3-day walk to halt KM pipeline

By Hattie Nestel

The idea for the MLK, Jr Walk, over the January 16-18 weekend, to oppose the Kinder Morgan pipeline was a sudden inspiration, when a lightbulb went off in my head  on a short walk in mid-December opposing the same pipeline.

I reported on this 429-mile $5 billion pipeline project in the September eNews. It is estimated to be operational by Nov. 2018, to bring fracked gas from Pennsylvania’s Marcellus Shale through NY, MA and NH to distribution companies in New England.  The original route through Southern Massachusetts, changed after political and public outcry, is now routed from Northern Massachusetts into southern New Hampshire before coming back to a gas hub at Dracut, 30 miles north of Boston.

I first learned about the pipeline in May 2014, and since then I organized walks, lawn-signs and bumper stickers, produced 36 interviews shown on community TV stations of people whose property will be impacted by the pipeline and gigantic compressor stations, and produced “Stop the Pipeline” newscasts.  Still, clearly more was needed to call attention to this uncalled-for environment destroying project to build the political momentum to stop the pipeline. 

The key ingredients for making this walk a great success were getting the Buddhists to agree to lead the three day walk with their drums and chants; the second, was getting the Buddhist nun Sister Clare to write a mission statement to make the connection between Martin Luther King, Jr. and the fight to stop the pipeline, and the third was, before the walk, to get the local newspaper to highlight this action with a long article, Leverett Peace Pagoda Monks to Walk Path of Proposed Pipeline, and then an editorial. 

In our area of Western Massachusetts, almost every town is affected by the pipeline which is mainly for export and corporate greed. All our towns have taken strong positions opposing it, so getting the word out was easy and registrations kept increasing to join in this 34-mile three-day walk in what turned out to be one of the coldest weekends of snow and freezing winds. People came from numerous organizations and from as far away as North Carolina. What’s amazing was how quickly people wanted to help, and help they did! 

Churches hosted us for breakfasts and dinners which were akin to the best gourmet buffet imaginable--huge pots of hot nourishing soup, lasagna casseroles, roasted veggies and desserts to die for. Hot pots of soup also appeared along the route, with gourmet pizzas, hot casseroles and yummy desserts set up on tables in peoples’ yards.

Many non-walkers made themselves available as support drivers who were needed to shuttle cars and drivers to end places and two much needed shuttles in order to shorten the length of the walk down to 11.5 miles a day.

Families came with children, people who could only walk a mile or two managed and spirits were high.  A serious blizzard the first day caused us to delay the walk by two hours and start from a different location, but this did not dampen our spirits. Slippery road surfaces, steep long hills and freezing temperatures with 45 mph gusts of wind on the last day in the hill town of Plainfield was challenging, but we persevered and as I looked back on the line of walkers I saw only beautiful red-cheeked smiling faces. The local paper’s headline put it this way, “Peaceful protesters, undeterred by weather, set off on walk against pipeline.”

We walked a total of 34 miles between a proposed compressor station site in Northfield and a proposed construction pipe yard in Plainfield, MA. All in all, we estimate we had at least 300 walkers spread out over three days. 

Conversations along the way were about how deeply moved the walkers felt walking the beautiful rural landscapes dotted with red barns, cattle and farmlands that would be impacted by construction and right-of-ways.

Many people spoke about how alone and isolated they had felt trying to fight the pipeline  and how much the walk reinvigorated and fortified them to continue the struggle to stop the Kinder Morgan Pipeline from coming through Massachusetts.

The entire budget for the walk was $40 to have two signs made. A side benefit of stopping this pipeline may be helping to shut down fracking in Pennsylvania.

Still more is needed to build the grassroots power, political will, and continued press to stop this.  Our Stop the Pipeline affinity group will have a walk on February 15, President’s Day, in Greenfield, MA, where Berkshire Gas is located, to call for them to stop the “bogus” moratorium against new customers on the grounds that there isn’t enough gas to distribute and thereby justifying the pipeline and to stop contracting with Kinder Morgan for the pipeline. Participants can choose a 5.3 mile walk through Greenfield or a picket at Berkshire Gas’ headquarters. President’s Day in Greenfield should be busy, and our walk should get a lot of attention.

These actions in MA are just part of the growing opposition to fracking and fracking infrastructure projects across the country that some of our WILPF Earth Democracy members are involved with, for example, Lib Hutchby and John Wagner of the North Caroline Triangle Branch.

For information on the pipeline, in interviews and radio programs and organizing this walk, please contact me at hattieshalom [at] verizon.net or call me at 978-790-3074
 

PHOTO: Spirits remained high on the three-day march against the Kinder Morgan pipeline despite freezing temperatures, slippery roads and wind gusts. Credit: Boston Climate Action Network website