With support from the Blue Ridge Environmental Defense League, Concerned Stewards of Halifax County are expected to take their message to county commissioners at their Monday morning meeting, which begins at 9:30 in the boardroom at the Historic Courthouse.

Tuesday, Valerie Williams of Halifax, stood with Kate Dunnagan, a development director and community organizer with BREDL in front of the Historic Courthouse in Halifax to outline their concerns with the proposed natural gas pipeline, which commissioners and Roanoke Rapids City Council have already endorsed.

Williams said before the media event the concerned stewards group represents some 50 to 60 people in Halifax County who live along the proposed pipeline's route.

Williams addresses the press.

Dunnagan said the goal is stop the pipeline and not have it rerouted. “We're seeing a lot more resistance in Virginia. We're seeing more resistance to fracking in North Carolina.”

Dunnagan said BREDL's message is about environmental justice. “The counties along the (the route) have a disproportionately higher population of minorities. The feds have an obligation to protect minority populations.”

Williams and Dunnagan delivered their briefings to two media outlets. That no one else attended, Williams said, was not a setback, but reflective that many stakeholders were at work or elderly.

“It is crucial,” Williams said in her statement, “that we understand what happens when the Atlantic Coast Pipeline and Dominion Transmission enter our territories.”

Williams said, according to BREDL, a liquified natural gas terminal is a foreseeable outcome of the proposed outcome. “We must take a stand to stomp out the ACP and stop the pipe lies now before our lands are interrupted.”

Williams encouraged landowners of Halifax County to say no to the pipeline. “Do not be deceived and faintly succumb to the wishes of the pipeline corporate giants who are looking out for no one's interests except their own. Let us protest for our safety and our future generations. Let us decide to protect and conserve our natural resources as we plan it. Let us decide that we will have clean water. Let us decide that our soil will no longer be polluted. Let us decide to have our rights to our own minerals and riches … As Americans, individuals have a earned the right to enjoy complete freedom without an abusive government seeking to allow a private company the federal power of eminent domain for no one's necessity but their own.”

Williams said the proposed pipeline will be a high-pressure, 36-inch pipeline “that will be capable of delivering 1.5 billion cubit feet of explosive natural gas per day along with 592 miles of pipeline, seven air-polluting compressor stations from West Virginia to North Carolina.”

Williams said the power of eminent domain must not be used to take property for private use. “One can drive on an interstate highway. One cannot get gas from an interstate pipeline. Our community will not reap economic benefit.”

Dunnagan said, “The pipeline companies promise an economic benefit, but professional appraisers say that losses in property value could be from 50 percent of the land value for a pipeline easement area and up to 30 percent or more for the whole property value.”

Said Dunnagan: “What we at the Blue Ridge Environmental Defense League see is the impacts on land, air and water resources which would occur if this pipeline is built, would be contrary to the spirit of the National Environmental Policy Act, which is to prevent or eliminate damage to the environment.”

The project, she said, according to information contained in the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission's pre-filing docket, “Represents a massive assault on the environment and the communities along the proposed route.”

One of the problems, she said, “Is the threat of global warming, made worse by the burning of the fossil fuel which is natural gas. Once the impacts are weighed, we believe the no action alternative; that is, the denial of the certificate of convenience and public necessity, will be the only answer.”

Dunnagan said the per capita income levels of residents in all of the targeted counties along the route are well below the statewide average — from 9 percent to 39 percent. “More troubling is the fact that the number of people living below the poverty line in the eight pipeline counties exceeds the statewide average from 30 percent to 81 percent … seven of the counties have African-American populations in greater proportion than the statewide average.”

Said Dunnagan: “Today, we are calling for a community veto of the Atlantic Coast Pipeline. It is only reasonable for communities which lie along proposed pipeline routes to ask their local government officials to protect them.”