Business Owners, Residents Say: "Picnics, NOT Pipelines"

Thursday, May 26, 2011 11 a.m. to noon (Rain or shine)

click: Here's the WNEP Ch 16 report of the event.

Business Owners, Residents Say: "Picnics, NOT Pipelines"

Kick off Endless Mountain tourist season with plea to preserve region’s way of life and have lunch on us!

LAPORTE, PA – Business owners and year-round and seasonal residents will kick off the summer tourist season in Pennsylvania’s Endless Mountains with a picnic -- and a plea to local, state, and federal officials to preserve the region’s way of life in the face of a proposed gas pipeline project.

For generations, visitors have flocked to the Endless Mountains in Northeast Pennsylvania to enjoy the region’s river gateways, rolling hills, family farms, river towns, historic districts and quaint rural villages -- helping to feed the state’s $26-billion-a-year tourism industry.

But the Central New York Oil and Gas Company wants to install an industrial gas pipeline that would slice through the region, tear up almost 600 acres of land in Bradford, Sullivan, and Lycoming counties, and replace wooded mountains and pastoral landscapes with 39 miles of pipeline, additional miles of lateral gathering lines, access roads, massive compressor units, filter separators, gas coolers and other industrial machinery. Click here (PDF) for a map of the proposed pipeline route.

Business owners and year-round and seasonal residents fear that if the pipeline project goes through as planned, it could mean the end of summer as they’ve known it in the Endless Mountains.

WHAT: Business owners, year-round and seasonal residents kick off summer tourist season in Pennsylvania’s Endless Mountains with a picnic and a plea to preserve the region’s way of life in the face of a proposed gas pipeline project.

WHEN: Thursday, May 26, 2011 11 a.m. to noon (Rain or shine)

WHO:

Michael Stasiunas, Owner, Forksville General Store and Restaurant

Charles and Barbara Gerlach, Owners, Blueberry Fields Organic Farm and Bed & Breakfast

Dr. Arno Vosk, Emergency Room Doctor, Williamsport Hospital and Medical Center

Members of Damascus Citizens for Sustainability, Coalition for Responsible Growth & Resource Conservation, Responsible Drilling Alliance, Gas Drilling Awareness Coalition, Sierra Club (Pennsylvania Chapter)

WHERE: Laporte Park, Laporte, PA. Main Street between Court and Muncy streets.

FOR MORE INFORMATION, CONTACT:

John Trallo at (570) 482-3503 or jtrallo@epix.net

Kathleen Sutcliffe at (202) 667-4500, (202) 384-7157 or ksutcliffe@earthjustice.org Washington, D.C.

*Earthjustice is a non-profit public interest law firm dedicated to protecting the magnificent places, natural resources, and wildlife of this earth and to defending the right of all people to a healthy environment. We bring about far-reaching change by enforcing and strengthening environmental laws on behalf of hundreds of organizations and communities.... "Because the Earth needs a good lawyer!"

A map showing the proposed pipeline route is available here: http://earthjustice.org/documents/map/pdf/map-of-proposed-marc-i-line

Please pass the word to others about this event, and encourage them to attend.