Pipeline seminars address issues for landowners
Members of the Pennsylvania Community Rights Network will be speaking to residents about the PennEast pipeline on Thursday evening at Schoolhouse Central in Albrightsville.
The meeting will take place from 7-9 p.m.Three speakers will be followed by a question-and-answer session.Ben Price of the Community Environmental Legal Defense Fund will discuss the status of the PennEast pipeline and why the current regulatory process does not work. Price will discuss various tools that communities can use to protect community rights.John Trallo of the Shale Justice Coalition will discuss the oil and gas industry in more detail and the relationship between the industry and the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission and why FERC has never denied a pipeline permit.Kathy Miorelli, a member of the Pennsylvania Community Rights Network, will speak to the recent successes in Tamaqua and how they were successful in defending community rights against the big corporations."People do not realize that corporations have rights which we as individuals and citizens do not have," said Kara Scott of the Pennsylvania Community Rights Network. "Often, the way that municipal governments are set up, residents have no recourse. We are trying to change that by educating communities on how to take back their rights."The Community Rights Network is a national, statewide and local organization that assists in all facets of community rights and not purely environmental issues though Scott says that in Pennsylvania the issues facing citizens are mainly environmental in nature.Anyone who needs additional information can contact Scott at
karascott2014@gmail.com.Delaware Riverkeeper Network, The Aquashicola/Pohopoco Watershed Conservancy, and Save Carbon County are sponsoring a Pipeline Watch Training Session from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. Saturdayat the Lehigh Gap Nature Center, 8844 Paint Mill Road, Slatington.The training session is for volunteer monitors, amateur naturalists and landowners who live near or along the proposed PennEast pipeline route, and who want to help document critical natural features along or near the route that are in jeopardy.The workshop is an informational six-hour in-classroom workshop designed for existing or new volunteer monitors who live near the proposed route and who would be willing to do seasonal monitoring in the coming year starting soon with vernal pool mapping as amphibians begin their breeding season.Lunch and refreshments will be provided. Workshop space is limited. This is the only workshop now scheduled in the state.For directions, visit lgnc.org.To get more details and to register for this free workshop, visit
http://bit.ly/DRNPipelineWatch, or email Jim Vogt at