucon Township, Riegelsville, Scranton, and over a dozen other municipalities;
We call on municipalities within BHCWA’s domain to generate Community Bills of Rights for their constituencies which would:
- include rights to healthful water, an unpolluted watershed, and clean air,
- include the responsibility of residents to be good stewards of the land and water resources they use or which they own and upon which they depend, and
- ban those activities — including natural gas extraction and the building of its infrastructural support, including pipelines, compressor station expansions, and transport through our region by freight trains — which would violate those rights or interfere with those responsibilities; and
We call on the people, community groups, and watershed associations within the Greater Lehigh Valley to take actions in support of all of the above.
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Approved at the March 9, 2015 meeting of the
Bertsch-Hokendauqua-Catasauqua Watershed Association
Northampton County, Pennsylvania