Born And Made For These Times: Schoharie County Activists Rally To Stop The CON

The Constitution Pipeline is back. But so are the activists, fearful of its environmental impact on Upstate NY Schohare County, this place we call home.

A sign at Stop the Constitution Pipeline’s August info session at SUNY Cobleskill shares a petition link.

These hills and farms, this Schoharie Valley, even the waterways, have a long history of fighting back.

Now they’re fighting back–again–against plans to run 33 miles of the Constitution Pipeline–also back again–up and down those hills, across those farms, and even alongside the too often unpredictable Schoharie Creek.

Briefly (because its history goes back to 2012), the Constitution Pipeline would carry natural gas 144 miles from Susquehanna, Pennsylvania through Broome, Delaware, Chenango, Otsego, and Schoharie Counties.

Here, it would cross seven towns: Jefferson, Summit, Richmondville, Cobleskill, Middleburgh, Schoharie, and into Wright, where it would connect to an existing compressor station. 

Tanja Knowinski was shocked to learn the proposed Constitution Pipeline could cross her Warnerville Hill farm. On two sides. Now she’s helping lead efforts to stop it.

The Williams Companies walked away from the project in 2020 after losing court challenges from the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation, which argued insufficient environmental review, claims that made it all the way to the Supreme Court. 

But in December 2025, citing a change in federal energy policy, Williams began notifying landowners like Tanja Konwinski, who lives at the top of Warnerville Hill, that they’re back.

The proposed pipeline would cross her farm on two sides.

Now, Konwinski and friends at The Waterfall Center, like Bethany Yarrow of the Waterfall Unity Alliance‍, (she’s the daughter of the late Peter Yarrow of Peter, Paul and Mary, and like her dad, a longtime activist), have joined the fight to stop the pipeline again as Stop the CON. (Details, plus maps at all three sites.)

Lifelong activist Bethany Yarrow’s fought this fight before. There’s a place for everyone and every skill in this version of the Stop The CON, she told a crowd of nearly 200 at SUNY CObleskill.

They’re hoping the state will be on their side again. But they’re also taking nothing for granted. Because political winds? They can always shift.

“What can we do? How do we shore up? If you are a bread baker…if you are a teacher…bring your gifts to this movement,” Yarrow said, bringing the inspiration to an August Stop the Constitution Pipeline Public Meeting at SUNY Cobleskill. Nearly 200 people were there.

“We were born and made for these times. When we come together, different things are possible. We do have the power. We have to use it. The bad news: There’s no one coming to save us.” 

Konwinski outlined StopThe Con’s concerns.

To start:

>>>Leaks can contaminate air and water.

>>Compressor stations are noisy. And Wright’s? There are four schools within 5 miles.

>>Landowners will get just one-time payments for easements, which are deeded into their property. PILOTS don’t exist with gas (or oil) infrastructure.

>>There are typically no local jobs either during construction or during operation.

>>The Tennessee Gas and Iroquois Gas lines the pipeline would connect to are near-capacity.

Clean water and air. Farming. Outdoor recreation. Fishing, hunting, wildlife photography, “All of that is fundamental to our life here,” Konwinski said, and to tourism and economic development.

But it gets worse. Because Schoharie County’s been here before.

In 1990, a liquid propane leak in a pipeline owned by Texas Eastern ignited a fireball in the Town of Blenheim, killing two people, including former Fire Chief and Highway Superintendent Bob Hitchcock, and leveling 14 buildings. Before the explosion? Neighbors thought the low-lying gas was fog.

Fast-forward to 2010, when, on the other side of the country, a natural gas pipeline owned by Pacific Gas & Electric in San Bruno, California, ruptured, killing eight people. That blast was so strong it was first reported as an earthquake.

This view from the top of Warnerville Hill pretty much says it all. The proposed pipeline would cross seven Schoharie County towns, including Richmondville.

Activists sign a Stop the Pipeline petition outside SUNY Cobleskill’s Bouck Hall Theater.

According to other research shared at the college, the Constitution Pipeline would:

>>Clear 1,872 acres of land, and as many as a million trees statewide, disrupting forested areas, impacting carbon sequestration, and contributing to erosion.

>>Cross 300 bodies of water, including the Schoharie Creek, a creek with a violent and sometimes vicious flood history. A disaster waiting to happen, said Kowinski.

And still worse?

Williams is rapidly expanding into data centers–heavy users of both water and energy. 

Because there’s nowhere in the lines for the gas to go, observers fear that could be the real goal; 38 large data center project proposals are currently under review by utility regulators in New York State. Overturning the state’s fracking ban? They’re afraid that could come next.

The entire path of the pipeline runs parallel to I-88. 

“We have land, we have water…That corridor could be ripe for the taking,” Kowinski said. “This place we live in is as special as we all think it is. We need to stand up and be its voice. It will feed us and protect us. We need to give a big fat no to Constitution Pipeline again.”

There’s a place for everyone in working to stop this, Yarrow said. “We want a different future.”

Next up: the Women’s Water Walk to Stop The Constitution Pipeline will follow its proposed route, from Windsor, New York to Wright, September 19-October 4. Join the walk, donate, or get involved here.

Contact the author at patsynicosia@gmail.com.

A slew of posters outlining concerns over the Constitution Pipeline: Leaks, explosions, always-changing waterways, and even data centers.