Below is a quick primer on how to submit comments, and things you might want to say.  Remember that you don’t have to be an expert and you don’t have to back up your comments with science and studies.  It’s great if you can do that, but it isn’t necessary.  What is important is just that you say something.  Let’s keep our community beautiful and rural!

1. Go to the e-comment page on the FERC website by clicking here.
2. Click on the orange and white box that says “eComment does not require Registration!  Click here to proceed!”
3. You will be asked to fill out a short form with your name, address, etc., and a captcha.
4. Once you submit the short form, you will see the message “Thank you for your interest in submitting eComments to FERC.  You will receive an e-mail with detailed instructions on how you can submit your eComment.”
5. Follow the directions in the email to submit your comments.  It is usually easiest to type them up first, and then copy and paste them.
6. Use docket number CP17-15.
7. Explain as specifically as you can why you object to the compressor station.  You can give as few or as many reasons as you want.
8. Please state clearly that you oppose the project.

Reasons you might oppose the project:

• A newly released original research study proves for the first time that compressors on gas transmission pipelines (such as Charles Station) release emissions that spread downwind from their sources in plumes of denser concentration.  Until now reports of plumes and negative health effects have been hard to confirm.  Lax government regulations don’t require site measurements for permitted facilities.  The permits (based solely on estimates from engineering models) allow such facilities to emit tons of pollutants into the air each year.

• We believe that Dominion’s wetlands delineation assessment is incorrect, and that the project would adversely impact wetlands. A field study needs to be done by a government agency or independent contractor who is not working for Dominion. The report they turned in shows sensitive wetlands surrounding a 14 acre piece of land that is miraculously exactly where Dominion needs it to be. This seems like a dubious coincidence.

• Increased particulate matter, noxious gasses, and air pollutants will cause increases in respiratory and other illness, environmental degradation of a sensitive swamp and wetlands, and contribute to climate change.

• Radon is not being monitored even though high levels of it are strongly associated with gas fracked in the Marcellus shale.  This is the gas that will come through the compressor station.  It will be leaked regularly.  This is called “fugitive emissions” and they are not monitored or regulated.

• This project is actually part of the Leidy South pipeline project, and has been improperly segmented from that project. They should be considered together, and their impacts assessed together.

• A compressor station is inappropriate for the very rural area it would be built in. We don’t want Accokeek to be industrialized.

• The parcel is home to a lot of wildlife including herons, bobcats, turtles, wild turkeys, and many other birds.

• The project should not be permitted before (if) the Mattawoman Power Plant is fully permitted.

• Plant operation would create distressing noise, especially during flares or blowdowns.

• The compressor station would be a safety hazard.  There will only ever be a few people onsite, and they will only ever be onsite during the standard 40-hour work week.
  

• There is no system in place to notify us if there is a problem or will be a blowdown or flare.

• Fugitive gas emissions will contribute to climate change and health problems.

• There is not an actual need for this gas to be delivered; no one who would be receiving it is currently going unserved.

• This infrastructure will benefit Dominion Cove Point’s fracked gas export terminal in Lusby, MD, and its impacts should not be considered separately from that.

• The property may be important to the Piscataway tribes. They should be very involved in this decision making process.

• Local first responders cannot adequately deal with a fire or other catastrophe onsite. Their inability to control fires in the area was demonstrated on December 21 when they could not save a large outbuilding on Old Marshall Hall Rd., and again when a house burned down on West Ridge Rd. on February 11. In both cases, firefighters could not get water to the fires. There are no fire hydrants on Barry’s Hill / New Marshall Hall Rd. They could not control a fire there, or contain the aftermath of an explosion, were one to occur.

• The compressor station brings only risk and degradation to the area in which it would be built. We will not benefit in any way from it, and it is unfair to ask this community to shoulder all of the risks and destruction associated with its construction and operation.

• The property is adjacent to Piscataway National Park, making industrialization highy inappropriate.

• There are veins of clay, including blue marl, running into the project site, making the ground particularly unstable during floods or an earthquake like the one we had several years ago.
• The property borders residences and two farms where livestock graze.  The kind of industrial activity being proposed would be disruptive to families and animals.  (Bright lights, vibrations, noise, emissions.)
• New Marshall Hall/Barry’s Hill Rd. is a historic road popular with cyclists.  This plant would ruin the route.

Spaghettoutta Here, Dominion!!

On Tuesday, 12/13, from 7 – 9pm, a fantastic crowd of Prince George’s and Charles County neighbors (and a few folks from further afar!) joined The AMP Creeks Council and The Moyaone Association for a free spaghetti dinner and strolling music by Nick Newlin of Nicolo Whimsey to submit comments to the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) about Dominion’s proposed compressor station on New Marshall Hall/Barry’s Hill Rd.  FERC is the controlling permitting agency for the compressor station.

We had laptops and tablets set up for folks to use to submit their comments online, and many people brought their own as well.  It was a pleasure to enjoy dinner with old and new friends in an environment where everyone was pitching in and helping fight the compressor station.  Even the kids had fun!  Thanks very much to everyone who came out, to our kind benefactor who picked up the tab for the event, and to those who submitted comments from home.

If you forgot something, comment again!  It’s fine to submit multiple comments.  Please encourage friends and family to comment as well.