Puddles and Pathos, Turtles and Terror

From left, Triangle WILPF members Mary Jenne, Jean Chapman, and Fran Schindler at the HKonJ March in Raleigh, NC, on February 9, 2019. Photo credit: Emily Keel (WILPF).

By Lib Hutchby and John Wagner
Triangle Branch, North Carolina

The hurricane didn’t come yesterday; it came last year, and one came two years before that. The terror didn’t come yesterday; it seems to be ongoing. It’s tough to overcome fear with love, when the power of wind and water or the power of a corporation blows dreams of a lifetime into the next decade or destroys them completely.

This reminds me of some words from a limerick:
  “Spring has sprung, winter has went; this was did by accident.”

In other words, Duke Energy has a monopoly on our electricity, but does NOT have a monopoly on people power. Dominion Energy may want to build a pipeline, but they lost their permit appeal to build the Atlantic Coast Pipeline across the Appalachian Trail in Virginia.  .

Even if this winter was harsh, the wildflowers are still starting to bloom and people power keeps waking up.

Here, in the South, where the sun has been welcomed after 11 days of rain and more flooding in some of our already contaminated rivers, this report basically allows us time to say, “We haven’t given up!  We shout that we won’t be silent.” 

We speak up, show up, and work hard as beavers building their homes to protect our homes, land, air, and water, and all species from the nastiness of the CAFOs, … from totally unnecessary infrastructure wanting to provide fossil fuels,…from devastating effects of the wood pellet industry exported to provide Europeans with electricity and, at the rate trees are being cut, will render the Southeast tree-free -- AND don’t forget about “what to do” about the millions of tons of coal ash or plans to reburn the old coal ash from Duke Energy’s coal-fired electricity plants, and then educate the public about air pollution!

North Carolina’s governor, Roy Cooper, grew up in Nash County, a county on the Atlantic Coast Pipeline route, yet he insists he’s being climate friendly when he supports reducing CO2 and ignores reducing methane. In addition, it’s aesthetically unpleasing, say some, to have windmills installed offshore. 

Others say, “No offshore drilling,” while many municipalities along the shore have decided to build “beach nourishment” and, of course, homeowners are being permitted to place sandbags against the foundations of their houses by the sea, but the problem is that turtles and birds don’t lay eggs on sandbags. The issues are complex, they are all connected, and many offer creative ideas, but there seem to be few long-term solutions adopted.

Triangle Branch Speaks in February

In February alone, here’s how WILPF-Triangle Branch members were showing up and speaking out:

Triangle (NC) WILPF members joined thousands of other marchers on February 9 for the 13th Annual HKonJ (Historic Thousands on Jones Street) People’s Assembly Coalition Moral March on Raleigh, NC, which was initiated by William Barber when he was NC President of the NAACP. Triangle Branch member Lucy Lewis reported that Rev. Dr. T. Anthony Spearman, NC  NAACP President, and Rev. Dr. William Barber III, President of Repairers of the Breach and Co-Chair of the Poor People’s Campaign, were the featured speakers. They and other powerful speakers addressed the crowd at historic Shaw University before marching to the old NC State Capitol for a post-march rally with the theme, “No Time to Stand Down: We Must Stand Strong and Endure!” Lucy wrote, “Triangle WILPF, one of the 200+ partners of the NC NAACP-led HKonJ Coalition, are proud to have been participants since the first rally in 2006.” You can view and hear some of the proceedings here.

WILPFers have also offered testimony during public comment periods multiple times in the last month, participated in a press conference before the NC Utilities Commission hearing, supported ending Duke Energy’s monopoly, and  spoken at the following meetings:

1. A Chapel Hill Town Council meeting regarding the need to close the coal-fired facility on the University of North Carolina campus;
2. A meeting of the NC Environmental Justice Advisory Board in Wilmington, NC;
3. A Chatham County Board of Commissioners’ consideration of a moratorium on fracking;
4. NC Department of Environmental Quality in favor of much tighter regulations of hog CAFOs; and
5. At various venues against building more pellet companies in North Carolina.

Most recently, WILPF-Triangle partnered with Friends of the Earth, Center for Biodiversity, League of Women Voters, Common Cause, Democracy NC, and Southern Coalition for Social Justice by participating in two parts of “Stop Voter Suppression on Our Environment,” a tour and teach-ins that began the process of teaching the use of mapping tools to address the intersection of gerrymandering and environmental justice.

The Atlantic Coast Pipeline comes south from Virginia’s Buckingham County into North Carolina’s Northampton County, both majority African-American (Northampton County is 57% African American); and it is proposed to go cross Robeson County with the highest percentage of Native Americans, before probably going into SC to an LNG port. In southern Buckingham County, VA, and Northampton County, NC, huge compressor stations are being opposed on environmental justice grounds, but despite local and broad-based citizen group opposition in both states, the $5.5 billion Atlantic Coast Pipeline was given a permit by the NC Dept. of Environmental Quality despite a badly flawed analysis and permit that includes construction under the Tar River from FERC as a means of “stabilizing” the sites. (Read Local and citizen groups object to N.C. DEQ's flawed permit for $5.5 million Atlantic Coast Pipeline)  Robeson County experiences more flooding and hasn’t recovered from the recent hurricane or from Hurricane Matthew two years ago (plus money for “the wall” may be taken from FEMA, right?)
 
Recent trainings by Waterkeeper Alliance (find a local Waterkeepers here)  have also increased our ability to participate in pipeline monitoring going forward.

Looking Ahead

Looking ahead, there are two Atlantic Coast Pipeline-related court cases coming soon and we continue to plan for the week of World Water Day, March 22, as the Triangle Raging Grannies partnered with WILPF-Triangle to make plans for celebrating and educating around World Water Day 2019, Leaving No One Behind.