Stream crossings can mean stream contamination

From an Action Alert, Mountain Valley Pipeline, May 20, 2021

The Mountain Valley Pipeline is back at it, attempting to construct their pipeline through headwater streams, under rivers and across wetlands. Right now, the Army Corps of Engineers is reviewing a request to allow them to proceed with waterbody crossings. Read our full comments to the Army Corps of Engineers on the request.

If you’ve been following this story for the past 6 years, (read our recent blog on the current state of the MVP) you’ll remember that MVP’s stream crossing permit was vacated by the courts because they could not meet the conditions of the general permit, the Nationwide 12, which covers activities related to pipeline construction.

Now, MVP is applying for a more site-specific, individual permit in an attempt to complete construction through the 600 waterbodies that have yet to be crossed, which includes some of the biggest rivers, steepest terrain and most sensitive habitats.

The Mountain Valley Pipeline is four years behind schedule, $3 billion over budget and has already incurred over 300 water violations and $2.7 million in fines between the two Virginias. It’s time to kick this ill-conceived project to the curb once and for all.

Tell the Army Corps of Engineers that this project is not in the public interest and they must deny MVP’s request.

MVP extends thru WV and VA and now into NC

Reply Request by Lewis Freeman, Allegheny Blue Ridge Alliance (ABRA), September 7, 2020

The Mountain Valley Pipeline (MVP) has asked the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) for an extension of time of “an additional two years, or until October 13, 2022, to complete construction of the Project and place the Project facilities into service.” FERC issued on August 27 an official notice of a comment period for the public to have input on the MVP request, the deadline for which is Friday, September 11 (more information below).

The MVP request, made in an August 25 letter, contends:

>> The need for the MVP by potential customers still exists.

>> FERC has already approved the Southgate Project to extend the MVP into North Carolina.

>> The recent cancellation of the Atlantic Coast Pipeline (ACP) makes it “vitally important for this Project to be completed and placed in service as soon as possible to meet the demand for national gas in these regions.”

>> “Unforeseen litigation and permitting delays outside of Mountain Valley’s control” have prevented the pipeline from being in service by October 13, 2020 (when the current certificate for the project expires).

>> The “Project is approximately 92% complete.”

MVPs request, while not surprising, raises several questions, among them:

>> Given natural gas market realities in 2020, how can the need for the MVP still be as justified as it was when the project’s certificate was granted in 2017?

>> After all, as noted in the August 13 issue of ABRA Update, the CEO of EQT Corporation, potentially the largest shipper of gas on the MVP should the project be completed, there is now – without the MVP being operational – there is an excess of pipeline capacity over production coming from the Marcellus Basin and that production is going to continue to decline, thus widening the gap of excess pipeline capacity over production.

>> How can the project be called 92% complete when by the company’s own admission only half of the MVP route has been fully restored, with the fully restored percentage in Virginia, which is one-third of the route, being only 15%?

>> If 92% of the MVP route is actually complete, why would it take two years to complete the remaining 8% of the project?

>> Given that North Carolina has denied a Section 401 water certificate for the Southgate Project, what assurance can MVP demonstrate that the project (which is one of the cited reasons for the certificate extension request to FERC) will even be built?

ABRA members and those active in the coalition are strongly urged to file comments with FERC by 5 pm, Friday, September 11 in opposition to the extension of the certificate for the MVP. Regarding filing comments, the FERC Notice states:

The Commission strongly encourages electronic filings of comments, protests and interventions in lieu of paper using the “e-File” link at http://www.ferc.gov.

Persons unable to file electronically may mail similar pleadings to the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, 888 First Street, NE, Washington, DC 20426.

Comment Deadline: 5:00 pm Eastern Time on September 11, 2020

Stop Mountain Valley Pipeline from polluting Southwest Virginia’s water

Essay by Nan Gray and Freeda Cathcart, Virginia Mercury, July 30, 2020

Muddy water from MVP construction spills into Teels Creek in Franklin County (6/13/18)

Virginia’s Department of Environmental Quality is underfunded and unprepared to regulate a massive fracked pipeline through Southwest Virginia. They have not taken the necessary action to prevent MVP from polluting our water.

The VA State Water Control Board issued a water quality certificate for the MVP project in December 2017. Scientists and engineers warned them that it wouldn’t be possible to build a 42-inch pipeline through the mountains without irrevocably harming the water. Before the board issued the permit, they were assured by the Attorney General’s Office that they could revoke the certificate if MVP was unable to protect the water.

Scientists, engineers and lawyers confronted the board in December 2018 with the evidence of the tremendous harm MVP’s project was causing to the water. The board voted to have a hearing to revoke the certificate. Instead of having a hearing, the SWCB met behind closed doors with the an assistant attorney general and then emerged saying they could not revoke the certificate.

In 2018, the VA General Assembly passed a bill giving the “Department” the authority to issue a stop work instruction.

The new statute says: “When the Department determines that there has been a substantial adverse impact to water quality or that an imminent and substantial adverse impact to water quality is likely to occur as a result of such land-disturbing activities, the Department may issue a stop work instruction, without advance notice or hearing, requiring that all or part of such land-disturbing activities on the part of the site that caused the substantial adverse impacts to water quality or are likely to cause imminent and substantial adverse impacts to water quality be stopped until corrective measures specified in the stop work instruction have been completed and approved by the Department.”

At the beginning of the project MVP made a terrible error with its stormwater analysis. The incorrect stormwater runoff rates assumed post-construction soil and groundcover conditions would be the same as pre-construction, forested conditions, even though FERC staff found the project would cause a significant, permanent loss of forest. This explains why MVP continues to pollute waterways with sediment.

The waterways being polluted by the MVP are the habitat for endangered fish. Paul Angermeier, assistant unit leader, U.S. Geological Survey, Virginia Cooperative Fish and Wildlife Research Unit, and a leading expert on the federally-listed endangered Roanoke logperch, warned that sediment-loading to waterways could adversely affect the fish. He also said sediment-loading would occur during project operation and maintenance, not just construction.

July 8, 2020 FERC sent a letter to the US Fish and Wildlife Service specifying five endangered species as “may be adversely affected” by the MVP project, including the Roanoke logperch and the candy darter which the UFWS described as having critical habitat.

Last September, Preserve Craig, a group opposed to the pipeline, along with other organizations, filed a motion with FERC detailing how MVP’s stormwater analysis was incorrect. Citizen monitors presented the information to the State Water Control Board in December 2019 after submitting GPS date and time stamped pictures and videos proving the continuing failure of the erosion and sediment controls. They pleaded with the board and DEQ to issue a stop work instruction to the MVP until the erosion and sediment controls were revised in accordance with a correct stormwater analysis.

In May 2020 DEQ sent the MVP project manager, a DEQ monitor and a civil engineer to meet with us. During the meeting they explained how incidents of MVP polluting the waterway didn’t qualify as violations. If MVP installed and maintained the erosion and sediment controls according to the approved plans then it could not be a project violation. This policy ignores DEQ’s responsibility to protect Virginia’s waterways and endangered species from harm. DEQ must issue a stop work instruction until MVP changes their erosion and sediment control plans to fit the reality of the soils, slope, vegetation, soil chemistry and soil fertility.

The state water board canceled its March meeting due to the pandemic and failed to add MVP to their June agenda, denying the public an opportunity to address the board about MVP continuing to pollute water. This is highly irregular to prevent the public from having any time to make comments to a citizen regulatory board.

During the meeting the DEQ staff reported they had sent a bill for violations to MVP. Now there are reports that MVP is refusing the measly $86,000 fine, and DEQ is entering into negotiations with MVP instead of issuing a stop work instruction until they pay up and until they revise their erosion and sediment controls based on a corrected stormwater analysis.

Attorney General Mark Herring needs to enforce the Consent Decree that requires an independent environmental auditor. MVP hired Tetra Tech to be the environmental auditor with DEQ’s approval. Tetra Tech is the same company responsible for the flawed stormwater analysis. The DEQ should insist on a truly independent environmental auditor who can be trusted to protect our water, endangered fish and ecosystem.

The recent U.S. Supreme Court Maui ruling affirmed the Clean Water Act protects waterways from pollution due to construction projects like MVP. DEQ must issue an immediate stop work instruction until MVP is able to build their project without polluting our waterways and MVP has paid all their fines.

>>> Nan Gray is a licensed professional soil scientist in Virginia and North Carolina and has been in the profession for more than 30 years. She formerly served on the Virginia Board for Professional Soil Scientists and Wetland Professionals. Freeda Cathcart formerly served on the Virginia Board of Pharmacy and the Virginia Midwifery Advisory Board. Both have been volunteer citizen monitors on the Mountain Valley Pipeline project.

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Forest Service, Park Service Move Toward Reissuing New MVP Permits (From ABRA)

The U.S. Forest Service (NFS) published on July 30 a Notice of Intent to prepare a Supplement Environmental Impact Statement (SEIS) for the Mountain Valley Pipeline (MVP) “to address the Fourth Circuit Court’s ruling, new information, and changed circumstances such as new Federally listed threatened and endangered species and critical habitat designations.” The draft SEIS is expected to be available in September, with the final SEIS completed later in 2020. The NFS announcement follows a July 16 notice by the U.S. Park Service that it will be issuing a new right of way permit for the MVP to cross Park Service land.

>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

MVP Completion Percentage is Overstated (From ABRA)

The owners of the Mountain Valley Pipeline (MVP) have repeatedly proclaimed that over 90% of the project has been completed, no doubt to bolster confidence from their investors and stockholders so that they continue investing. An examination by ABRA of the data reported by MVP to the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission reveals that project completion claims are overstated. Only 51% of the 300-mile route has pipe in the ground and the ground above it restored. In Virginia, which has one-third of the MVP route, less than 15% of the route has undergone final restoration.

This 42 inch pipeline creates pollution problems at stream crossings, on steep terrain, etc.

Commentary by Jacob Hileman, Roanoke Times, July 12, 2020

On Oct. 2, 2018, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit vacated Nationwide Permit (NWP) 12 for the Mountain Valley Pipeline (MVP). Upon losing this permit from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, MVP was forced to cease construction at all stream and wetland crossings in Virginia and West Virginia, leaving hundreds of crossings outstanding. That the Corps has been unable to reinstate NWP 12 for twenty-one months, and counting, is truly incredible.

Why has the Corps delayed reissuing NWP 12 to MVP for so long?

It is likely the Corps has not been able to find a way to reinstate the permit that will withstand legal scrutiny. Since beginning construction in early 2018, MVP has lost numerous permits as a result of opponents’ successful legal challenges. In a number of these cases, the courts thoroughly rebuked the implicated agencies for failing to justify their issuance of permits for the MVP. For example, authorization from the U.S. Forest Service was deemed “silent acquiescence.” The Corps has assuredly seen the writing on the wall.

The magnitude of the delay in reissuing NWP 12 to MVP is a stark indication the Corps never should have granted the permit in the first place.

If reinstating NWP 12 was simply a case of dotting i’s and crossing t’s — a purely procedural matter — the Corps would have reissued the permit to MVP within weeks. Instead, the Corps finds itself facing the absolutely monumental task of rewriting a fatally flawed permit. This was confirmed by the April 15 ruling against the Keystone XL pipeline, which found the Corps acted “arbitrarily and capriciously” when it reauthorized the NWP 12 program in 2017.

While the U.S. Supreme Court recently issued a partial stay of the lower court’s ruling — allowing pipelines other than Keystone XL to continue using NWP 12 during the appeal process — it does not solve the underlying permit issues for the MVP.

Can the Corps refuse to reissue NWP 12 for the MVP?

Yes. And while unlikely, it absolutely should. The text of the Corps’ suspension letter to MVP makes it clear the Corp has the authority to “reinstate, modify, or revoke the authorizations.” Without NWP 12 in place, MVP is not allowed to impact waterways during construction, yet failed sediment and erosion control devices have been the source of dozens of water quality violations in Virginia and West Virginia. These violations have resulted in more than $2 million in fines for MVP, and the Virginia Department of Environmental Quality recently announced more fines are on the way.

The timing of the Corp’s reissuance of NWP 12 to MVP will communicate far more information than the text of the permit.

One year after MVP lost NWP 12, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit granted a stay of the Biological Opinion issued by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. This action effectively halted new construction along the entirety of the 303-mile-long MVP, leaving the project belly-up as it contends with the fact it is $2 billion over budget and two years behind schedule. Even if the Corps is able to reissue NWP 12 in the near future, until the stop work order is lifted all forward construction remains at a standstill.

However, the concurrent suspension of both NWP 12 and the Biological Opinion may actually prove to be a boon to MVP. Assuming both permits are reissued simultaneously, the largest barriers to project-wide construction will immediately evaporate. This leaves the public and courts little time to scrutinize the revised permit conditions before MVP embarks on a frenzy of new construction, knowing the project’s very existence may depend on it. MVP surely recognizes this opportunity.

Since December, MVP and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service have slow-walked the consultation process on the Biological Opinion, extending the process by one- and two-month increments while NWP 12 remained in limbo. Although the consultation process was completed last month, the Biological Opinion still has yet to be reissued.

Ultimately, regardless of how the Corps rewrites NWP 12 for the MVP, the permit conditions will have little to no effect on the ground. There is simply no way the damages wrought by the MVP can be contained. Any reissuance of NWP 12 is antithetical to the core function of the permit as a regulatory tool, and must be seen for what it is: a free license for MVP to pollute, damage, and desecrate any and all waterways in its path.

>>> Jacob Hileman is an environmental hydrologist with a Ph.D. from the University of California, Davis. He was raised in the Catawba Valley of Virginia, and is presently a researcher at Stockholm University working on global water sustainability issues.

Theresa Terry stayed in this “tree house” for three weeks protesting the MVP

From an Article by Mason Adams, Mother Jones Magazine, 5/25/20

“Life in these mountains ain’t always been easy, so people around here take a stand when they see something they don’t agree with—and I’m one of them,” says walrus-mustached Jammie Hale in his thick southwestern Virginia mountain accent. “People that grow up in places like this, seeing their environment destroyed, it stirs them, it causes people to want to get involved, and that’s why I’m here.”

In a documentary-style video produced by Unicorn Riot, a left-wing media collective, in 2018, Hale explains his decision to join a protest movement taking on the Mountain Valley Pipeline (MVP), a 303-mile long, nearly 42-inch-wide pipeline intended to move natural gas from the fracking fields of northern West Virginia to a terminal in southern Virginia that connects to markets and export terminals on the East Coast.

Settled in among the hardwood trees on Peters Mountain, near where he’s been occupying an aerial platform with another (pseudonymous) activist known as Nutty, he talks of his family’s 150-plus years in Giles County, Virginia, and how that history motivates him to do all he can to prevent the pipeline from crossing the Appalachian Trail.

Yellow Finch, as the encampment has come to be called, is giving its full-time activists, most of whom are in their 20s, an on-the-ground education in Appalachian direct action. They’re learning how to talk to media, to establish and maintain a defensible blockade in the forest, and to survive a winter in the mountains, all in a region written off by much of the US as “Trump country.”

Less explored is the region’s significant history of activism that brought together outsiders and locals to resist corporate exploitation, from the labor organizing by Mary Harris “Mother” Jones on behalf of West Virginia miners in the 1910s and ’20s, to the Mountain Justice campaign against mountaintop removal coal mining a century later. Some veterans of the latter campaign are now working with the folks at Yellow Finch, applying lessons learned in the current fight against fossil fuels.

The camp lies at the base of the steep Blue Ridge Plateau; to reach it, you must drive carefully up a twisting mountain backroad and then back down a dirt road that follows a stream. Steep slopes rise up on either side, and the contrast between sides of the hollow stand as a testament to the activists’ success in delaying pipeline construction. On one side, the forest has been stripped bare, replanted with grass, and shored up with silt fences and green, mulch-stuffed fabric socks to prevent erosion. The other side of the hollow, home to the Yellow Finch encampment, remains wooded.

The camp is set about 50 yards up from the road, firmly planted into the hillside. A couple of hastily erected plywood buildings covered in handmade art and cardboard signs serve as a sleeping area and pantry. Tarps nailed to the side of the bunkhouse and nearby trees cover a makeshift kitchen, scattered with dishes, cooking gear, herbal tinctures, nutritional yeast, and other supplies.

The number of activists that call the camp home fluctuates with the weather and the need for additional people to sustain the camp. A 27-year-old activist called Gator fondly describes the camp’s occupants as “a bunch of badass queer anarchists that held it down for a long period of time.” They come from all over and vary in age, ethnicity, socioeconomic status, and family backgrounds, but they’re united in their desire to protect the mountains.

They found the camp through a variety of paths; several cut their teeth in other movements, organizing against the mining of frac sand, the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, mass incarceration, and police violence. They discovered Yellow Finch through word of mouth, on news sites popular with anarchists like It’s Going Down and Unicorn Riot, and Appalachians Against Pipelines, the campaign’s quasi-official Facebook page. Several came after seeing the video that featured Hale.

§ To be continued as Part 2.

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See also: Judge dismisses lawsuit that contested Mountain Valley’s power of eminent domain — Article by Laurence Hammack, Roanoke Times, May 14, 2020

Legal action has failed, once again, to undo the taking of private land for a natural gas pipeline through Southwest Virginia. “This case presents the latest trickle in a veritable flood of litigation” against the Mountain Valley Pipeline, U.S. District Court Judge James Boasberg wrote in an opinion last week dismissing the lawsuit.

Three couples with land in the pipeline’s path had sued Mountain Valley and the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, alleging that the commission should not have given a corporate venture the right to seize their property by eminent domain.

HOWEVER, LEGAL CASES HAVE RESULTED IN THE FOLLOWING:

Three sets of permits — for the pipeline to pass through the Jefferson National Forest, to cross hundreds of streams and wetlands, and to be built in a way that does not jeopardize endangered species — were set aside after lawsuits were filed by environmental groups.

Construction is currently stalled as Mountain Valley works to regain permits from a variety of federal agencies. Executives with EQM Midstream, the lead partner in a joint venture of five energy companies building the pipeline, said in a conference call Thursday that there was still a “narrow path” to their goal of completing the project by the end of the year.

MVP too large and terrain too steep for WV & VA

From an Article by Laurence Hammack, Roanoke Times, May 3, 2020

Land movement in a construction area shifted a section of the Mountain Valley Pipeline after it was buried along a West Virginia slope, according to a report filed by environmental regulators.

The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission report stated that “crews verified that the installed pipe shifted … in at least three locations south of Brush Run Road” in Lewis County, about 50 miles from where the natural gas pipeline begins a 303-mile route that takes it through Southwest Virginia.

Inspectors blamed the problem on what’s called a slip, or the gradual movement of land on its own in an area cleared for the pipeline. Although it was not clear how far the pipe had moved, the report alarmed those who have warned against building such a large pipeline in mountainous terrain.

“That’s a big-time concern,” said Angie Rosser, executive director of the West Virginia Rivers Association. Had pressurized gas been flowing through the finished pipeline, which has been under construction for the past two years, any underground movement could possibly cause a rupture and explosion, Rosser said.

A Mountain Valley spokeswoman, however, said the FERC report focused on environmental concerns and did not delve into technical issues of pipeline construction.

“At this time, there is no direct information to indicate that the pipe has shifted along this portion of the route and this information will not be known until a full investigation is complete,” Natalie Cox wrote in an email. After the issue was discovered April 8, an investigation was launched as “an additional precautionary matter,” the email stated.

Crews will dig up the pipe, which generally is buried eight to 10 feet deep, to ensure its integrity and placement. “Additional mitigation controls will be installed if necessary,” Cox wrote.

There have been no other issues of this type in completed areas of the project, she said. Construction began two years ago, and Mountain Valley said the $5.5 billion project is 90% done and slated for completion by the end of the year.

Opponents of the project worry that similar problems with the pipe shifting after it’s buried could occur in parts of Southwest Virginia, where construction is not as far along.

“They have landslides and slips and failures all the time,” said Diana Christopulos, a Roanoke-area environmental advocate who has been monitoring the pipeline since it was first proposed five years ago. “Putting the pipe in the ground does not solve the problem.”

The region’s steep slopes and karst topography make it “pretty challenging terrain,” pipeline safety consultant Richard Kuprewicz said.

Regulators in both Virginia and West Virginia have cited Mountain Valley for failing to comply with erosion and sediment control measures hundreds of times. But the shifting of pipe described in the FERC report was the first of its kind.

Using line locators to monitor installed pipelines

The first sign that something was amiss came about a month ago. According to a weekly summary report of environmental compliance, recently filed on the FERC online docket, the commission’s compliance monitor was notified by Mountain Valley officials of a problem April 8 at the West Virginia construction site. “Movements of the slips” in at least three locations had caused the 42-inch diameter pipe to shift, the report stated.

A slip, also known as land creep, is the gradual movement of soil and rock down a slope and is not as serious as a landslide, said Kuprewicz, a chemical engineer who worked for years in the gas industry and now consults on pipeline safety issues as president of Accufacts Inc. in Redmond, Washington.

The FERC report does not indicate how far the pipe shifted. Survey crews marked where the pipe had originally been laid, and workers dug potholes and used line locators to determine its current location, the report states. Asked about the incident last Wednesday, a FERC spokeswoman said the agency would answer emailed questions “as soon as we can.” No response had been received by 5 p.m. Friday.

FERC listed the incident as a “communication report,” meaning that it could be resolved by discussion between its compliance monitor and Mountain Valley representatives. A communication report is the least serious type of non-compliance listed in FERC’s weekly summary of environmental monitoring. Other write-ups can be for problem areas, non-compliance and serious violations.

Kuprewicz, who reviewed the report on the shifting pipe for The Roanoke Times, said it didn’t contain enough details for him to make an informed opinion about how serious the problem was. “Land slip on its own is not a big deal, depending on the details,” he wrote in an email. However, “the fact that the document mentions three sites calls for further investigation to see if there is a possible systemic issue for the pipeline and its right-of-way.”

According to Cox, Mountain Valley is designed, like all interstate pipelines, to withstand minor ground shifting as the pipe begins to settle in the final stages of construction. That may be true, Kuprewicz said, but it’s important to monitor a land slip closely to make sure it doesn’t get out of hand. “Land creep could eventually result in rupture if it moves the pipe too much too quickly,” he wrote.

An earlier inspection by FERC officials in March — before the shift in the pipeline was discovered — found that two of the three slips at the Lewis County construction site had increased in their size and movement. The leading cause of slips is poor water management on sloped land, Kuprewicz said. Rainfall “starts to liquify the soil and gravity never shuts off,” his email stated.

Cox said the environmental inspector was correct in assessing ground movement so that construction crews could quickly stabilize any areas of concern. “However, it’s important to note that environmental assessments do not necessarily indicate issues with movement or the technical construction of the pipe,” she wrote.

Project delayed for multiple reasons

By now, Mountain Valley officials had hoped to resume construction of a pipeline that will transport 2 billion cubic feet of natural gas a day to markets along the East Coast. But except for stabilization and erosion control work, the project remains in a state of limbo.

A series of legal challenges by environmental groups have led to the suspension of three sets of permits — one for the pipeline to pass through the Jefferson National Forest, a second for it to cross more than 1,000 streams and wetlands and a third for it to be built in a way that does not jeopardize endangered or threatened species.

After the most recent lawsuit claimed that protected fish and bats were not properly taken into account by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, FERC last October ordered a stop to all active construction until the issues could be resolved.

The Fish and Wildlife Service began work on a new biological opinion, the document that allows pipeline construction if there is no substantial harm to plants or wildlife. Originally due in December, work on the opinion was extended three times, with the most recent deadline of April 27.

The ruling “has a nationwide effect, is extremely disruptive, and contrary to the public interest,” lawyers for the U.S. Justice Department wrote in a motion seeking a stay of Judge Brian Morris’s ruling. The attorneys also asked Morris to limit the scope of his decision to the Keystone pipeline.

About 5,500 projects, including Mountain Valley, were awaiting approval from the Corps when the permit was struck down, according to the motion. “Many likely have nothing to do with oil and gas pipelines at all,” such as power lines, water mains and broadband cable, the government said.

If the projects were forced to seek individual permits from the Corps, which require more analysis than the Nationwide Permit 12, it would take the agency an average of 264 days to process each case, the motion states.

The Justice Department asked Morris to rule on its request for a stay by May 11. If that fails, it will appeal to the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.

Height Capital Markets, an investment banking firm that issues weekly reports on Mountain Valley and other pipelines, wrote in an April 27 update that it was growing “increasingly concerned” about the case’s impact.

“At this point, we believe it’s too early to shift our late 2020 in-service target for MVP and need to see what actions the Trump administration takes,” the report stated, “though the odds of a 2020 completion are certainly trending down.”

FERC halts MVP in WV & VA

Press Release from Doug Jackson (Sierra Club), Cat McCue (Appalachian Voices), and Jared Margolis (Center for Biological Diversity), 10/16/2019

WASHINGTON, D.C. — Late yesterday, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) ordered Mountain Valley Pipeline LLC to halt construction activities along the entire 303-mile route of the fracked-gas project. FERC’s order is in response to the project losing key permits under the Endangered Species Act, and allows MVP to do only the work necessary to stabilize the right-of-way in previously disturbed areas. This represents a significant challenge to a project that is already facing numerous hurdles and self-inflicted wounds, including the announcements last week that MVP must pay a multi-million dollar fine and had two of their necessary permits revoked.

However, FERC’s action falls short of its enforcement responsibilities in two crucial areas: FERC leaves it up to MVP to define what they consider “stabilization,” and FERC appears to allow MVP to self-regulate on whether such activities would harass, harm, or kill endangered species. MVP has already shown they will try to get around a construction suspension by defining some pipeline construction activities as necessary for stabilization, and this order appears to allow MVP to determine for themselves the extent to which these activities continue to harm endangered species.

The project has been controversial since it was first announced, and a petition against it and the nearby Atlantic Coast Pipeline launched just two months ago has already garnered more than 75,000 signatures.

Elly Benson, Senior Attorney with the Sierra Club:

“MVP has repeatedly violated environmental safeguards, clean water protections, and plain common sense in their construction of this fracked gas pipeline. We have known all along that their plans for this pipeline are disastrous for the endangered species, streams, and communities in its path, and we’re glad to see FERC finally order them to stop construction along the entire route. However, FERC must not allow MVP to continue installing pipeline under the guise of stabilization, as MVP has been doing under the limited suspension put in place in August.

“We know we can’t trust the polluting corporations behind this dirty, dangerous pipeline to do what’s best for wildlife, the climate, or our communities, so FERC must not allow MVP to determine the extent to which their work continues to harm endangered species. Letting MVP self-police on defining ‘stabilization’ and harming endangered species is like asking the fox to guard the henhouse – it’s an abdication of FERC’s responsibilities.”

David Sligh, Conservation Director for Wild Virginia:

“The command that Mountain Valley cease all construction immediately is appropriate and necessary to meet the law. However, FERC has previously allowed work that is clearly construction to be done under the guise that it is ‘stabilization.’ The Commission must now act responsibly and clearly prohibit all activities that are not absolutely necessary to protect the environment. FERC must no longer play deceptive games that allow further destruction from a project that cannot protect our resources and may never be completed.”

Anne Havemann, General Counsel, Chesapeake Climate Action Network:

“As we’ve said all along, MVP must stop all construction on this project before even more damage is done. We’re glad to see FERC implement the court’s decision and order an immediate stop to construction. We further urge the Commission to make it absolutely clear that construction under the guise of stabilization will not be allowed.”

Peter Anderson, Virginia Program Manager, Appalachian Voices:

“FERC’s order to cease Mountain Valley Pipeline construction is a step in the right direction, but it doesn’t undo the harm that has been wrought over the past year and a half, as water resources, forests, farms and habitat have been destroyed by illegal construction practices. FERC should not trust MVP to interpret what is appropriate ‘stabilization’ for this unnecessary project; it is in the developer’s interest to keep plowing ahead. Rather, FERC must comply with the Endangered Species Act and ensure MVP does not harm any listed species.”

Jason Rylander, Senior Endangered Species Counsel, Defenders of Wildlife:

“FERC’s stop work order is welcome news, but the fracked gas Mountain Valley Pipeline should never have been approved without rigorous review of the impacts of this environmentally damaging project on local people, wildlife, and the climate. Fast tracking projects like this is always a mistake and now the chickens are coming home to roost.”

Roberta Bondurant, member of Preserve Bent Mountain:

“The public deserves FERC’s exacting and credible review of MVP’s status report and any continuing activity on the right of way. Monitors will continue to vigilantly report MVP activity — whether or not in the guise of ‘stabilization’ — that degrades habitat of threatened and endangered species or is otherwise outside FERC and Fourth Circuit directives.”

Jared Margolis, Senior Attorney, Center for Biological Diversity:

“We’re relieved pipeline construction is stopped for now, but this climate and wildlife killing project should be permanently scrapped. A polluting fossil fuel pipeline has no place in today’s world.”

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UPDATE from Progress Not Pipelines

Last week, the Virginia attorney general secured a $2.15 million settlement against the MVP pipeline company for more than 300 violations of state water quality requirements.

But, we must keep the pressure on. FERC must stop this pipeline once and for all, and also stop the fracked-gas Atlantic Coast Pipeline that would run some 600 miles through West Virginia, Virginia and North Carolina over the beloved Blue Ridge Mountains, through farms, wildlife habitat and water supplies. Both projects would worsen the impacts of climate change.

Please keep sharing our petition with your friends, neighbors and community — which currently has over 75,000 signatures.

And THANK YOU!

Aerial view: 2008 natural gas pipeline explosion site on VA Route 26 in Appomattox County

Aerial view of the blast site along Virginia 26 in Appomattox County after the September, 2008 natural gas pipeline explosion.

From an Essay by Alden Dudley, Roanoke Times, June 26, 2019

Dudley retired in 2003 as Chief of Staff at the Salem Veterans Affairs Medical Center and Associate Dean at the University of Virginia School of Medicine. From 2003-2010, he was half-time Professor of Pathology at the Edward Via College of Osteopathic Medicine in Blacksburg.

Until 1944, liquid natural gas (LNG) was stored in above-ground tank farms (bulk terminals) as on U.S. 460 in Blue Ridge and off Starkey Road in Roanoke (LNG now under ground).

Cleveland had four LNG tanks above ground in October 20, 1944. One riveted seam leaked cold LNG that flowed down to a sewer with gas and exploded in the sewers at 2:30 p.m. The heat of the first tank fire exploded a second tank 30 minutes later and that exploded the third and fourth in a flash. Half of the energy went north Lake Erie, taking cars and people with it. The other half flattened one square mile of the city to include two factories, 70 homes, and many underground utilities. Manhole covers were found miles away. Just fewer than 200 people were killed, and 600 survivors left homeless. The blast was calculated to be 1/6th of the Hiroshima Atomic Bomb

Our neighbors in Appomattox had the misfortune of a 30” natural gas pipeline with a pressure of 800 pounds per square inch (psi) corroding and exploding on Sept. 19, 2008, with flames more than 300 feet high. That left a hole 20 feet deep and 2,250 feet in diameter (almost one half mile) in farmland. It exploded two houses and damaged 100 others. Williams and Transco Companies were fined $1 million for improper pipeline maintenance. Multiple defects in the 52-year-old pipe were known to exist, but they ignored them.

On Sept. 9, 2010, a 30” natural gas pipe exploded in San Bruno, California, two miles west of the San Francisco Airport. It registered as a 1.1 earthquake, created a rocky hole 40 feet deep, 167 feet long, and 26 feet wide, killed eight people, shot flames 1,000 feet into the air, took 60-90 minutes to cut off the valve, was an eight alarm fire (25 fire engines, four air tankers, and one helicopter with special fire-fighting equipment) that burned for more than 12 hours destroying 38 houses and several streets. Federal inspectors found the pipe to have defective welds, serious erosion, and easily detectable faults that had been ignored. On April 1, 2014 PG&E was found guilty of many safety violations, obstruction of justice, and illegally moving more than $100 million in designated safety funds to executive bonuses.

MVP proposes a 42” natural gas pipeline with twice the capacity of a 30” line to be flowing under 1400 psi, almost twice the pressure in Appomattox. Cut-off valves must be installed every 20 miles leaving gas the volume of Cleveland’s gas. Further, the MVP proposal stipulates Transco will “co-lay” another 42” pipeline to repeat the damage a few nanoseconds after the first pipe blows. We will have had our apocalypse. A hole more than a mile wide. Instant incineration of all adults, children, pets, animals, vegetation, homes, schools, stores, industry, and government offices over an area 3-5 miles in diameter. Dams will be destroyed and lakes gone. Thousands of people will be killed in hill country; tens of thousands if near cities; more than that within cities. Our reputation as an environment-friendly state will never recover. Forget tourists, retirees and breweries that can no longer get potable water. In fact, forget economic development.

This article sounds heretical and outlandish. But certainty of a big bang is predictable. Pipeline companies speak proudly of “only 0.03 percent events per year per thousand miles of pipeline.” At that rate, the 800 mile Trans-Alaska Pipeline should have one leak every three years. By 2006 the pipe thickness was eroded more than 50 percent, shipping of oil was down 50 percent because of pipe weakness, and there were already more than 500 leaks each year, according to the Christian Science Monitor.

By industrial 0.03 percent admitted leaks, the 301-mile MVP line should have only one “event” every ten years. By Alaska Pipeline experience, there should be 188 leaks/year. However, remember that Alaska is under low pressure and Virginia will be under high pressure. Even if there is only one leak/month instead of 15, where would you want it to occur? Franklin County real estate values have already started to decline and home insurance rates to climb. National insurance companies know what happens around pipelines. All of this for a pipeline that is not even necessary.

National Forests are intended to protect our forest heritage

Update from Wild Virginia, Allegheny Blue Ridge Alliance, July 27, 2018

The decision of the U.S. Forest Service to permit the Mountain Valley Pipeline to cross the Jefferson National Forest was vacated July 27 by the 4th Circuit Court of Appeals. The challenge to that decision had been brought by Sierra Club, Wild Virginia, Appalachian Voices and other groups. In its decision, the Court stated:

After careful review, we conclude that aspects of the Forest Service’s decision fail to comply with NEPA and the NFMA. As more fully explained below, we grant the petition challenging the Forest Service’s decision and vacate that decision. We also conclude that the BLM failed to acknowledge its obligations under the MLA, and therefore, we also grant the petition challenging the BLM decision and vacate that decision. We remand to the respective agencies for further proceedings consistent with this opinion.

In analyzing the opinion, a copy of which is available here, Wild Virginia said it convinced the Court on its primary claims:

• The Forest Service was arbitrary in concluding that sedimentation and erosion impacts of the pipeline could be mitigated to insignificance.
• The Forest Service violated the 2012 Forest Planning Rule, by arbitrarily concluding that amendments to the forest plan were not “directly related” to particular provisions of that rule. Specifically, the Forest Service ignored the “purpose” of the amendments, which was squarely directly related to the rule.
• BLM violated the Mineral Leasing Act by failing to demonstrate that alternative routes that would increase co-location with existing rights-of-way were impractical.

See also: Federal appeals court delivers blow to Mountain Valley Pipeline | roanoke.com

Tree cutting has already started on Peters Mountain

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FERC Asked to Revoke ACP Construction Authority in West Virginia

The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) has been asked to rehear its decision last month to authorize construction in West Virginia of the Atlantic Coast Pipeline. In a motion filed with the agency on July 24 by the Southern Environmental Law Center (SELC) on behalf of Sierra Club, Defenders of Wildlife and the Virginia Wilderness Committee, FERC was requested to grant a rehearing and to immediately revoke the West Virginia Notice to Proceed.

The motion notes that “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.”

The FERC request follows a motion filed by SELC for the same client group on July 5 with the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals asking that construction activity on the Atlantic Coast Pipeline (ACP) be halted until the Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) complies with the Court’s May 15 order vacating the FWS’s Incidental Take Statement for the ACP. Details of that motion were discussed in the July 12 issue of ABRA Update.

Cahas Mountain Road, Franklin Co., VA

Press Release from Appalachian Voices, May 22, 2018

Photo of mud across Cahas Mountain Road near construction of Mountain Valley Pipeline in Franklin County, May 2018. Photo from Roanoke Times.

RICHMOND, VA — Today, lawyers for a coalition of environmental advocates including Appalachian Voices filed a motion for stay, asking the United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit to put an immediate stop to the construction across waterways of the fracked-gas Mountain Valley Pipeline (MVP). Because MVP’s own documents show it cannot meet the conditions required under its “nationwide 404 permit,” the streamlined permit issued by the Army Corps of Engineers is illegal.

Today’s filing comes less than a month after West Virginia regulators cited MVP for failing to control erosion and just days after several inches of mud ran off MVP construction sites and blocked a road in Franklin County, Virginia.

Under section 404 of the Clean Water Act, the Corps is charged with issuing a permit for the pipeline’s stream crossings that allows the project’s builders to trench through the bottom of those streams, including the Greenbrier, Elk, and Gauley rivers, and fill the crossings with dirt during construction of the pipeline.

The permit issued to MVP by the Corps is commonly known as a “nationwide permit 12,” which takes a one-size-fits-all approach and is generally viewed as fairly limited in scope to be used for projects much smaller than ones the magnitude of the MVP, a 300-mile-long, 42-inch pipeline requiring a 125-foot right-of-way construction zone that would cross streams, rivers and other waters in West Virginia and Virginia more than 1,000 times.

One condition of the nationwide permit is that if even one water crossing in a project is ineligible for the permit, it cannot be used for any of them. Another condition is that MVP cannot take more than 72 hours to complete construction across a stream or river. Since MVP has said the 72-hour limit would not give them enough time to complete construction across four important rivers, they cannot use the permit for any of the other water crossings along the pipeline’s route.

The request for stay was filed by Appalachian Mountain Advocates on behalf of a coalition made up of the Sierra Club, Appalachian Voices, Indian Creek Watershed Association, West Virginia Rivers Coalition and Chesapeake Climate Action Network.

Peter Anderson, Virginia Program Manager, Appalachian Voices:

“This is more evidence that state and federal agencies, along with the project applicant, cut corners at every opportunity. We remain adamant that blanket general permits cannot protect water quality from construction impacts of the massive Mountain Valley Pipeline across steep, erodible terrain and hundreds of streams and wetlands as required by law.”

Sierra Club, Organizing Manager, Bill Price:

“We have repeatedly warned the Army Corps of Engineers that their one-size-fits-all approach to this dirty and dangerous project doesn’t even come close to fulfilling their responsibility to protect our people and communities. The fracked gas Mountain Valley Pipeline is already having devastating effects on our water and communities, and all construction on it must be immediately stopped. This unnecessary project serves no purpose except to line the pockets of the polluting corporations that have been exploiting our communities for generations.”

Anne Havemann, General Counsel, Chesapeake Climate Action Network:

“When the state punted to the Army Corps its responsibility to oversee water quality impacts, West Virginia officials assured the public that the pipeline’s “environmental impacts will ultimately be zero.” In reality, the environmental impacts of this unneeded and unnecessary fracked-gas pipeline were felt almost immediately after construction began. The Army Corps’s blanket permit cannot protect West Virginia and construction must be stopped until regulators can ensure that West Virginia’s streams and rivers will be protected.”

CONTACTS:
Doug Jackson, Sierra Club, doug.jackson@sierraclub.org
Cat McCue, Appalachian Voices, cat@appvoices.org

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See also: WDBJ7 story on “Construction concerns for the MVP”: https://twitter.com/NRDC/status/1001511971433435136