We have a new opportunity – and a short window of time – to stop the proposed Atlantic Coast Pipeline. To go forward, the pipeline needs the certification of North Carolina that no waterways will be harmed.
The pipeline would cross more than 560 streams and wetlands in eastern North Carolina as it carries fracked gas into the state. Here are just a few of the ways the Atlantic Coast Pipeline would threaten North Carolina's water:
- Duke Energy plans to dynamite and dig deep trenches through creeks and wetlands, which could cause massive erosion and spell trouble for at-risk species like fish, mussels, and salamanders.
- Drilling under major waterways could cause spills of toxic drilling mud.
- Critical information about specific stream-level data is missing from the application.
Your help is needed to show the Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ) that North Carolinians care about our rivers and wetlands.
Tell DEQ you want the State of North Carolina to exercise its full power to protect our waterways! Subject: Deny the Atlantic Coast Pipeline’s Water Quality Certification
Dear Decisionmaker,
I am writing to urge you to reject the Water Quality Certification for the Atlantic Coast Pipeline.
Duke has NOT shown that the ACP won’t harm North Carolina's waters.
The ACP will cross more than 560 streams, rivers, and wetlands in our state, and put our waters at risk of pollution and long-term harm. Our streams and wetlands would be harmed by trenching, blasting, and stream bank erosion, and we’re going to lose important forested wetlands. Our streams and wetlands are home to birds, bats, fish, salamanders, mussels -- including threatened and endangered species. Some of the waters to be crossed are high quality waters that provide drinking water to our towns.
The Application for 401 Water Quality Certification doesn’t include enough details about which streams would be subjected to trenching, cofferdams, or in-stream blasting. Without site-specific details, it is impossible to know what the water quality impacts would be.
All of the waterways belong to the people of North Carolina and are important part of our heritage. Please don’t let this pipeline put them in danger.
Please exercise the State’s authority under the Clean Water Act to protect our waters from any violation of our water quality. Please reject the ACP’s Section 401 Water Quality Certification.
[Your Comment]
Thank you. [Your Name]
