Loose Leaf Notes

Remember all the beautiful pictures I’ve posted here of Floyd’s mountain views, fields of hay, rushing creeks and wildflowers?  Well, that beauty is in jeopardy because of a proposed gas pipeline that would literally cut through Floyd and not serve it in any way.

I kept hearing the proposed line described as a “42 inch pipe,” which gives the impression of something small.  Then I saw the picture below on Doug Thompson’s Blue Ridge Muse, which was also posted on Fragments from Floyd.   Here’s what Jane Cundiff, a Radford University Professor of Environmental Biology, wrote in a recent letter to the editor about the prospect:  “The pipeline equipment will gouge a deep hole in the ground, damaging any forest, farmland, waterway or soil in its path for over 300 miles.  Then the gas will be sold to North Carolina for “clean” energy.  Gas pipelines destroy nature, reduce property value, have been known to leak, and can even explode to burn down large areas.”

The term “natural gas” is a linguistic corruption of reality, in the same way the term “collateral damage” is a trick to downplay the dead body count of innocent people.  Firstly, the gas proposed to be transmitted is fracked, a violent and toxic hydraulic process that is known to contaminate drinking water, pollute the air and increase the risk of earthquakes.

“Natural gas sounds like a good, natural thing, a much better fuel than coal,” writes Cundiff.  “However, the whole truth is much more complex and much dirtier than meets the eye.  This methane is a potent greenhouse gas.  When unburned and released or leaked into the air, it warms the planet twenty five times worse than carbon dioxide.”

As a Blue Ridge Mountain community, Floyd is at the headwaters.  No water flows into the county.  That gives us great tasting water, which we are blessed to have, but studies have shown that our water supply is highly susceptible to contamination due to the area’s rocky geology. Findings report that rain water in the Blue Ridge Mountains makes its way into the ground water system in a relatively short period of time and without much natural filtration.

We can’t afford more of the same, industrial practices that risk the safety of the water supply, create environmental degradation, increase species loss and ramp up climate change. Putting a gas pipeline at the headwaters of a watershed is like building a nuclear power plant next to a school.  But Fracking is troublesome anywhere because it depletes our water supply across the country.  It can take millions of gallons of water just to frack one well.

Here’s how Cundiff ends her letter:  “We need energy. Natural methane gas is NOT a good solution to our need for energy.  “Natural” is not always good.  Cyanide is natural.  Using less is the only really good alternative energy. Floyd folks are doing this already but big companies will take advantage of our low population and destroy our land for their gain.  Stopping the pipeline is not just about us, it is about our planet, our future.”

Citizens Preserving Floyd County is an environmental advocacy group that was founded in the ‘80s by Wayne Bradburn and others and has been recently reborn by Wayne’s daughter, Mara Robbins, and others to stop the power line. “With the arrival of new industrial proposals, such as the EQT gas pipeline Preserve Floyd will be the embodiment of the spirit of CPFC by which we will organize and distribute information, encourage conversation and active participation in the issues, and, if necessary, oppose industrial and corporate projects that threaten the rural character, natural integrity and health of Floyd County,” their website reads.  Check them out HERE.