Minisink residents are preparing for the legal battle ahead and need your support. Please donate and be part of a groundbreaking case.  All fundraising contributions will pay for legal costs and energy expert opinion.  The community expected to fight this battle within the court system and in order to do so will need to raise the necessary funds.  Please help join the fight against an unnecessary terrible threat to a peaceful community. This is our last stand!

Our attorney, Carolyn Elefant, has done a phenomenal job thus far and has spent countless hours on the Minisink case.  We are being carefully watched by the industry, press, politicians, and other communities facing similar challenges.  Focus on our community has been especially strong due to unprecedented support from FERC Chairman Wellinghoff and Commissioner LaFleur, who agree with the Minisink community and the Wagoner Alternative.  The Minisink compressor station project has evidence of dire safety concerns from industry experts, and it will cause unnecessary environmental degradation and economic devastation on the community’s families.  Our case has a cleared industrial zoned alternative location that is far from residences and already held a compressor station. With all the obvious reasons this project should not be permitted, if Minisink doesn’t have a chance, NO community will!  Please donate and stand with us!

 Please click on the button below to donate via Paypal.

If you have any questions about donating or want to learn how you can help, please contact stopmcs1@gmail.com. 

Finally Minisink will challenge their case in second highest court in the land, the U.S. Court of Appeals.  After a long wait for a final response from the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) a decision has been made.  FERC denied the rehearing request, now allowing the Minisink residents to take their case to court.  The community expected this outcome and is eager to move forward.  The two commissioners, Chairman Wellinghoff and Commissioner LaFleur, who gave dissenting  votes on the original order and agreed with the Minisink community,  stood their ground and dissented for a second time, “We dissent from today’s rehearing order. ”   In their joint statement they firmly stand against the project, “…we continue to believe that, even after mitigation, the Minisink project will have significant adverse environmental consequences.  Further, we believe that the Wagoner Alternative would create significantly fewer and less enduring environmental impacts and is therefore an environmentally preferable alternative.”

To read the full FERC rehearing denial please click on the “press room” tab and look under the legal documents section.

Thank you M.U.S.T. (Mothers United for Sustainable Technologies) for helping Minisink share the next part of their story!

Pipeline engineer, Richard Kuprewicz, President of Accufacts Inc., submitted a technical report last week which analyzed Millennium Pipeline’s planned natural gas infrastructure in the vicinity of the proposed Minisink Compressor Station. He found that many of the community’s concerns validated, “The velocities on the 24-inch Neversink segment clearly exceed prudent design standards and safety margins establishing much lower actual gas velocities on pipelines that are intended to avoid gas transmission pipeline rupture.  Such high actual gas velocities for a natural gas transmission pipeline raise serious questions as to the adequacy or completeness of any previous hydraulic studies or decisions that may have been used to justify approval of the Minisink Compressor Project.  The Minisink Compressor Project is a very poor proposal and should be rejected.”

Our attorney, Carolyn Elefant, submitted a motion to reopen the docket, as well as a renewed stay of construction on November 30th.  The engineer report supports what FERC Chairman Wellinghoff, Commissioner LaFleur and Minisink residents have been claiming for well over  a year.

Minsink residents are concerned about the possibility of a major pipeline disaster occurring similar to the deadly San Bruno, California explosion in 2010.  Much like the case in Minisink, there were clear warnings in San Bruno beforehand of the unacceptable risks within the pipeline system.

Residents of Minisink submitted complaints and canceled contracts with PANCO Petroleum Company after witnessing several of the company’s fuel trucks supplying construction equipment at the compressor station construction site. We are extremely proud and happy to learn that PANCO has since stopped suppling Millennium Pipeline! We appreciate PANCO’s decision to do the right thing and stand with the community.  Several residents have already expressed their intention to re-open their contracts for their next fuel delivery or become first time customers.

“You may be happy to hear that as a result of your ( and other ) communication, PANCO has ceased fueling the Millennium Pipeline Job as of November 10, 2012.
Good Luck to you in your efforts.

PANCO PETROLEUM COMPANY
John Panebianco
Vice President”

Construction activity is not limited to the weekdays.  On Saturdays and today, a federal holiday, construction crews are banging away at the compressor station site creating a public nuisance.  Crews have started equipment on the site beginning at 6:30am, followed by loud hammering at 7:30am.  For 10 hours a day the continuous construction noise has created a nightmare for the residents in the neighborhood.

Yesterday Congresswoman Nan Hayworth and Fealgood Foundation President, John Feal, joined Minisinkers across from the compressor station construction site for a rally against the project. After the congresswoman spoke in private with residents who live in closest proximity to the construction site, she addressed the approximately 200 residents, most who live within half mile, and shared her commitment to the fight. Congresswoman Hayworth spent a significant amount of time speaking individually with residents and hearing their frustration witnessing a residential area being used for industrial infrastructure. Standing alongside the Minisink community’s  9/11 first responders, John Feal gave a very inspiring speech based on his experience fighting for the Zadroga Act. Many of the community’s 9/11 first responders came out thank John Feal for his commitment to help responders once again.  We thank both the Congresswoman and Mr. Feal for coming out and supporting us!

Millennium Pipeline, in a News12 TV interview, claimed Minisink residents fighting the project had a lot of misinformation about the compressor station. Considering the community has support from FERC Chairman Wellinghoff and Commissioner LaFleur, who combined have over 57 years experience in the energy sector, we find very telling. The Minisink community would not have the commissioners’ support with a bunch of misinformation on the docket. The simple fact that this project is an industrial facility being placed in a residential/agricultural zoned location surrounded by residences, even though a reasonable industrial zoned alternative site is available, is outrageous. This is not the sacrifice of a peaceful community for the greater good because there is no other choice. Minisink families are being bullied and pushed aside for corporate profit!

Today Minisink received assistance from United States Senators Charles Schumer and Kirsten Gillibrand in the form of a letter submitted to FERC. This letter comes only days after over 80 Minisink residents journeyed to Washington D.C. to attend the monthly Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) meeting, and visit their representatives’ offices. The Minisink community has been pleading for help with their ongoing battle against the Minisink Compressor Station.  Residents are calling for an expedited final response on the Minisink FERC docket CP11-515. The letter submitted by the senators’ offices reminds FERC of it’s responsibilities, “… to provide a timely response,” and helps put pressure on the agency to finalize their position and allow the Minisink community to move forward with legal options.

The Minisink community has now heard from both Republican and Democratic Party representatives. Just showing further proof that this is an American issue and not a political one. StopMCS and the ongoing fight against the Minisink Compressor Station are nonpartisan! Doing the right thing is not taking a political stance!

THANK YOU Senator Charles Schumer and Senator Kirsten Gillibrand!

This Friday, October 26th, the Minisink community and it’s supporters will hold a rally outside Millennium Pipeline’s compressor station construction site. Congresswoman Nan Hayworth is expected to attend and speak with residents about their many concerns regarding the construction of this project. The Minisink community is outraged FERC has allowed construction despite the agency’s ongoing review of rehearing request issues and lack of a final response.  StopMCS is a nonpartisan group of community members who have also reached out to Senator Gillibrand and Schumer.

The Minisink residents throughout the FERC process have strongly recommended an alternative site for Millennium Pipeline’s 12,260 horsepower compressor station.  This location, known as the Wagoner Station, is an industrial zoned, 18.8 acre cleared site, surrounded by forest, and the closest residence is over 3/4 of a mile away. This location also  had an operating compressor station on the property for 3 years! Please see the list below for additional examples of why the Wagoner Station is a better and more appropriate location choice.