The proposed Atlantic Coast Pipeline (ACP) and Buckingham County compressor station are not needed and not wanted by the communities they threaten and the Virginia counties they impact. There is growing opposition to the ACP project proposed to run some 600 miles through Virginia, West Virginia and North Carolina.

The ACP’s compressor station proposed for Buckingham County’s Union Hill community is equally unpopular. Let’s look at the measured facts.

First, the Buckingham community does not want the ACP Compressor Station proposed to be built in Union Hill.

The final results of an online poll conducted recently by The Farmville Herald showed an overwhelming public vote against the dangerous compressor station: 87 percent of those voting said they were against the compressor station (“the dangers were too great”), 11 percent voted for the compressor station and 2 percent had no opinion. It was, apparently, the largest number of votes in an online poll the Herald has conducted. (Editor’s Note: This is accurate, with a total of 589 votes.)

The Buckingham community is obviously very concerned about the dangers from this unnecessary hazardous fuel infrastructure proposed for their county.

Second, Virginia property owners, businesses, residents, and communities that are impacted by the proposed pipeline do not want the ACP to be built due to the negative impact on their lives, property, health, land use and property values.

The final results of a Key-Log Economics LLC study of all the submitted “scoping” comments and letters to the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) regarding the ACP demonstrate the clear stand of citizens against the ACP.

More than 95 percent of all concerned citizens submitting letters to FERC understood the ACP and its compressor station would have a negative impact to the Virginia economy, a negative impact on Virginia forests, a negative impact on Virginia water, a negative impact on Virginia citizens’ health, a negative impact on Virginia citizens’ safety and a negative impact on Virginia culture. And 73.7 percent of all respondents expressed a negative viewpoint on the ACP overall.

So, the vast majority of Buckingham and Virginia citizens who have studied the issues regarding the ACP, who will receive no natural gas from this Dominion-termed “wholesale pipeline;” who would be forced to accept decreased property values; who will have their land, water, safety and lives threatened by leaking hazardous gas, and possible explosion and fire; and their constitutional right to private property violated, stand against the ACP and the dangerous compressor station.

Joseph Jeeva Abbate is retired and serves as day manager at Yogaville in Buckingham. His email address is jeeva@yogaville.org.