ACP Archives
The Friends of Buckingham have worked for more than seven years to protect our lands from the Atlantic Coast Pipeline. Our efforts were successful!
An archive of what went into this remarkable environmental accomplishment follows.
Pipelines & Compressor Stations
The fight against the ACP
Other Environmental Issues
Climate change and more
Environmental Justice
Courts and regulatory agencies managing environmental issues
Media Center
Videos of our hearings and celebrations
Pipelines & Compressor Stations
Virginia Mercury: Buckingham’s next environmental fight? Maybe gold mining.
The Atlantic Coast Pipeline is dead. So what’s next for Buckingham County? Gold, apparently. This month, plans by a Canadian gold mining company to extract the valuable commodity from thousands of acres of land in Buckingham surfaced, setting off a wave of alarm in a...
Appalachian Voices denounces FERC’s greenlight for Mountain Valley Pipeline to resume
Press Release: In a snub to thousands of Appalachian landowners and others seeking to stop the unneeded, dangerous Mountain Valley Pipeline, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission late today voted 2-1 to extend its certificate for the project by two years, and...
Gold mining pollution threatens Buckingham County
Friends of Buckingham is alerting you to an urgent joint meeting with the Buckingham County Board of Supervisors and the Planning Commission. The meeting will take place on Tuesday, October 13 at 6 pm. Our county officials will be discussing changing an ordinance that...
A look at the Atlantic Coast Pipeline easement process that left Nelson landowners $15 million richer
Nelson County as seen from an overlook on the Rockfish Gap Turnpike in Afton, Virginia on Thursday, August 14, 2020.Kendall Warner/The News & Advance [Ya, well maybe... ACP won't be making reparations for all the years of head and heartache. Will they pay...
Landowners be advised, by Irene Leech
While landowners should take a moment to celebrate the cancellation of the Atlantic Coast Pipeline, (ACP), we also need to remember that now is the time to get damage repaired and the company owns easements across our land. Dominion has said that it will not ask that...
ACP WIN zoom celebration 7-30-2020 NOW its a Done Deal
A fun, fine, joyful and tearful time was had by all. Friends of Buckingham wishes heartfelt, deep gratitude to our extended family of allies for all the amazing 6 years of collaborations, highs, lows, good times n bad. We weathered it all, and proved ourselves worthy...
Memo to: Buckingham Virginia Landowners with Atlantic Coast Pipeline Easements
Thanks to Irene for sending out 177!! letters to landowners in Buckingham County to assist in moving forward with working out equitable easement agreements with ACP. Thank you Irene! The following information is also available in pdf format: Memo to Landowners 72120...
The Atlantic Coast Pipeline was canceled. What happens to all the land acquired for it?
The bitterly fought Atlantic Coast Pipeline has been canceled, but the two major utilities behind it, Virginia-based Dominion Energy and North Carolina-based Duke Energy, still have not decided what to do about the land they gained control over for the project, in...
Abandoned Atlantic Coast Pipeline is the beginning of our clean energy future
Press Release from the Southern Environmental Law Center For Immediate Release: Monday, July 6, 2020 Contact: Greg Buppert, 434-977-4090, gbuppert@selcva.org Claudine Ebeid McElwain, 202-492-0659, cmcelwain@selcva.org Charlottesville, VA — After winning legal battles...
The demise of the Atlantic Coast Pipeline vindicates Friends of Buckingham
Friends of Buckingham For Immediate Release: July 6, 2020 Contacts: Chad Oba, President FoB, 434-806-6332 John Laury, Treasurer FoB, 434-390-7650 Heidi Dhivya Berthoud, Secretary FoB, 434-979-9732 Marie Gillespie, FoB Council, Executive Committee, 434-969-2867 News of...
Other Environmental Issues
Gold mining: videos of Haile mine, Aston Bay, 2 articles
Flying to Haile Gold Mine April 04 2020, near Kershaw SC, and a little trip back in time along the way with Brian Pittman. Brian and family, fly directly over the 4,000+ acre gold mine, reaching it at about 5 minutes, but it can be seen from the distance once the...
Mr Barlow goes to Kershaw, SC, home to the Haile open pit gold mine, to meet the neighbors
I drove to Kershaw, South Carolina, on October 28, 2020, where the Haile Gold Mine is located, and spent three days there to find out how the gold mining industry had impacted the town. The mine, owned by the Australian company OceanaGold, had been in full operation...
More resources on gold mining
Metal mining provides us with materials essential for modern life. But mining also devastates communities, clean water and the environment. Negative impacts of today’s metal mines Massive landslide at the Bingham Canyon mine in Utah. Photo: Deseret News. Destroyed...
Recent media coverage of gold mining in Buckingham
The Farmville Herald, October 21, 2020 "Buckingham - There's gold in them thar hills" Good coverage! Read here. Check out Sean Tubb's podcast Charlottesville Community Engagement - October 13, 2020: Gold mining in Buckingham; Charlottesville gets a new fire chief;...
Virginia Mercury: Buckingham’s next environmental fight? Maybe gold mining.
The Atlantic Coast Pipeline is dead. So what’s next for Buckingham County? Gold, apparently. This month, plans by a Canadian gold mining company to extract the valuable commodity from thousands of acres of land in Buckingham surfaced, setting off a wave of alarm in a...
Gold Mining problems in brief & links to extensive resources
Buckingham Gold Project, Aston Bay Fact Sheet Compiled by Friends of Buckingham Water Pollution Groundwater contamination is of particular concern where the groundwater feeds surface streams or lakes, or where the groundwater is directly a source of potable water for...
Sun Sing in Place Concert Series
Join ARTivism Virginia’s SUN SiNG Collective for their sixth and final concert in this series, which was on June 18. The week’s focus was on environmental justice, the fight to protect Union Hill and the Poor People’s Campaign and featured guest speaker Reverend Dr....
A National Call for Moral Revival with the Mass Poor People’s Assembly & Moral March on Washington
Due to Covid-19 the Mass Poor People’s Assembly and Moral March on Washington was a Digital Justice Gathering to call for a revolution of values to save the soul and heart of our democracy. The political and economic systems in the U.S. are plagued by the interlocking...
Allan receives community service for removing enslaved people block marker
TYLER HAMMEL/THE DAILY PROGRESS Two supporters talk with Richard H. Allan III (right) following his hearing Thursday at Charlottesville General District Court. An Albemarle County man charged with removing a plaque that marks the spot where enslaved people were...
The Atlantic Coast Pipeline If built, the ACP will disrupt the pristine landscape & impact historic communities.
An Expedition led by Senior Fellow, Karen Kasmauski with the International League Of Conservation Photographers. For a stunning photographic essay and story of Union Hill in Buckingham County and also Nelson County please click HERE.
Environmental Justice
Town Hall September 7. Our Air, Our Health, Our Common Future: The Fight to Save Union Hill
On September 7, a town hall was convened in Buckingham County. An invitation was sent out to our elected representatives. Over 120 people attended this event. See 6 minute video below and on the home page "Union Hill Residents..." The town hall was held in Union Hill...
After pipeline feud, Virginia nonprofit aims to reunite community with solar
A broken "no pipeline" sign rests outside a home in Union Hill, where residents are divided over Dominion Energy's plan to build a compressor station for the utility's Atlantic Coast Pipeline. A weeklong boot camp in Union Hill, Virginia, trained 10 area residents on...
Amicus Briefs Filed in Support of Buckingham Suit
Friends of Buckingham, et al. v. State Air Pollution Control Board, et al., is a case pending in the United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit involving the potential harms facing Union Hill, an African American community in Buckingham County, from the...
Citing Environmental Justice Concerns, Virginia State Conference NAACP Urges Federal Appeals Court to Stop Atlantic Coast Pipeline
The Virginia State Conference NAACP once again has reaffirmed its longstanding opposition to the Atlantic Coast Pipeline. In a court brief filed on April 12, the state NAACP has urged a federal appeals court in Washington to revoke the key federal permit for the...
Worldwide ban on fracking recommended by The Peoples’ Permanent Tribunal
The Permanent Peoples’ Tribunal has just released its Advisory Opinion, recommending a worldwide ban on hydraulic fracturing, the extreme oil and gas extraction technique known as ‘fracking.’ The materials, and infrastructure of fracking inherently and necessarily...
Extensive Media Coverage of: A Moral Call For Ecological Justice in Buckingham Tuesday 2-19-2019
Friends of Buckingham extends a warm and grateful thank you to Reverend Barber, Al Gore and Karenna Gore for accepting our ernest and urgent invitation to come to Union HIll, to draw and amplify ever widening attention to the injustices forced on the Union Hill...
Al Gore, civil rights leader William Barber call on Northam to seek forgiveness through action
Former vice president Al Gore and the Rev. William Barber II, left, talk with local resident Ella Rose in front of her home in Union Hill, Va. (Steve Helber/AP) BUCKINGHAM COUNTY, Va. — The little front porch seemed like a pulpit as the Rev. William Barber II outlined...
Path to Racial Equity in VA Includes Environmental Justice
Black History Month is a time of remembrance – to remember and celebrate African American achievements and culture, but also to remember those parts of our nation’s history that we sometimes might like to forget. “Those who cannot remember the past,” as George...
Union Hill visit by Gore, Barber seeks to put Northam on spot
Gov. Ralph Northam can’t escape the spotlight as former Vice President Al Gore and the Rev. William J. Barber II bring a racial and environmental crusade Tuesday to a little community in Buckingham County with a big natural gas pipeline planned at its doorstep....
Press Release: A Statement on Behalf of the Buckingham County Democratic Committee
In a surprisingly bold statement released to the press, Buckingham County Dems say that "Gov. Northam can cease the environmental racism and great injustice that is being besieged upon Buckingham County’s Union Hill Community." Buckingham County Democratic Committee...