Working to Stop a Petrochemical Hub in the Ohio Valley
By Cheryl Johncox
Over the last few months, we’ve done exciting work in Ohio and West Virginia to organize and activate communities in opposition to PTTG’s proposed petrochemical plant in Belmont County.
The proposed facility is one of five proposed petrochemical plants in the Ohio Valley that would use byproducts from fracked gas to make plastic. Along with a large network of proposed fracked gas pipelines along the Ohio River, the plants would make up the nation’s second-largest petrochemical hub.
Working with local partners Concerned Citizens Barnesville, Freshwater Accountability Project, and Ohio Valley Environmental Coalition, the Sierra Club supported local information sessions Ohio and West Virginia. We’ve worked to empower local partners by taking a behind the scenes in this effort, producing fact sheets, talking points, running newspaper advertisements, and attending meetings as a guest speaker.
This fall, we helped organize community information meetings in Martins Ferry and Shadyside, Ohio, as well as in Moundsville and Wheeling, West Virginia.
After this first round of meetings, we worked with local leaders to plan and execute a door knocking campaign and phone banking about the upcoming public hearings for the PTTG ethane cracker air permit and the NPDES permit. We made over 800 calls to local area residents, and we kept up these efforts and ahead of the first public hearing in late November.
At that November 27th air permit hearing, there were 100 people in attendance. Many concerned citizens had an opportunity to express their concerns, including 20 people who gave testimony against the permit. This was a major change from early summer news reports that there was no community opposition to the ethane cracker. We were able to shift the narrative because of the combined efforts of the coalition with the support of the Sierra Club.
The next public hearing, in early December on the revised NPDES, was even more successful. There were more than 100 people in attendance at the hearing. Community members that we have not seen before showed up to support, applaud, and encourage their community members who are opposed to the ethane cracker. Although individuals from labor unions were there to testify in favor of the project, we were still able to meet them, shake hands, and welcome each other warmly, despite being on opposite sides of this issue.
Going into 2019, we’re continuing to build a strong community movement against this dangerous facility, and we’ll continue to work with local partners to stop it.