FERC Asked to Stop the Atlantic Coast Pipeline Construction

To the Friends of the Allegheny – Blue Ridge Alliance (ABRA)

From Lew Freeman, ABRA Executive Director, June 12, 2018

A motion was filed June 11 with the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission requesting that the agency immediately revoke its May 11 authorization for construction to proceed in West Virginia for the Atlantic Coast Pipeline. The action, filed by the Southern Environmental Law Center on behalf of Defenders of Wildlife, Sierra Club and Virginia Wilderness Committee, was prompted by a report last week to ABRA’s Compliance Surveillance Initiative (CSI) of construction activity occurring south of Buckhannon, West Virginia (in Upshur County). The construction work was subsequently verified by photographic evidence produced by the ABRA/CSI Pipeline Air Force. A copy of one of the photographs is attached.

In Monday’s filing, SELC said:

Petitioners request that the Commission grant rehearing, immediately revoke the West Virginia Notice to Proceed, and stay all pipeline construction authorized by the Notice. On May 15, 2018 the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals vacated the Fish and Wildlife Service’s Incidental Take Statement for the Atlantic Coast Pipeline.

Therefore, Atlantic and Dominion are not in compliance with two mandatory conditions of the project’s Certificate Order: Environmental Condition 54 and Environmental Condition 10. Certificate Order, Appendix A, ¶¶ 10, 54. Both of these conditions require a valid incidental take statement before pipeline construction proceeds.

A copy of the SELC motion is available at https://www.abralliance.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/06/Defenders-of-Wildlife-et-al.-Request-for-Rehearing-re-May-11-2018-Notice-to-Proceed-6-11-18.pdf.

>>> Lewis Freeman, Executive Director,
Allegheny-Blue Ridge Alliance​, P.O. Box 685
Monterey, Virginia 24465

The Compliance Surveillance Initiative (CSI)

CSI Has New Online Incident Reporting Form Available —

ABRA’s Compliance Surveillance Initiative program now has a convenient online form available for reporting observations of pipeline construction noncompliance and pollution incidents. The form was developed in consultation with the West Virginia Rivers Coalition, Trout Unlimited and the Mountain Valley Watch.

ACP Construction photo – 6-8-18

Tagged as: ABRA, ACP, eminent domain, endangered species, FERC, land disturbances, landslides, leaks, sediment, stream crossings, subsidence