Act Now to Stop the Potomac Pipeline

US Army Corps of Engineers

The Potomac Pipeline (officially the Eastern Panhandle Expansion Project) poses a danger to Maryland’s waterways and climate and has since its inception. This is a bad deal for Marylanders, and the public deserves to weigh in on such a serious project.

Sign our petition to the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers asking it to require a more rigorous, individual permitting process for the proposed pipeline’s Clean Water Act permit rather than allowing the pipeline to be verified by a blanket permit.

Sponsored by
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CCAN Action Fund
Takoma Park, MD

To: US Army Corps of Engineers
From: [Your Name]

Dear Mr. DaVia,

We understand that the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Baltimore District is conducting an independent “public interest” review of the Eastern Panhandle Expansion Project to determine whether it should be reauthorized under the current Department of Army State Programmatic Permit (MDSPGP-6). We write to request that the Army Corps require the applicant, Columbia Gas Transmission, LLC, to apply for a federal Individual Permit to obtain federal reauthorization of the Eastern Panhandle Expansion Project.

Under the Corps’s public interest review, the decision whether to issue a permit is based on an evaluation of the probable impacts, including cumulative impacts, of the proposed activity on the public interest. Evaluation of the probable impact which the proposed activity may have on the public interest requires a careful weighing of all those factors which become relevant in each particular case. Among the factors to consider are conservation, general environmental concerns, water supply and conservation, and the needs and welfare of the people.

I am concerned about the impacts that Columbia Gas’s pipeline will have on all these factors. The project threatens resources of special importance, including the Potomac River, upon which six million people rely for drinking water every day. Given that Maryland has banned fracking, it defies the state’s existing energy policy to bring the same public health risks to our residents by way of a pipeline. Enabling fossil fuel production runs counter to Maryland’s goals of increasing renewable energy production.

An individual permit will enable regulators to fully examine the impacts of this project. And it will allow members of the public like myself—who have been deeply concerned about this project since it was first proposed—the opportunity to comment.

The public interest review also requires a consideration of property ownership. The State of Maryland owns a portion of the proposed right of way for the pipeline and, in a unanimous decision by the Governor and two other officials, Maryland denied Columbia Gas a right of way over its state park. The property interest of the State of Maryland is another factor that strongly weighs in favor of an individual permit.

We believe this project would reverse course on Maryland’s efforts to protect the health of its residents and combat climate change.

Thank you for your consideration.