There's still time to dash Constitution Pipeline's hopes of running part of its 122-mile, $683 million natural gas pipeline through parts of Schoharie County.
And no time like now to do it.
"You have a lot more power than you think," Anne Marie Garti, an attorney working with Stop the Pipeline and the Center for Sustainable Rural Communities told about 50 people Monday at a meeting in Richmondville.
Work on the proposed project has been going on largely behind the scenes since Constitution filed its formal application with the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission in June.
Constitution said then that FERC would spend the next 8-10 months reviewing the application and environmental reports.
That deadline is nearly up and with it, Ms. Garti said, will come another opportunity to comment on the project.
Soon, she said, FERC will issue a draft Environmental Impact Statement, followed by hearings, and then a final EIS.
Once the draft EIS is issued, Ms. Garti said, opponents will have just 45 days to comment.
"And that's going to happen pretty soon," she said.
Though it's often hard to tell the players in the process, Ms. Garti said FERC's is a "balancing act," weighing Constitution's need for the project against landowners' property rights.
The more people who show their opposition to the project be refusing to sign easements, forcing Constitution to try to take the land through eminent domain, she said, the more need there must be.
"But we're going to need thousands and thousands of comments when the time comes."
Jennifer Stinson of Summit is one of the Stop the pipeline members who's been going door-to-door for months, talking to landowners feeling pressured by Constitution landmen to sign the easements.
Ms. Stinson said she needs more help with that outreach-especially from people who are being directly impacted by the pipeline.
"They're being told that this is a done deal, that 75 percent of residents have signed, that those of us who aren't directly impacted are jealous because we're not getting any money," she said.
"These people need to hear from you. Keep talking to your neighbors."
According to Center for Sustainable Rural Communities Director Bob Nied, there are about 159 landowners in Schoharie County who will be impacted by the pipeline-half of whom have signed easements.
Typically, the said, that number would be 80-85 percent, so while 50 percent may seem like a lot, "What's more appropriate is the opposite number."
Mr. Nied also ran through the side effects of the pipeline, including potential blasting at more than 70 sites, plans for a half-dozen proposed staging areas-including one across from Lancaster Development in Richmondville-and a long list of pipeline accidents.
"From a statistical perspective, the natural gas industry has a very poor safety record," he said.