My name is Dr. Tim Trussell, and I am a professor of archaeology at Millersville University. I would like to make you aware of certain facts pertaining to significantarchaeological sitesin Manor, Conestoga, and Martic townships. I have worked as a field archaeologist for 25 years, and have spent the last ten years as a professor at Millersville excavating and studying archaeological sites in Lancaster County. It is my considered opinion that if this pipeline is built anywhere within these townships, the resulting destruction of archaeological sites and Native American burials will be a public relations disaster for Williams and FERC.
Manor, Conestoga, and Martic townshipscontained the highest population and density of Native American settlement anywhere in Pennsylvania. The largest individual villages in all of Pennsylvania Prehistorywere the palisaded settlementsof the Susquehanna River area. To put it very clearly, this area is Pennsylvania’s Valley of the Kings, it is our Machu Picchu .There is literally nowhere else in the entire state that contains a greater concentration of archaeological sites, features, artifacts, and human burials. The proposed pipeline route runs adjacent toseven major archaeological sites already on the National Register, and incredibly, runs directly through aportion of one of these(Conestoga Town, or “Indiantown”). Additionally, there were literally hundreds of smallervillages and settlements spread throughout these townships, the vast majority of which are unknown archaeologically. The area is so rich that we find archaeological materials in virtually every farmer’s field from Route 30 to Silver Spring road.What this means is that you cannot simply move the proposed route a few hundred feet to avoid a site, as might be done in other places.
FERC and Williams may believe that because an archaeological survey is being done prior to construction, any sites and burialson this route can be identified and avoidedahead oftime. Unfortunately, this is not at all true. Although URS is an outstanding archaeological company, the survey methodology the contract on this project calls for is a single 1x1 ft shovel test to be dug every 15 meters, or roughly every 50 feet. If the area of potential effect of the pipeline construction isconservatively estimated at just ten feet on either side of this line,this means thatonly one of every 10,000 square feet of soil within the project area is being tested archaeologically. The likelihood of a one / ten-thousandth sample actually finding a tiny feature like a human grave is incredibly low. But once the bulldozers run and strip this ground, it is a virtual guarantee that Williams will find those burials… and when skulls and femurs are being churned up by heavy equipment there will be a firestorm of public outrage. As of today, FERC and Williams cannot claim ignorance of the probability of destroying archaeological sites and human burials through this project. Professional archaeologists, and Native American rights groups who are already being contacted, will make certain that any such destruction of archaeological resources or the desecration of Native burials will be national news. It will not be the type of news that either Williams or FERC will welcome.
I sincerely hope that is doesn’t come to that, and that Williams and FERC consider an alternate route that does not run straight through the single densest, most important archaeological district in the entire state of Pennsylvania.