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hey’ve shooed pipeline surveyors from their pastures, made anti-pipeline signs for a protest at the county courthouse and at appearances by the Virginia governor. They’ve also kept up pressure on local officials.

As the leader in this multigenerational band of family activists, Carolyn Reilly has found the experience exhilarating and bruising.

“There are days when I am in tears in frustration and exhaustion,” she said. “Then there are days when I’m fired up and ready to fight.”

From New England to North Carolina, scattered insurgencies have formed in opposition to a spider web of pipelines up and down the Eastern Seaboard as the nation’s energy industry seeks to move pent-up natural gas supplies.

Behind the pipeline boom: vast deposits of natural gas being drilled in West Virginia, Pennsylvania and Ohio and ready for shipment to U.S. and international markets.

“Essentially, the takeaway is they’re re-plumbing the whole United States,” said Timothy R. Carr, a West Virginia University geologist.