On Water and Development

There are over 320,000 kilometers of underground pipeline for natural gas and hazardous liquids in the US, Canada, and Mexico, each intersecting countless large and small bodies of water, disrupting and threatening watersheds, nullifying landowners’ rights, and casting severe doubt on the wisdom of our utility infrastructure and land practices. At one location, where 900 meters of this system intersects with a small, forested site in the mid-Atlantic region of the United States, human and environmental forces are combining to create a precarious yet increasingly common situation.

“On Water and Development: A Cautionary, Microcosmic Tale for a Watershed Near You,” WATER: Alphabet City Vol. 14, ed. John Knechtel (Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 2009) pp. 114-23