Editor, Gazette-Journal:

The ubiquity of the TV ads for the Atlantic pipeline is clearly indicative of a hard sell, which makes one wonder why. The expenditure of millions of dollars in ads can only indicate that those posting them intend to make much more out of the transaction than they are investing.

Another wonder point is that the only benefits hyped are that it will provide a lot of jobs, which would imply that the only general good to be found is the short-term provision of jobs. Virginia, or at least part of it, is wholly dependent on the aquifer for water supply and experience has shown that pipelines invariably pollute the aquifers they intersect.

Much of rural Virginia has no municipal water system to fall back upon in the case of aquifer pollution, requiring municipal expenditures at least as large as the pipeline’s advertising budget in order to provide potable water to those areas which now rely on wells for their drinking water.

It might be better for all if th...