a chronicle of grassroots activists fighting pipelines of destruction in appalachia

Containing articles written between 2014 and 2022 and published on the Appalachian Chronicle, it is an account of reluctant, citizen activists who rose up organically in grassroots resistance to the natural gas industry as it has attempted to complete two, 42” pipelines carrying natural gas hundreds of miles through the Appalachian Mountains from the fracking fields of northern West Virginia, southwest Pennsylvania and eastern Ohio. It is a first draft of a chapter in a history that is old. The fossil fuel industry has siphoned off billions of dollars of wealth – timber, oil, coal, gas – from Appalachia for well over a century, benefiting corporations, but devastating people and the earth.

It is a valuable historical record of the abusive, cruel, bullying and deadly tactics of the fossil-fuel industry in West Virginia, Virginia and beyond. People’s health is compromised. Their homesteads ruined if not outright stolen from them. Entire watersheds are ruined, causing people to lack pure water. The environment is destroyed. The air is unbreathable. The pipelines are dangerous. And there is more.

‘From Almost Heaven to Almost Hell’

This is where you can begin your journey of the many stories of people who have learned that the fossil fuel industry is turning Appalachia “From almost heaven to almost hell,” as the late Myra Bonhage-Hale, a longtime resident of Lewis County, West Virginia, said before moving away to eastern Maryland to escape the MVP.

While the MVP was approved through Congressional legislation upheld by Federal Courts in the summer of 2023, those concerned about public health, governmental overreach, abuse through tactics like eminent domain, and protecting the natural world from pollution will find the accounts instructive.

destruction continues

The MVP, as it finishes construction, is continuing to cause extensive damage to property, people, rivers, roads, wildlife and more. The most recent example we know of happened in Big Isaac, W.Va., where we report that the MVP’s ROW is the culprit for numerous flash floods, accusations the MVP and community authorities dispute. But science, pictures and the testimony of the farmers that have spent their life on the land suggests otherwise.

12/26/25

We have about a dozen copies left. If you work in environmental sciences or a related field in the U.S. and want a copy of Fractured Sanctuary, send me an email to michaelbarrick56@gmail.com and we’ll be in touch to work out the details.

© Michael M. Barrick.