Despite Repression, Activists Continue to Shut Down Mountain Valley Pipeline – By Cody Bloomfield (TRUTHOUT) / March 5, 2024
A vigorous protest movement has fought the project at every step of the pipeline’s path, and they aren’t giving up now.
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Before dawn on March 4, 2024, a car painted with birch trees crept out onto a narrow dirt road granting Mountain Valley Pipeline construction workers access to the site. Two activists, 81-year-old River and 63-year-old Andy, unfurled a large banner reading “Older Than the Hills: Water is Life” and covered the rear of the car. The two — who asked to be identified only by their first names to protect them from reprisal — sat down, reached through specially drilled holes in the car, and locked themselves in for the long haul. Hours later, pipeline contractors attempting to drive to work found themselves stymied by the protest and called in the Virginia State Police — again. It took over 10 hours for police to extract Andy, during which time construction ground to a halt.
Andy and River’s direct action against the pipeline was one part of a broader day of protest held on Poor Mountain, one of the last sections of construction still uncompleted. This section of the pipeline construction is among the steepest and most treacherous, labeled by the Securities and Exchange Commission a “challenging physical construction condition.” A pipeline employee has been injured there, and as construction continues, activists’ warnings are coming to pass: The clearcutting of sections of forest to dig the pipeline trench has already sent plumes of sediment hurtling into the watershed below. The steepest sections of the pipeline are the most dangerous, and they are the sections where activists focused their attention on March 4.
Other protesters clad in camouflage snuck behind the vehicle blockade onto the construction site, where they slung a large banner reading “Defend the Forest Everywhere” between two bulldozers. Another 15 people rallied on the roadside, providing support and encouragement to Andy and River. It’s been a long fight, but for many activists, it’s not an optional one. Landowners impacted by the pipeline, Appalachian environmentalists and neighbors of the pipeline keep turning out to buy one more day against the pipeline’s slow march.
