Protest Art Rebukes Southern Oregon’s Jordan Cove Pipeline Project

An activist in Eugene has created a block-long art installation to protest a proposed natural gas pipeline being proposed for Southern Oregon.  

Mary DeMocker constructed a 300-foot-long fake pipeline out of wire and black plastic sheeting.  It runs across the yards of six houses near the University of Oregon. Each house is marked with a large banner reading “condemned.” 

“Actually the first two days before we got any information onto all the lawns, people actually believed - because it’s so realistic looking - that these houses were going to be demolished.  People were unsettled,”she says.  “And we said, ‘Yeah, that’s what’s happening in your state.’”

The real pipeline would connect the proposed Jordan Cove Liquefied Natural Gas Export Terminal in Coos Bay to an existing pipeline 230 miles away in Malin, Oregon. The new pipeline would run through public and private property.  

Some property-owners along the path are resisting the project, and fear the company could use eminent domain to forcibly take their land.

The art installation will be on display through Sunday. But DeMocker says she has been approached about taking the project to other communities.  

Federal officials are expected to issue a final environmental impact statement for the Jordan Cove terminal and pipeline this summer.