The story behind ‘Small Town, Big Oil’ and the Seacoast fight against Onassis

When a neighbor handed me a reserve “Modest Town, Big Oil,” published by a College of New Hampshire college member (David Moore), the only rationale I opened it was the photo of Dudley Dudley. I would listened to various things in excess of the years, but I never ever genuinely understood precisely why she was regionally famous- a little something to do with Aristotle Onassis, which sounded to me like some myth: What would Aristotle Onassis want with New Hampshire?

Could Onassis even find New Hampshire on a map?

Turns out, Aristotle Onassis did know wherever New Hampshire was and as component of a plan to obtain command more than oil transport, he seized on the idea of developing his possess mega refinery, which he resolved to position in Durham New Hampshire. It would be the premier oil refinery in the earth, five times as significant as nearly anything in New Jersey, more substantial than anything at all which has, to this working day, at any time been designed-any place.

On Thursday, May perhaps 5 at 7 p.m. at South Church in Portsmouth, Dudley Dudley and David Moore, the “Small Town, Significant Oil” writer, will speak about the astonishing act of group activism and resistance which fought Onassis and received. The event is free and open to the general public.

The Onassis strategy not only involved the constructing of the large refinery in Durham, he made a decision he’d ship oil in large amounts to the Isles of Shoals, pump it from that depot underneath the drinking water in a 15 mile pipeline to Rye and from there one more 20 miles to Durham Issue, challenging by the Wonderful Bay.

From this, emerged a saga alongside the lines of “Silkwood” and “Erin Brockavich,” as the Onassis strategy required all types of co-conspirators from the governor of New Hampshire, a Ga transplant named Meldrim Thomson, to the venomous William Loeb III, publisher of the Manchester Union Leader.

Dudley Dudley had just been elected to her to start with time period in the New Hampshire Residence of Associates, exactly where Loeb believed no girl belonged. He in no way referred to her as anything at all other than Mrs. Thomas Dudley, because, just after all, that’s what she was, practically nothing extra than a housewife belonging to a partner, striving to perform in the major leagues of condition authorities.

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But Dudley proved to have a couple critical features: She was evidently tenacious and not quick to intimidate. To show the locals were being really opposed to this assured environmental destruction, Dudley would require assist from the locals and some mechanism to get the term out. Which is wherever Ms. Sandberg and Ms. Bennett arrived in.

Of system, the governor immediately cried out this was NIMBY and no community town ought to have the right to deny to the point out this cornucopia of largesse, which, with the state in the middle of an oil crisis, with gas costs as a result of the roof and long lines at the gasoline pumps, seemed irresistible. Onassis and his gang of pricey fits promised Durham citizens would no lengthier have to pay back assets taxes owing to the revenues from the oil refinery and there would be thousands of very good work opportunities at the refinery.

Enter Phyllis Bennett, publisher of the weekly nearby paper, Publick Occurences, who exposed the product sales pitch as evidently bogus and a con career. Turns out none of the claims of employment, low-cost and plentiful nearby gasoline and obliteration of taxes was real.

And then there was Nancy Sandberg, who explained herself as a housewife, tending her backyard, when mysterious adult males in high priced suits showed up making an attempt to obtain assets from her which they explained was for a house on the Bay, when, in simple fact, this was section of a plot to invest in up contiguous plots of land for the oil refinery. Nancy begun a regional activist group: Help you save Our Shores, which would participate in a pivotal purpose in getting the town of Durham to vote to reject the Onassis bid.

All this transpired in 1973 and as unlikely as most David vs Goliath tales are, this one in fact transpired and the three ladies managed to defeat Onassis.

Ms. Dudley right now claims the fight was not to merely help you save the Excellent Bay. It was a struggle to save the full Seacoast, as the pipes ended up anticipated to leak 8,000 gallons of oil a yr, hardly ever mind the chance of a main oil leak like that of the Exxon Valdez. The odor of oil wafting through Portsmouth alone would have intended the rejuvenation of Portsmouth would hardly ever have happened.

But the most stunning people are not the villains. They are the extraordinary women of all ages who discovered on their own at the tip of the spear and determined to thrust and parry suitable back and to not just take a action backward. To listen to more on this outstanding tale the general public is invited to go to the May 5 guide occasion at 7 p.m. at South Church in Portsmouth.

Neil Ravin is resident of Hampton and member of the Hampton Democrats.

This report originally appeared on Portsmouth Herald: The story guiding ‘Small Town, Significant Oil,’ Dudley Dudley and the Seacoast fight against Onassis