Pipeline Foes to Hold Rally at Peekskill Riverfront Sunday

PEEKSKILL, NY - Food and Water Watch and Stop the Algonquin Pipeline Expansion (SAPE), will hold a Rally to Stop the AIM Pipeline entitled “Protecting Natural Resources, Health and Safety in the Hudson Valley, New York City, Connecticut, Massachusetts, Rhode Island and Beyond" from 2-4PM Sunday at Riverfront Green in Peekskill.

The event will focus on the siting of Spectra Energy's Algonquin fracked gas pipeline alongside the Indian Point nuclear facility, and in particular its projects to expand the pipeline.

Gov. Andrew Cuomo recently ordered four state agencies, including Homeland Security, the Department of Health, the Department of Environmental Conservation and the Public Service Commission, to perform a risk assessment of the AIM pipeline expansion project at Indian Point, and he also requested that the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) stay construction of the expansion until the risk analysis is completed. FERC denied that request and construction is on-going.

Rally speakers will also address issues related to AIM and all fracked gas pipeline systems. The Pipeline Hazardous Materials and Safety Administration reported that there were 143 major accidents (1 in every 2½ days) in gas pipelines in 2015 in the United States.

Their topics include:

1. the health and safety risks to residents within a 50-mile radius of the Spectra pipeline at Indian Point, an aging nuclear plant on two earthquake faults (NYC is 24 miles away),
2. damage to our air, water and agriculture from all fracked gas pipelines and their infrastructure,
3. the serious health impacts of pipeline compressor stations, pigging stations and other fracked gas infrastructure,
4. the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission's (FERC) routine rubber-stamping of gas pipeline projects - Profit over People,
5. Civil Disobedience - a Growing Phenomenon and Why It Is Needed,
6. the exacerbation of global warming due to the massive amounts of methane leaked and blown out of Spectra AIM and other gas pipelines and their infrastructure (methane is 86 times more potent as a greenhouse gas than carbon dioxide over a 20-year period) and
7. the considerable amount of carbon dioxide and other toxins, including carcinogenic and organ-damaging pollutants emitted by fracked gas compressor stations. (Example - over 300,000 tons annually at AIM’s Stony Point compressor station.)

Speakers and organizations include: Paul Gallay, Hudson Riverkeeper; Maya van Rossum, Delaware Riverkeeper; Rachel Marco-Havens & Aidan Ferris, Earth Guardians; Paul Blanch, Nuclear Expert; Pramilla Malick, Stop the Minisink Compressor Station; Courtney Williams, Resist AIM; New York State Assemblywoman Sandy Galef; Barbara Hough, Food and Water Watch; Peekskill Mayor Frank Catalina; Lisa Moir, Community Climate Initiative; and SAPE Co-Founders and affiliates.