Stop the Minisink Compressor Station

 

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE                                                            www.stopmcs.org

Minisink, NY, July 8, 2013- Residents of Minisink, NY, and The Mothers Project, founded by Angela Monti Fox, will be mounting a peaceful demonstration outside of Senator Kirsten Gillibrand’s Midtown offices tomorrow, Tuesday, July 9^th, from 4pm to 7pm. Together they are calling on the Senator to publicly stand with the community of Minisink, which has been entrenched in a groundbreaking case against the natural gas industry, and is now headed to the U.S. Court of Appeals.

For two years, residents of Minisink, a small town in Orange County, home to many organic farms, young families and a large contingent of 9/11 First Responders with health issues, have waged an unusually spirited resistance to a 12, 260 horsepower compressor station sited in a bucolic area, in which over 200 families live within ½ mile. Construction was permitted before a final legal determination, and now the facility is on-line.  Speakers at the rally tomorrow are to include Angela Monti Fox, 9/11 First Responder and advocate John Feal, of the Fealgood Foundation, and several Minisink residents who will speak to their personal experience.

“While many in New York are against the grave dangers that fracking poses, most are not very aware of the infrastructure that supports it and delivers fracked gas to their kitchen stoves,” said Minisink resident, Asha Canalos. “There is a vast infrastructure of pipelines, compressor stations, frack waste storage facilities, etc., growing at a phenomenal speed in our state; terrible harm is already occurring to people who live near this build-out. And the dangers are not just local- we are in the watershed and farmlands that provide for New York City- so this infrastructure presents incredible new risks for city-dwellers an hour away, as well.”

Pramilla Malick, mother of four, states, “ There is particular concern for children, whose bodies are acutely affected by exposures to toxic chemicals, and for our 9/11 First Responders, who moved here for the cleaner air.  On May 9^th, a blow-down event released unknown quantities of emissions and toxins causing residents, including children, to suffer nosebleeds, headaches and neurological symptoms. The families of Minisink are at risk and already suffering. We need help now.”

Minisink’s case challenges not only Millennium Pipeline- the company responsible for the highly controversial compressor station project- but also the final ruling of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC), the government agency that approved the plan. Already, Minisink has broken several precedents: the creation of a far safer, community-backed alternate proposal, known as The Wagoner Alternative; overwhelming support of their alternate proposal by two of the FERC Commissioners, including the Chairman Jon Wellinghoff; and a highly unusual stay of construction granted by the U.S. Court of Appeals last fall. Their attorney, Carolyn Elefant, believes the community has one of the strongest cases currently pending review on the federal level. If Minisink is successful, it will be the first community to have a compressor facility shut down and completely removed; this would be a historic legal precedent that would empower communities across the country. If Minisink loses this battle, it’s a sure victory for the industry in terms of expansion into residential and agricultural areas everywhere, nationally.

Organizers and their supporters will be meeting at 780 Third Ave, between 48^th and 49^th St at 4:00 pm. For more information about Minisink’s resistance, and the narrative of their struggle, visit StopMCS at www.stopmcs.org, as well as the affiliate group that formed in Minisink to connect regional grassroots organizations battling similar industry build-out, We The People Matter, at www.wethepeoplematter.org (here you can also view footage of Minisink’s last meeting with legislative aides). To learn more about The Mothers Project, visit www.mothersunitedforsustainableenergy.com.   # # #