3rd protest of fracking/gas export at Dominion pier site in Solomons, MD, One arrested

Photos beneath press release

Video of the picket, civil disobedience, and die-in

On the 10th of November, opponents of exporting fracked gas out of Cove Point, MD returned to Dominion's pier construction site in nearby Solomons, MD site for the 3ed time in 8 days. Protesters arrived at 6AM and confronted trucks entering the site. Near the end of the protest, Leslie Garcia from Lusby, MD was arrested for attempting to deliver an eviction notice to the site. Lusby is immediately south of Cove Point and caualties there are expected if there is a serious accident with the proposed LNG export plant.

Several interesting demographic facts have emerged about this "megaload" landing site being built by Dominion. First of all, exactly ONE person working on the site for the primary contractor is reported to be a Calvert County resident. In other words, the project has delivered exactly ONE job so far! The majority of the workers are from Texas, as is the main contractor. They have all been staying at a Holiday Inn, whose parking lot is filled nightly with cars bearing Texas license plates. A security guard had to be hired to watch over their cars due to the local unpopularity of the project.An upcoming beauty pageant will force the relocation of the Texas workers to another motel.

Second of all, it is being reported that Dominion is spending $1,500,000 to hire an extra ten Calvert County Sheriff's deputies, apparently available to Dominion on an as-needed basis. That's $150,000 per cop for one year, and there are further reports that their paychecks are being signed by Dominion. This gives new meaning to earlier reports that the Sheriff's Dept was "bought and paid for" by Dominion.

The purpose of this pier is to provide a point for "megaloads" of large scale equipment meant for the Cove Point LNG export plant to be unloaded from barges onto trucks, then to traverse Route 4 other narrow roads of far sourthern Calvert County on their way to the gas plant.

Work is reported to be 6 days a week at this site to make a Dec 15 deadline to finish construction or wait out a moratorium on working in the water until mid-March. That moratorium is for environmental protection, I believe of oyster beds. They just started construction, and have been hampered by civil disobedience protesters on three of the last 7 days of work. The first of these protests, on Nov 3, delayed the start of work that day for hours, I don't know if they were able to start at all or had sent the workers home when the loader that was at that time the site's front gate was found locked down.

This press release has been issued for the civil disobedience:

Resident of Lusby, Maryland Arrested Attempting to Deliver Petition at Pier Construction Site

Activists from across the country joined residents of Calvert County, Maryland at the Dominion Cove Point pier construction site this morning to demand that Virginia-based Dominion Resources to stop the project. The demonstrators, who numbered nearly fifty, met at the site at 6:00 a.m., as workers were beginning to arrive for the day. Leslie Garcia, who lives in a neighborhood adjacent to the existing Cove Point facility in Lusby, Maryland, was arrested when she attempted to walk onto the site to deliver a call for the immediate and permanent cessation of construction to a Dominion representative. The remaining protestors maintained a picket line in front of the entrance to the site for two hours.

Dominion is planning to build a $3.8 billion facility to bring nearly a billion cubic feet of natural gas per day from fracking wells across the Appalachian region, liquefy it on the Chesapeake Bay, and export it to Asia. The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) approved the project on September 29. Critics of the project have raised concerns about the project’s potential environmental, health, and safety impacts at the local, national, and international levels.

Chief among local residents’ concerns is the fact that facility would be the first natural gas liquefaction plant ever built next to a densely populated residential neighborhood. As Garcia noted, “I live in Cove Point Beach. The only way out of my community, should there be an explosion at Dominion's refinery, is to drive toward the disaster. I have nothing to lose by protesting, because we have everything to lose if this project continues.”

Other residents observed that the project has already had negative impacts on southern Maryland. The pier currently under construction, which would be used to bring in equipment too large to transport over land, is located about six miles south of the proposed export terminal. It is next to the base of the Thomas Johnson Bridge, where the Patuxent River flows into the Chesapeake Bay. In addition to concerns about the stability of the bridge and the risks involved in navigating barges loaded with heavy equipment underneath it, construction of the pier requires the severe disturbance of oyster habitat in the river.

“This pier destroys the hundreds of species that exist on the oyster bar as an intimate web of inter-dependencies that took thousands of years to establish and work collectively to clean the Chesapeake Bay,” said science educator and Lusby resident Linda Morin. “This destruction of an ecosystem foreshadows the destruction to come with Dominion’s fracked gas refinery.”

Activists traveled from several other states, including Virginia, Pennsylvania, New York, New Jersey, Connecticut, and Rhode Island, to demonstrate their opposition to the project and show support for the residents fighting it. “I support communities that are fighting for life because all grievances are intertwined. We need to start taking stands with different communities in different parts of the country,” said Camila Ibañez, who has organized with Utah Tar Sands Resistance.

Today’s protest followed two previous major actions at the same site, both within the last week. On Monday, November 3, Kelly Canavan, president of AMP Creeks Council and an organizer with Stopping Extraction and Exports Destruction, locked herself to a piece of construction equipment at the same site, delaying the start of the work day. She was extracted by members of the Calvert County Sheriff’s Department, arrested, and detained for several hours. On Tuesday, nine activists entered the site to demonstrate opposition as part of the Beyond Extreme Energy week of action. They were arrested, along with two photographers, and detained overnight.

More photos at https://www.flickr.com/photos/seedcoalition

Additional statements from Calvert County residents are available at http://seedcoalition.wordpress.com/2014/11/10/statements-on-dominion-cov...