July 26th, 2017 by WCBC Radio

On Friday, July 28 at 1:00 pm, dozens of activists — many in kayaks — will span the Potomac River in a powerful showing of opposition to TransCanada’s proposed pipeline under the Potomac. The activists will paddle down the Potomac with large protest banners, drawing attention to the treasured river through which the pipeline is proposed to be constructed and calling on Governor Larry Hogan to reject the project.

 

The kayaktivist action will be the latest stage in a months-long rolling encampment titled “Standing Rock to Hancock: Camp Out to Stop the Potomac Pipeline,” which is taking place throughout the summer with camp-outs along the C&O canal near Hancock, Maryland. Momentum is building and the encampment is growing as part of efforts to urge Hogan to reject the Eastern Panhandle Expansion Project. This three-mile long pipeline would carry dangerous fracked gas from Pennsylvania through Maryland and into West Virginia.

 

Campers will be available throughout Friday and Saturday morning for interviews. There is also an option to join a cave tour at 11:00am before the press conference to view the region’s fragile karst geology, which makes the proposed pipeline an even greater threat to our drinking water.

 

Speakers at the press conference will include Patricia and Dean Kesecker — West Virginia residents whose land has been taken by eminent domain for the construction of this pipeline — and Maryland State Senator Richard Madaleno, who supported the recently-passed statewide ban on fracking.

What: Citizens and environmental advocates to kayak down the Potomac Pipeline with protest banners as part of “Standing Rock to Hancock: Camp Out to Stop the Potomac Pipeline.”

Where: Taylor’s Landing, Chesapeake and Ohio Canal Towpath, Sharpsburg, MD 21782

When: Friday, July 28, 1:00 pm

Speakers:

·         Sen. Richard Madaleno (D-18)

·         Patricia and Dean Kesecker, landowners whose land was forcefully claimed by Mountaineer Gas to build the pipeline;

·         Tracy Cannon, organizer with Eastern Panhandle Protectors;

·         Brooke Harper, Chesapeake Climate Action Network and Environmental Chair for the MSC NAACP