To the Editor

Our Robeson County Board of Commissioners has voted to delay approval of a requested conditional-use permit for the proposed Atlantic Coast Pipeline to construct a Meter and Regulating Station and a 350-foot-tall microwave cell tower at the doorway to Prospect near Pembroke. The county commissioners have now been criticized for drawing back (i.e. “balking”) on their previous support for the project.

When we become more informed about anything, there is more than just logic in delaying a decision after first endorsing it. We have a moral and spiritual responsibility to stop and learn more about any situation or condition before moving forward.

The proposed Meter and Regulating Station and tower cannot meet three of the four pre-requisites for a conditional-use permit based on our county’s application because it will: (1) materially endanger the public’s health and safety; (2) substantially injure the value of adjoining or abutting property; and (3) not be in harmony with the area in which it will be located.

This is fact. The ACP proposes that this station house join three different methane gas pipelines into one highly explosive pipeline in the heart of our county. With the compressor station that is already there and this proposed one, our county would become one of the most endangered places to live, not only along the 500-mile route of the proposed gas pipeline, but also one of the most compromised places to live in the entire nation.

When the public hearing is announced, please come. We all need to hear, learn, and discern what is best for our people and the places where we live.

Rev. Mac Legerton

Pembroke