It’s taking place on Monday, November 19, 2018.
FREDERICK, MD. (LG) A press conference and rally urging the National Park Service, in Hagerstown, to deny the right of way permit for the proposed Potomac Pipeline, is being held on Monday, November 19th.
Clean Water Advocates are trying to stop the construction of a 3.5 mile pipeline beneath the Potomac River and C&O Canal in Western Maryland. “Over the past year we have appealed to Governor Hogan, we’ve appealed through the Maryland General Assembly a few weeks ago, we’ve also appealed the West Virginia Public Service Commission, because they were debating whether to do a second extension on the West Virginia side that would serve a toxic facility called Rockwool,” said Brooke Harper, Policy Director for the Chesapeake Climate Action Network.
Rockwool is a Denmark-based company that manufactures stone wool insulation. This type of product is used in buildings, industrial applications and acoustic ceilings. It’s a fiber-based insulation produced from natural stone and recycled content. A year ago, the company announced it would build a second U.S. facility in Jefferson County, West Virginia. Their first U.S. plant was built in Marshall County, Mississippi. But several Jefferson County residents are concerned, because the plant is being built just a few miles from four public schools and will have a smokestack that will release a range of chemicals like formaldehyde and benzene.
“We are having the rally and press conference at the National Park Service because they still have to grant a right of way to the Potomac Pipeline, which is a project that thousands of Marylanders have been opposed to. It would be a fracked gas line that runs from Pennsylvania, underneath the Potomac River, right outside of Hancock and into West Virginia,” said Harper.
The rally and conference begins at 10:00 a.m.
– By Loretta Gaines