Water Walk Puts Pipeline Concerns Front and Center

By LUCAS BERGSUNY Institute for Local NewsONEONTA

While songs and prayers filled the Delaware-Otsego Audubon Society bird sanctuary on the afternoon of Thursday, September 24, participants in the Women’s Water Walk brought a renewed environmental fight directly to a community that could feel the consequences.

Oneonta was the sixth stop on a 108-mile walk following the proposed route of the Constitution Pipeline, a natural gas pipeline that would pass through Delaware County and other parts of New York’s Southern Tier and Catskills. For residents gathered at a potluck welcome event on September 24, the walkers’ arrival offered a reminder that a project rejected a decade ago is again under federal consideration.

Participants walked Thursday from a sanctuary in Franklin to the Audubon Society’s property outside Oneonta. They climbed Swart Hollow Road carrying signs, singing and stopping to recognize the waterways they say would be threatened by pipeline construction.

The two-week walk began September 19 at Oquaga Creek State Park and was scheduled to end October 4 at Lily Park in Schoharie. Along the way, participants planned to visit rivers, lakes, and streams, gather water, and hold community meals and discussions. Organizers said the collected water would later be brought to Albany as part of an appeal to state leaders.

Organizers described the journey as both an action against the pipeline and a prayer walk centered on water. Mary Beth McCarthy Yarrow, the mother of organizer Bethany Yarrow and a participant in the walk, said its tone was intentionally welcoming.

“It’s not a protest. It’s a coming together—a celebration in some way, of celebrating the water.”