PHOTO/MALINDA HARNISH CLATTERBUCK
LANCASTER COUNTY, PA—The Lancaster Stand was established on a farm in southern Lancaster County, Pa., on March 4. The encampment has brought together opponents of the Atlantic Sunrise Pipeline Project in an effort to stop the pipeline, which opponents say will damage the land, threaten waterways and farms, fragment woodlands, and destroy and desecrate indigenous historical sites. Construction of the 180-mile, $3 billion fracked gas pipeline is scheduled to start in mid-2017.
At a March 4 press conference at the Stand, Malinda Harnish Clatterbuck, a Lancaster county resident, said, “We are here today—Lancaster Against Pipelines—members of the community, and a number of indigenous brothers and sisters, standing before you to speak out against the injustice and raise our voices in solidarity…that the Atlantic Sunrise Pipeline Project…is not worth the damage it will do to our world. The ASP is slated to damage and destroy what we hold dear and depend on for our livelihood, enjoyment… and ultimately life. It is a violation against our rights as residents of this land, and mostly for the private gain of an industry whose economic future is questionable.”
Mark Clatterbuck said in statement that Lancaster residents had been fighting the pipeline for three years, and that they had learned that “our system of government is thoroughly rigged in favor of billionaires and corporate interests—billionaires who build their empires on the backs of local communities and the exploitation of the environment. Today, as we continue to set up camp on the very same field where generations of Susquehannock families built their villages, raised their families, and protected their land and water—today, as we set up camp on this hallowed ground that gives us life, we are done looking elsewhere for salvation…. Change—and justice—is only going to come from where it has always come: from the grassroots up.”
See the full text of their statements at peoplestribune.org.
