Buckingham County faces the irony of being the only Virginia county already targeted for geometrically higher climate change and environmental health impacts to a front-line community from the sole 68 acre industrial complex compressor station, that is also targeted to bear the brunt of now 25% larger engines [now 54,000 + hp] needed to span the longer routes created by successful efforts by other groups to move the pipeline.
When working on anti-pipeline efforts, Friends of Buckingham experiences unique pressures that are different from sister ACP impact county organizations in Virginia. Buckingham has the distinction of being the only county where its Board of Supervisor supports the ACP. Thus, county agencies and resources are not available for work on historic preservation, taking environmental baselines, health impact studies, and FERC filings. Friends of Buckingham must do all of these with a handful of volunteers, in partnership with Yogaville Environmental Solutions (Y.E.S.), a 4-member team.
In Buckingham, there is both strong political pressure and strong pressure by powerful elites to accept the compressor station rather than to fight and reject its presence, as occurs elsewhere. Dominion Power has promised this rural, second-most impoverished county in Virginia $1.25 million in corporate tax revenues, yet refuses to provide financial bases for these promised tax incentives. Comparative studies with existing pipelines tell us these promised revenues are likely quite overblown.
Buckingham is the sole ACP impact county where FERC has not held a federally required open public meeting on the ACP project and its impacts. These public meetings, while imperfect, offer citizens the chance to make and hear alternative perspectives to Dominion’s public relations discourse; where independent science might be presented. Thus, FERC has contributed to a total vacuum in federal and local political responsibility to Buckingham’s citizens about a major, controversial development project.
The Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ) requires gas companies to apply for minor or major source special use air permits only for their compressor station sites. Dominion Power’s ACP application to DEQ in September 2015 was for only a minor source air permit because the existing air quality is so high (that they may be allowed to emit a much higher level of toxic emissions than if it were already polluted). And, the CS site’s ambient air quality purity also allows Dominion to apply to use engines that are far less technologically advanced than available now to lower climate change effects from methane emissions “lost” through routine venting to prevent volatile fracked gas pipeline explosions and fires at compressor stations. Thus, Friends of Buckingham’s successful nomination for the Union Hill/Woods Corner Rural Historic District for the compressor station district for “most endangered historic site in Virginia” is based on clear environmental endangerment.
The secrecy with which the compressor station site was purchased, and the federal and local political silence about its certain negative impacts on proximal individuals, families, and communities, together point to troubling environmental injustice issues in the ACP proposal. When Friends of Buckingham volunteers went door to door to inform landowners in close proximity about the CS land purchase, we learned that 99% of bordering landowners are African Americans, mostly elderly. Most are descendants of slaves who purchased these lands as Freedmen or post-Emancipation. Evidence gathering for the historic preservation work on the Union Hill/Woods Corner Rural Historic District revealed it was the descendants of former plantation owners, Variety Shades LLC, who sold the CS acres to Dominion at over 100 times the local per acre cost; while the descendants of Buckingham slaves are now those whose adjoining lands are nearly worthless because of that proximity.
This history of slavery and its legacy lives on in the social dynamics surrounding the ACP compressor station sited for Buckingham County. Its proposed site maps inequality and social injustice. Unlike other counties in Virginia where out-migration and in-migration have changed centuries-long silences about structural racial inequalities and discrimination, Buckingham remains a county where plantation-era historic families with the same last names live near one another on either side of the color line. Even the local NAACP chapter in Buckingham has decided not to act on the environmental injustices being played out in relation to the CS rather than to rouse anger and backlash.
Taken together, these sociopolitical and cultural historical factors strongly contribute to the small number of active members of FoB. Our leadership is now experiencing burnout after a year and one-half of deep immersion in these issues and need for each person to engage with multiple responsibilities. The multi-faceted nature of these issue are both deeply personal and emotional for those directly impacted, and also deeply political and frustrating in Buckingham because no large populace has risen up to fight it. Listening to those notified of ACP surveys for routes on or near their property, disaster and disability scholar, Lakshmi Fjord, terms reactions to being located “on the ACP route” as “anticipatory traumatic stress,” with all manner of anxiety-producing effects.
Efforts to move the pipeline to somewhere else only serve to displace these stressors onto others, rather than to stop the pipeline altogether. Because the compressor station is sited in the middle of an historic plantation site nearly entirely surrounded by African Americans, these residents express no doubts that their lands and lives are considered expendable by their county officials and Dominion Power, which induces another deeper level of stress on those individuals, families, and communities. For, inadvertently, all efforts by environmental, conservation, and historic preservation groups in other counties to move the ACP route reinforce the site of the compressor station in Buckingham.
This was the addendum to our application for a grant by Center for Health and Environmental Justice, CHEJ.
This does a good job of describing the situation in Buckingham. As a landowner there, directly affected by the proposed ACP pipeline and close to the compressor station, and a landowner in Montgomery County, VA, near the proposed MVP and its compressor station, I am beyond frustrated that the leadership in Buckingham has effectively sold us all out. When I made the trip to a Board of Supervisors meeting, I was given 3 minutes to speak, and had to start by explaining who I am. Although I drove over 4 hours round trip on a work night, I was cut off mid-word. There seemed to be no concern about the costs of the pipeline, which the builders ignore by only quantifying proposed economic benefits that are undocumented and grossly overstated.
In Montgomery county, I find both citizens (affected landowners as well as many others) and the Board of Supervisors more engaged and seeking to look out for the community and its environment. The MVP has targeted the poorest part of the county for the compression station and multiple routes for the pipeline are in play due to landowners raising questions. The media provides regular stories/information about what is happening including material from those with concerns as well as supporters, and people across the region are working together. Since I do not live/work in Buckingham, it is much harder to be involved. It is extremely frustrating to watch Buckingham people being treated so poorly by the ACP folks and county leaders. Their idea of issues appropriate for our input is the color of the compressor station building and they refuse to address the real issues publicly. I appreciate all the efforts of those attempting to address this travesty and to help citizens understand what is happening.
If you are an affected landowner, understand that until the FERC issues the company a certificate, it does not have the power of eminent domain. It hopes/ expects to ultimately get this power but it does not have it right now. People in other communities who have dealt with pipelines have found that the land people who approach them often do not tell them the truth and that signing an easement agreement early meant less money, fewer protections, and being counted among the pipeline supporters. Do not let them pressure you into prematurely signing an easement. If you are offered an easement agreement, get an attorney who understands eminent domain and pipelines to help you. There are affordable attorneys available. Do not accept the company’s advice/help to protect your rights. Talk with neighbors about this. The company doesn’t want you to, but we’ll all come out better off if we work together and do not let the company divide us.
Landowner rights are enshrined in the US Constitution’s 5th Amendment. Virginians thought we voted to protect landowner rights from eminent domain for private gain with our constitutional amendment. I believe many who will be negatively affected by the ACP are unaware of that fact. Those who care about our heritage in our land and our culture, who want to position Buckingham to be a place people want to live in the future are needed for this fight, even if you are not a directly affected landowner. If our land is taken for this, yours may be taken for the next project. Please learn about this issue and get involved.