October Action Calendar: Stand Up for North Carolina's Water and Communities
October 3, 2025, by Aidan Loretz (Community Organizer for Haw River Assembly)
Hello everyone! I have several important dates to share for October! Now is the time to stand up and take action. No matter how big, no matter how small, every bit helps. Come stand in solidarity with your greater community, explore how creativity and art go hand-in-hand with activism, and MAKE SOME NOISE!!! We will fight for the future we deserve.
10/6 ~ Comments to NCDEQ on the 401 Water Permit for SSEP DUE (instructions below)
10/8 ~ Art Build with League of Conservation Voters in North Carolina
10/19 ~ Bundle of Arrows with 7 Directions of Service
10/26 ~ Communities Over Corporate Profit: We Won't Pay for Pipelines and Data Centers! Public Gathering
10/6 ~ NCDEQ 401 Permit Comments are DUE SOON!
Speak out against the SSEP pipeline! Tell regulators to protect our streams, wetlands, and communities!
Dozens of people spoke out at the public hearings earlier this month on Williams Transco’s request for a water quality permit to try to move forward with its proposed Southeast Supply Enhancement Project — a 55-mile, high-pressure methane gas pipeline that’s part of a huge expansion of fossil fuels in North Carolina.
You can still weigh in on this project before the North Carolina Department of Environmental Quality decides whether or not to grant Transco this permit. The SSEP project cannot move forward without this permit.
Your voice is important and will make a difference in the fight against this pipeline!
Submit your e-comment at this link with “No. 20240801; version 2” in the ID # field, by October 6th, 2025.
Sign the petition telling the NCDEQ to deny this permit!
The SSEP pipeline would cross more than 150 streams and wetlands in North Carolina, including watersheds that supply drinking water for more than one million residents. Transco plans to use a highly disruptive construction method for almost all of its water crossings. This method can degrade water quality and disrupt key wildlife habitats, such as these more-than-human relatives:
Wanna get involved? Check out nossep.org for the latest actions and community meetings!
Join the League of Conservation Voters for a night of creating signs, banners, and costumes in preparation for upcoming events
10/19 ~ Bundle of Arrows with 7 Directions of Service
Join 7 Directions of Service for Bundle of Arrows, an activation of grassroots power and solidarity through art – including musical performances by Lumbee/Tuscarora singer-songwriter Charly Lowry (check out this music video featuring Charly Lowry and Rhiannon Giddens), and more!
As regulators determine whether to allow the proposed MVP Southgate and Transco SSEP methane gas pipelines to move forward in North Carolina, 7 Directions of Service will host grassroots leaders and impacted communities for Bundle of Arrows: an afternoon of education, art and musical performances on Sunday October 19th from 2pm-5pm in Mebane, NC.
RSVP at bit.ly/bundleofarrows
Both pipelines are part of a regional rush to build unnecessary and destructive fossil fuel infrastructure across the Southeast that would line the pockets of gas corporations, while raising everyone’s electric bills, harming community health and Sacred Waters, and blocking our path to renewable energy independence.
As Indigenous communities experience disproportionate harm from extractive industries, Bundle of Arrows calls for justice, stronger protections for cultural landscapes, and an end to the era of sacrifice zones. Let’s stand together for water, land, and future generations.
10/26 ~ Communities Over Corporate Profit: We Won't Pay for Pipelines and Data Centers! Public Gathering
Clean water matters more than corporate gas profits! Want to learn more about how data centers are harmful? Read HERE.
Save the date! North Carolina folks will be gathering in Freedom Park in Raleigh to tell Governor Stein:
Raise Wages, not Electric Bills!
Clean Air & Water for NC!
NC Demands Safe & Healthy Communities!
Protect our Communities, NOT Corporate Interest!
This community solidarity gathering will be an opportunity to voice to our governor how the people of North Carolina want the future of our state to look like!
And a little follow-up from last week. I’m honored to have been awarded the 2025 Governor’s Volunteer Service Award for Environmental Work in Guilford County over this past weekend!
Thank you to all of my 7DS and HRA colleagues and mentors who consistently support, guide, and shape the work I do and the person I am. I truly wouldn’t be where I am now without you.
As always, this is Aidan wishing community care, light, and love.
Take care of yourselves and each other,
~ Aidan Loretz (they/them, she/her)