Residents directly affected by the PennEast/UGI pipeline project and members of the public concerned about the pipeline met Thursday night to hear the latest in the fight to get the project stopped.

Maya van Rossum, of the Delaware Riverkeeper Network, told the group the Federal Environmental Regulatory Commission is not their friend.To FERC, "the PennEast Pipeline is a foregone conclusion," she said. In the last 30 years, the commission has rejected only one pipeline project."In FERC's book, it's do we put the pipeline here or do we put it there?" she said.Van Rossum said the final environmental impact study will be issued on Dec. 16, 2016, and a decision will have to be made by FERC by March 16, 2017. This means that the public will be able to comment this fall."It will be an incomplete document that will need a lot of community input," she said.She told them to be prepared to speak at public meetings and require that they are given more than two minutes to make their comments. In past hearings, people were told they had to limit their comments to two minutes and the meetings were ended before everyone had a chance to speak."They were given unreasonable time limits on testimony," she said. "That's the kind of fight you need to get ready for."But those wanting the pipeline stopped might have influence in some other organizations.DEP certificationVan Rossum said the state Department of Environmental Protection announced in May that it intends to issue a 401 certification for the PennEast Pipeline project. The public has until June 13 to comment on the certification.Van Rossum said in order to receive the certification the DEP is required by law to make sure the company requesting the certification show that it complies with a list of state requirements set in the Clean Water Act. Penn East has not shown that it complies with all of the requirements, she said. Despite this, the DEP is considering the granting of the certification."(DEP) is going to give Penn-East that 401 certification and will at some point require them to meet all of the requirements," Van Rossum said.DEP has to be required to hold to the state requirements when enforcing the Clean Water Act."Anything else is premature, wrong and illegal," she said.Saying noIn addition to the DEP, those wishing to stop PennEast are encouraged to attend the Delaware River Basin Commission's next public meeting. Van Rossum said her organization, the Delaware Riverkeeper Network, has gotten DRBC to agree to a meeting separate from FERC."DRBC has the power to say no to the PennEast project," she said. They have before them an application filed on Jan. 29 involving surface water, withdrawals and discharges that PennEast wants to conduct.DRN wants DRBC to schedule seven public meetings so residents every 10 to 20 miles can come out and comment.DRBC's next public meeting is at 10:30 a.m. June 15 at the office in Trenton, New Jersey."We want to pack that meeting," Van Rossum said.Also attending the meeting Thursday night was Karen Feridun from the Berks Gas Truth. She said about 9,700 natural gas wells have been drilled in Pennsylvania; there are more than 17,000 wells permitted."They aren't drilling, because they aren't pipelines to them," she said. "This isn't sustainable anyway. You have to be worried about the climate. There has to be a better way."David Pringle from Clean Water Action said using renewable energy 100 percent is possible. Denmark is already 100 percent renewable. All three speakers encouraged those attending to come out for the March for a Clean Energy Revolution on July 24 in Philadelphia.