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.

Mountain Valley Pipeline can contaminate rivers & streams during construction

Just a reminder of some upcoming comment deadlines on MVP and ACP:
____________________________________________

Mountain Valley Pipeline (MVP)

The Notice of Scoping comment period for MVP’s request to bore at 180+ waterbodies, FERC Docket CP21-57, closes tomorrow, April 15th at 4:59pm.

If you want to weigh in, here are a couple options:

Public petition from App Voices, West Virginia Rivers Coalition, POWHR + CCAN

(URL to share: bit.ly/MVPscoping)

>>>. CP21-57 Talking points

>>>. Sierra Club petition

>>>. Wild Virginia Guide

>. Submit a Comment via eComment directly into the docket

>. Need help navigating the site?

______________________________

Atlantic Coast Pipeline (ACP)

The ACP restoration plan comment period closes Friday, April 16th at 4:59pm.

>>>. Here is information from Friends of Nelson on how to weigh in

>>>. Submit a Comment via eComment directly into the docket

Thank you!
–
Jessica Sims, Virginia Field Coordinator
Appalachian Voices, 812 E. High Street
Charlottesville, VA 22902

(434) 226-0589 office
jessica@appvoices.org

Mountain Valley Pipeline under construction in Virginia

From an Article by Arianna Skibell, E & E News, March 25, 2021

The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission has denied a bid to stop construction on parts of the embattled Mountain Valley pipeline, despite a stern rebuke from the agency’s two Democratic members.

Mountain Valley “lacks the federal authorizations required to cross over 700 waterbodies and wetlands along the project route,” FERC Chair Richard Glick and Commissioner Allison Clements, both Democrats, wrote in their dissent. “Under these circumstances, allowing piecemeal construction of a project that is still awaiting critical federal authorizations is inconsistent with any reasonable reading of [the pipeline's certificate], not to mention our responsibilities to the landowners, communities, and others who have interests at stake in this proceeding.”

The dispute stems from a FERC decision in December, when the agency — then under Republican leadership — voted to allow the 303-mile natural gas pipeline to resume construction between certain mileposts near the Jefferson National Forest in Virginia. A group of environmental advocates led by the Sierra Club contested the ruling.

Republican Commissioners Neil Chatterjee, James Danly and Mark Christie, representing the majority, bypassed Glick’s objections and issued the order denying the Sierra Club challenge yesterday.

While Glick is chair and controls the agency’s agenda, the order marks the limitation of his power without a majority of Democrats on the panel. Chatterjee’s term expires in June, and President Biden is expected to appoint a Democrat to take his place.

The order does not change the status of the $6 billion project that would carry natural gas through West Virginia and Virginia, as Mountain Valley developers resumed construction following FERC’s decision in December and favorable legal rulings.

But the project has faced a series of delays and legal battles and currently lacks a number of permits required for completion, including one to cut through part of the Jefferson National Forest. Financial analysts have predicted that further delays could doom the project.

Wild Virginia, an environmental group that opposes the pipeline, said a stay of the commission’s December order “would have prevented further damage to valuable and sensitive environments along a 17-mile route through our mountains and forests.”

“However, this failure by the Commission, to act responsibly and uphold the public interest, will not stop or slow our efforts to end the MVP once and for all,” said David Sligh, the group’s conservation director, in a statement, using an abbreviation for the project. “Where FERC and other agencies have repeatedly failed us, we seek the court’s intervention and believe we have a great chance of success in those suits.”

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit rejected the Sierra Club’s request to stop construction last month. The case is now pending judicial review, but the court has not set a timeline for its decision.

Analysts at research firm ClearView Energy Partners LLC noted yesterday’s order marks “no change to MVP’s current construction authorizations” but pointed out that Glick and Clements’ dissent offers the Sierra Club a wellspring of legal arguments to draw on in any future litigation.

“We expect the Sierra Club to rely heavily on the dissents (Glick’s from the December order and the joint dissent in today’s order) in their appeal,” ClearView said in a note to clients.

>>>>>>>………………>>>>>>>………………>>>>>>>

Senators Kaine and Warner voice concerns about MVP stream crossings

From the Allegheny Blue Ridge Alliance (ABRA) Update #305 – April 2, 2021

Virginia’s two U.S. Senators, Tim Kaine and Mark Warner, have written Richard Glick, Chairman of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC), to express concerns they have heard from constituents about confusion on recent filings with the agency by Mountain Valley Pipeline, LLC (MVP, LLC).

Their March 26 letter asked that the comment period for the public to express their views to FERC be extended by at least 60 days.

The Senators also raised the issue of MVP, LLC’s plans to bore underneath streams, stating:

The environmental impacts of the newly proposed trenchless technology, such as conventional direct bore, horizontal direct drilling (HDD), and “microtunnelling,” are not yet fully understood by impacted parties in Virginia. Boring allows for work to occur up to and under the waterways, which could require blasting and excavation of bore pits required for drilling under water crossings.

Given the unfamiliarity of the proposed boring methods to our constituents, we understand there are many questions and concerns about how this process will impact their daily lives. A detailed environmental survey and a substantial comment period will bring additional transparency and public engagement to FERC’s regulatory process.

Mobley is the location of a natural gas processing facility in Wetzel County, WV

From an Article by Laurence Hammack, Roanoke Times, January 19, 2021

Federal regulators hit the brakes Tuesday on a request to speed up construction of a portion of the Mountain Valley Pipeline, throwing another wrench into the problematic project.

The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission deadlocked 2-2 on Mountain Valley’s request to bore under streams and wetlands along the pipeline’s first 77 miles in West Virginia.

After running into legal problems with a permitting process that would have allowed digging trenches through water bodies, the company asked FERC to authorize an alternative method of drilling a tunnel below some of the streams and wetlands through which the pipe would pass.

Approval by the commission would have enabled Mountain Valley to put the first 77 miles of the pipeline into service while work on the remaining 226 miles — including a stretch through the New River and Roanoke valleys — is slowed by legal attacks from environmental groups.

But at FERC’s virtual meeting Tuesday, an order approving the boring request failed to get a majority vote. With the panel split 2-2, and the fifth commissioner abstaining from voting, the matter essentially died unresolved.

“It’s a significant setback” for Mountain Valley, said Gillian Giannetti, a staff attorney for the Natural Resources Defense Council. “MVP is in a holding pattern, and there’s no clear end in sight,” she said.

The council and other environmental groups had objected to Mountain Valley’s request to bore under the 69 water bodies that lie between the pipeline’s origin in northern West Virginia and the point where it will connect with another pipeline.

Boring “inherently presents significant risks” that should be evaluated more thoroughly, the council wrote in comments submitted to FERC last month.

“Mountain Valley failed to conduct geotechnical surveys, groundwater surveys and subsurface soil composition studies necessary to assess whether conventional bores are appropriate,” the filing stated.

Natalie Cox, a spokeswoman for the joint venture of five energy companies building the pipeline, said the tie vote means that FERC could revisit the stream-crossing issue in the future.

However, the regulatory landscape for natural gas pipelines will likely change under the administration of President-elect Joe Biden, who is expected to be less supportive of the industry than President Donald Trump.

FERC usually meets on the third Thursday of every month, but the January meeting was moved up to Tuesday — one day before Biden was to be sworn in. A spokesperson for the agency said the change was made to accommodate a schedule that included Monday’s Martin Luther King Jr. holiday and Wednesday’s closing of federal offices for the inauguration.

The Mountain Valley proposal was listed as a consent item on the agenda, which generally indicates it was expected to pass. “It is exceptionally rare for an order to be put up for a vote and fail,” Giannetti said. The head of the presidentially appointed commission is responsible for putting items on the agenda, she said, and it’s possible Republican chair James Danly did not realize Mountain Valley lacked majority support.

While FERC’s membership is not expected to change immediately under Biden’s watch, the chair will likely switch from Danly to one of the two Democrats on the commission. That in turn could make things more difficult for Mountain Valley down the road.

One of many things that remained unknown Tuesday was the role of Mark Christie, the newest member of FERC, who did not cast a vote on the company’s request. Christie, a former member of the Virginia State Corporation Commission, was sworn in to FERC earlier this month.

Mary O’Driscoll, a spokeswoman for the agency, said Christie felt that Mountain Valley’s proposal could relate to his 17 years with the SCC. “Christie may explore such issues in these proceedings in the future,” O’Driscoll wrote in an email.

Pipeline opponents expressed surprise at Tuesday’s non-decision by FERC, which they say generally acts as a rubber-stamp to applications from Mountain Valley and other pipeline companies.

“While the commissioners could possibly revisit this decision later, for now, they have prevented an unjustified attempt to skirt environmental regulations,” said David Sligh, conservation director of Wild Virginia.

In comments at Tuesday’s virtual meeting, Commissioner Richard Glick — who in the past has been the lone vote against many Mountain Valley proposals — objected to FERC’s “piecemeal approach” of allowing construction to move forward while the company lacks all of its required permits.

Glick noted that the meeting marked the first time since August 2018 that all five members of FERC were seated. Allison Clements, who became a member last month, joined him in voting against Mountain Valley.

Since work on the pipeline began in 2018, three sets of federal permits have been set aside by the courts. Environmental organizations have repeatedly filed complaints about uncontrolled erosion and other harms caused by burying the pipeline along steep mountain slopes.

While the permits have since been reissued, the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals on Nov. 9 stayed Mountain Valley’s latest approval, issued by the Army Corps of Engineers, to cross streams and wetlands.

That in turn led the company to request FERC approval to bore under streams, a crossing method that does not require approval by the Army Corps. Previously, FERC has approved individual requests for boring, including under the Roanoke River in Montgomery County.

In a separate decision last week, the U.S. Bureau of Land Management granted a right of way for the pipeline to pass through the Jefferson National Forest — as expected after approval several days earlier by the Forest Service.

Despite the latest setback, Mountain Valley still plans to have the $6 billion project completed by the end of the year, Cox said. But with the stream crossing issue still unresolved, and other legal battles brewing, opponents say there is still a chance of stopping the pipeline.

“Finally, FERC may actually be changing to work for the citizens of the US and not for the energy corporations,” Maury Johnson said in a statement from the anti-pipeline group Protect Our Water, Heritage, Rights. “We can only hope this holds and we see a whole new era at FERC.”

>>>>>…..>>>>>…..>>>>>…..>>>>>…..>>>>>

See also: Glick named FERC chair, promises ‘significant progress’ on energy transition, Catherine Morehouse, Utility Drive, January 21, 2021

Utility Dive Brief:

§ — Commissioner Richard Glick was named chair of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission by President Joe Biden Thursday morning.

§ — Glick was considered a front runner for the chairmanship as the longest serving Democrat on the commission. He will succeed Chairman James Danly, and the commission is expected to retain its Republican majority until Commissioner Neil Chatterjee’s term is up June 30.

§ — Glick has said publicly that on the electric side he would prioritize transmission reform, reassessing capacity markets, and continuing efforts to lower barriers to clean energy resources in regulated markets. On gas, he believes the commission should rethink how it assesses greenhouse gas emissions and more seriously review environmental justice impacts when approving gas infrastructure.

MVP construction has been active recently

From the Press Release of Appalachian Voices, November 9, 2020

The 4th Circuit Court of Appeals today sided with conservation groups and issued an immediate stay of Mountain Valley Pipeline’s stream and wetland crossing permits in southern West Virginia and Virginia. The groups, noting the company’s stated rush to resume construction and the serious environmental harms likely to result, had asked the court for the stay while it considered the merits of their challenge of the water-crossing permits issued by the Corps of Engineers.

The eight groups, represented by Appalachian Mountain Advocates, filed a challenge of the Corps’ reissuance on September 25 of two “Nationwide Permit 12” approvals that would allow MVP, LLC to trench through some 1,000 streams, rivers, wetlands and other water bodies in the two states. The 4th Circuit had rejected the Corps’ first round of permit approvals in 2018.

As noted in the groups’ filings, Mountain Valley Pipeline’s operator recently told its investors that it intends to blast and trench through “critical” streams “as quickly as possible before anything is challenged.”

The court had issued an emergency stay October 16; today’s stay remains in effect until it rules on the groups’ petition to overturn the Corps’ water permits for the MVP project.

The groups filing the challenge include Appalachian Voices, Center for Biological Diversity, Chesapeake Climate Action Network, Indian Creek Watershed Association, Sierra Club, West Virginia Highlands Conservancy, West Virginia Rivers Coalition, and Wild Virginia.

>>> Peter Anderson, Virginia Program Manager, Appalachian Voices:
“Communities along the pipeline route have been on edge these past several weeks as the company has moved in heavy equipment and started doing work, so we’re very glad the court pressed pause on this permit while the water-crossing issues are reviewed further.”

>>> David Sligh, Conservation Director, Wild Virginia:
“Once again, the court has shown that it sees the dire threat this dangerous and damaging project poses to our precious waters and vulnerable communities. Convincing a court to stay an agency decision requires plaintiffs to convince the judges that they have a good chance to prove their case after full review. Now, we look forward to doing just that — to show conclusively that the Corps of Engineers abdicated its duty to protect us and our resources.”

>>> Anne Havemann, General Counsel, Chesapeake Climate Action Network:
“The companies behind the Mountain Valley Pipeline have proven countless times that they are unfit to build this pipeline safely, with hundreds of violations and thousands of dollars in fines already. They’ve done nothing to prove that future construction won’t result in the same. We applaud the court for standing on the right side of history and issuing this stay.”

>>> Joan Walker, Senior Campaign Representative for the Sierra Club’s Beyond Dirty Fuels Campaign:
“The MVP has already doubled its timeline and budget, and it’s not even close to being finished. If they were smart, they would quit throwing good money after bad and walk away from this fracked gas disaster like Duke Energy and Dominion Energy did with the Atlantic Coast Pipeline.”

>>> Jared Margolis, senior attorney at the Center for Biological Diversity:
“This decision will help ensure the pipeline doesn’t keep posing catastrophic threats to waterways that people and imperiled species depend on to survive. Despite the project’s clear failure to comply with the law, Mountain Valley keeps pushing this climate-killing menace. We’ll continue working to ensure this destructive pipeline doesn’t poison waters and threaten communities along its route.”

#. #. #. #. #. #. #. #. #. #. #. #. #. #.

See also: ‘Less-than-ideal bedfellows’: Mountain Valley Pipeline payout to Appalachian Trail Conservancy prompts criticism, Elizabeth McGown, Energy News Network, October 5, 2020

The Appalachian Trail Conservancy expected scrutiny for accepting a $19.5 million gift from the MVP pipeline’s developers but believes time will show it was the right decision.

Mountain Valley Watch report to Virginia, August 2018

From an Article by Laurence Hammack, Roanoke Times, October 16, 2020

The on-again, off-again pace of building the Mountain Valley Pipeline is off again. A temporary administrative stay of stream-crossing permits was issued Friday by the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.

In a brief order, the court said the delay — which was requested Thursday by conservation groups concerned about environmental damage from the massive natural gas pipeline — will remain in effect until it has time to consider a full stay that was sought earlier.

“Our streams and wetlands get at least a temporary reprieve from MVP’s destruction,” said David Sligh of Wild Virginia, one of eight environmental groups fighting the pipeline in court.

After the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers reissued the NWP 12 permits Sept. 25 and a stop-work order was lifted last week, Mountain Valley said it would resume construction “in the coming days.”

While burrowing the 42-inch diameter pipe under nearly 1,000 streams and wetlands is now back on hold, it was unclear whether Mountain Valley is free to resume clearing the right of way and digging trenches to bury the pipe in upland areas.

Asked Friday whether any such work had begun, Mountain Valley spokeswoman Natalie Cox did not answer directly. “With MVP’s upland construction now scheduled to begin, and as we receive additional information” about other areas being cleared for work, “MVP will continue to evaluate its current construction plans, budget and schedule,” Cox wrote in an email.

Observers have not seen any heavy equipment being moved back to construction zones, according to Russell Chisholm, co-chair of the anti-pipeline Protect Our Water, Heritage, Rights coalition.

The most recent report filed with the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission by environmental monitors, which covered the week of Sept. 27 through Oct. 3, did not list any construction in its “Summary of Activities” section.

Although Mountain Valley has regained two of three sets of key permits that were set aside by legal challenges, continued delays raise questions about whether it will meet its often-stated goal of completing the 303-mile pipeline by early next year.

In a weekly report released Monday, an investment banking firm that has been tracking the project said that if a stay was not granted, it expected work to be finished by mid-2021. “If the opponents successfully secure a stay, this timing could slip” to the third quarter, Height Capital Markets stated.

On Oct. 9, FERC allowed work to begin again on all but a 25-mile segment of the pipeline that includes the Jefferson National Forest.

In 2018, the 4th Circuit threw out a permit that allowed the pipeline to pass through 3.5 miles of the forest, citing concerns with erosion and sedimentation. The U.S. Forest Service is not expected to reissue the permit before year’s end.

But Mountain Valley this week asked FERC to allow it to resume construction in much of a buffer zone established around the forest. New sedimentation studies showed no danger to federal woodlands, it said. FERC had not responded by late Friday.

In her email, Cox said Mountain Valley is disappointed that the 4th Circuit stayed the stream-crossing permits temporarily. But, she added, “we respect the court’s request for additional time to thoroughly consider the Motion for Stay and look forward to a resolution of this matter.”

To obtain a more lasting stay, Wild Virginia and other environmental groups would have to show that they have a good chance of winning their legal challenge, and that they would be “irreparably injured” if construction were allowed to proceed.

Derek Teaney, the attorney for the groups, said in court papers that the Army Corps failed to adequately consider the pipeline’s impact on endangered species, including the Roanoke logperch and the candy darter.

In a statement Friday, POWHR said it was “both heartened and guardedly optimistic” that the court will rule in favor of the project’s opponents.

>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
See also: Threats-to-Water-Quality-from-Mountain-Valley-Pipeline-and-Atlantic-Coast-Pipeline-Water-Crossings-in-Virginia, Downstream Strategies, February 6, 2018

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

See also: Mountain Valley Watch Analysis & Report,
Comments to State Water Control Board, August 19, 2018

ACP extends from WV to VA & NC, may not be needed

From an Article by Maya Weber, S & P Global — Platts, June 1, 2020

Washington — A coalition of environmental groups opened June 1 a new front in their legal war against the 600-mile, 1.5 Bcf/d Atlantic Coast Pipeline project, contending that a supplemental environmental impact statement is needed.

The action comes as lead developer Dominion Energy already is laboring to get the project back into construction after a series of legal setbacks. For instance, it is hoping for a positive US Supreme Court decision soon to help reinstate permission vacated by a federal circuit court for the pipeline to cross the Appalachian Trail.

The project is intended to move Appalachian natural gas to mid-Atlantic markets.

Should the developer prevail in the Supreme Court, it faces a possible new avenue of litigation in the form of a roughly 4,000-page filing posted on the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission’s website June 1 by Southern Environmental Law Center, Appalachian Mountain Advocates and Chesapeake Bay Foundation on behalf of a coalition of conservation groups.

The groups argued in the filing that a supplemental EIS is needed in light of new information that has come to light since FERC issued an EIS for the pipeline project in 2017, and given upcoming FERC decisions on key matters such as whether to extend certificate authorization for the project beyond the October expiration date and whether to lift FERC’s existing stop-work order on construction.

Part of the groups’ rationale for a new review is that the region’s energy infrastructure has undergone a dramatic shift away from gas-fired power, while the cost of the pipeline has ballooned.

“In January 2020, Virginia — the site of over half of the ACP’s proposed route — told the Supreme Court that in light of the mounting evidence that the pipeline is not needed, the ACP threatens Virginia’s natural resources without clear corresponding benefits,” they wrote.

New data for the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission Commission (FERC)

And they said new information has come to light that they contended must be considered under the National Environmental Policy Act, involving endangered species along the pipeline route, expanded scientific information about climate change, and changing circumstances related to cumulative impacts from projects in the area.

In addition, they argued there have been substantial erosion, sedimentation and slope failures since 2017 along the ACP route and other pipelines in mountainous terrain, undermining FERC’s conclusions about effectiveness of mitigation in its documents. In light of the recently narrowed definition of waters of the US, some water bodies crossed by the project, including wetlands, may be at greater risk if permitting authorities no longer consider them within the purview of the Clean Water Act, they said.

Large long pipelines in steep terrain cause sediment & water pollution

Dominion Energy response to filings

In response to the filing, Dominion spokeswoman Ann Nallo said many of the concerns raised by the environmental groups already have been addressed publicly and others are being addressed through ongoing permitting processes with the agencies.

For example, ACP is working with the US Fish and Wildlife Service on a new biological opinion that will include the most up-to-date information on the impacted species.

The project is needed more than ever for the region’s economy and path to clean energy, she argued.

“The ACP will also support our region’s transition from coal and the rapid expansion of renewables, both of which are essential to Dominion Energy’s and Duke Energy’s plans to achieve net zero emissions by 2050,” she said.

ClearView Energy Partners, in a research note, said it expects the Supreme Court to remove one obstacle to the Appalachian Trail crossing but emphasized that others remained for the project. ClearView suggested the environmental groups may be preparing to ask the DC Circuit Court of Appeals to stay FERC’s certificate authorization when the court brings a legal challenge related to the FERC authorization out of abeyance.

“Given the strong consensus that the Supreme Court may reverse the 4th Circuit, we see this call to issue a supplemental EIS as another avenue through which the project’s opponents intend to delay, if not try to halt, the project altogether.”

42 inch Mountain Valley Pipeline is larger than previous pipelines, probably too large for the steep terrain and many stream crossings

From an Article by Laurence Hammack, Roanoke Times, April 24, 2020

The Mountain Valley Pipeline is still targeting a completion date of late this year, a spokeswoman said Friday, despite reports of the suspension of a nationwide program needed to grant a key permit it lacks.

Last week, a federal judge in Montana vacated a permit for the Keystone XL pipeline to cross streams and wetlands in a decision that also applied to other projects, including the controversial natural gas pipeline being built through Southwest Virginia.

The Associated Press reported Thursday that the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers — which approves the permits on a general basis for pipelines, utility lines and other construction work that must cross a water body — has suspended the process in light of the court ruling.

Mountain Valley spokeswoman Natalie Cox said the company was aware of comments from the Corps about its so-called Nationwide Permit 12, which the AP attributed in part to emails it had obtained.

“We are awaiting further developments on the Montana federal court case … to understand any potential impacts on the MVP project,” Cox wrote in an email, adding that the company still was aiming to complete work on the 303-mile pipeline by the end of the year.

Mountain Valley was originally slated to be done by late 2018, and delays caused by legal challenges from environmental groups have in large part caused its estimated price to soar from $3.7 billion to as much as $5.5 billion.

“Continued delays will further erode the case for completing the MVP,” said Thomas Hadwin, a retired gas and electric utility executive from Waynesboro who is opposed to the project.

While Mountain Valley officials have said the pipeline is 90% done, “this is probably one of the biggest outstanding issues for them,” he said.

Hadwin said it was difficult to say whether the joint venture of five energy companies would abandon the project at this late stage, as opponents hope.

“The more money they put in, the harder it is to say, I’m going to give up,” he said. “I think that most board members would say, we’re so far in, let’s keep going.”

Larry Liebesman, a senior adviser for the water resources consulting firm Dawson & Associates in Washington, D.C., said he was not surprised to learn of the Corp’s suspension of its permitting process for stream and wetland crossings.

“My read of it is they felt it was important to abide by the court order, which in effect was a nationwide injunction against use of the Nationwide Permit,” he said.

It was not clear Friday how long the suspension might last. A spokesman for the Army Corps referred questions to a counterpart at the U.S. Justice Department, who had not responded by 6 p.m. Friday.

Environmentalists have long decried the Nationwide Permit process, which takes a blanket approach for projects the Corps determines will not cause significant harm to natural resources. An individual analysis of each stream crossing is needed to fully evaluate a pipeline’s effects, they say.

“Permit applications for projects like MVP would — and should — fail if project-wide impacts were more thoroughly examined,” said Russell Chisholm, co-chair of the anti-pipeline group Protect Our Water, Heritage, Rights.

Over the past two years, Mountain Valley has been cited repeatedly by regulators in Virginia and West Virginia for noncompliance with required measures to control erosion and sedimentation. Muddy runoff from construction sites along steep mountain slopes has carried sediment into nearby streams.

Mountain Valley has blamed much of the problem on heavy rainfall in 2018, and says it is working to have three sets of suspended permits — including the one to cross more than 1,000 streams and wetlands — restored in time to resume work by the late spring or summer.

An original water-crossing permit granted to Mountain Valley more than two years ago was set aside by the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. The company had applied for a new approval and was waiting on a decision when the recent court decision came down.

Because the Nationwide Permit is also used by power lines and other utility work, critics say the ruling by U.S. District Court Judge Brian Morris goes too far.

The Justice Department is likely to ask the judge to narrow the scope of his ruling, and to then appeal if he does not, according to Height Capital Markets, an investment banking firm that has followed Mountain Valley. “The universe of the kind of projects that would be affected is incredibly broad,” Liebesman said.

#############################

See also: Dominion Energy: Significant new natural gas generation not viable, NBC News 29, April 8, 2020

RICHMOND, Va. (AP) — Dominion Energy Virginia recently told state regulators “significant build-out” of natural gas-fired power plants is no longer viable because of renewable energy legislation lawmakers passed earlier this year.

The disclosure came in a filing with the State Corporation Commission several weeks before Dominion has to file its integrated resource plan, or IRP, a long-range planning document that describes how the utility will generate power to comply with regulations and meet customer needs.

The company’s critics called it the latest development to raise questions about why the Atlantic Coast Pipeline, the approximately $8 billion multistate natural gas pipeline the utility’s parent company is spearheading, is needed.

When Dominion proposed the pipeline in 2014, it was planning to build several thousand megawatts of additional natural gas generation in Virginia, said Will Cleveland, an attorney with the Southern Environmental Law Center.

MVP pipeline has violations and court challenges

From an Article by Laurence Hammack, Roanoke Times, May 14, 2019

Developers of the Mountain Valley Pipeline have agreed to pay a fine of nearly $266,000 for violating environmental regulations in West Virginia.

The agreement, outlined in a consent order from the West Virginia Department of Environmental Protection, marks the first financial penalty for problems with storm water runoff caused by building a 303-mile pipeline that will also cross the New River and Roanoke valleys.

Photographs included in the 179-page document show a “drastic change” in streams since work on the buried pipeline began last winter, said Angie Rosser, executive director of the West Virginia Rivers Coalition. “These are clear-running streams and they have been forever,” Rosser said. “And you look at the photos now and they are just brown.”

Mountain Valley faces similar issues in Virginia. A lawsuit filed in December by the Department of Environmental Quality alleges more than 300 violations of erosion and sediment control measures. Online court records indicate the case is still pending.

In West Virginia, 26 notices of violation filed from April to November of last year were resolved by the consent order.

The agreement, signed May 6 by Robert Cooper, Mountain Valley’s senior vice president for engineering and construction, states the company will pay a fine of $265,972 and submit a plan of corrective action to state regulators.

A public comment period on the agreement runs through June 20.

Most of the violations “were the result of unprecedented rainfall throughout the spring and summer of 2018,” Mountain Valley spokeswoman Natalie Cox wrote in an email.

“MVP appreciates the oversight of the WVDEP and the MVP team will continue to work closely with project inspectors to maintain its high standards of safety and environmental stewardship,” the email said.

The $4.6 billion project is still scheduled for completion by late this year, Cox wrote. However, at least two members of the five-partner venture have said in recent financial reports that a delay is likely, considering legal challenges that led to suspended permits.

Rosser said the fine, which represents well less than 1% of the project’s cost, is unlikely to lead to significant change. “The concern is that paying the fine is cheaper than doing it right in the first place,” she said.

Mountain Valley and other pipelines being built in West Virginia have all encountered the same problems, Rosser said, and it’s becoming apparent that state-approved plans to control erosion are not working.

“It’s a lot of erosion and a lot of sediment that doesn’t belong in our streams,” she said. “Looking at the photos, you just can’t deny that these pipelines affect water quality.”

Critics say the worst pollution will come when crews begin to run the 42-inch diameter pipe through streams and wetlands. Water body crossings have been on hold since October, when the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals threw out a permit issued by the Army Corps of Engineers.

Mountain Valley hopes to obtain new permits from the Corps later this year.

But the project must also get renewed approval to cross through the Jefferson National Forest — a process that was complicated by a separate opinion from the 4th Circuit that invalidated a U.S. Forest Service approval for the crossing of the Appalachian Trail by a similar project, the Atlantic Coast Pipeline.

About two-thirds of the pipeline, which will transport natural gas from the Marcellus and Utica deposits to a pipeline in Pittsylvania County, is in West Virginia, where problems with construction were first documented by state regulators.

The consent order from West Virginia documents a variety of improper steps taken by Mountain Valley to control erosion. Sediment-laden water often left the construction sites and made its way into nearby streams and rivers, the order states.

Other violations included a failure to clean debris from adjacent public and private roads, a lack of temporary stabilization of areas where construction was dormant for more than 21 days, and no reseeding of denuded areas where vegetation had failed to take root after 30 days.

In a written defense to the lawsuit claiming regulation violations in Virginia, lawyers for the company blamed the problems on “extraordinary, high-intensity storm events and flooding beyond MVP’s control.”

They also wrote that the company would be willing to settle the Virginia case.

Holden Dometrius arrested on Little Mountain near Lindside, WV

From an Article by Laurence Hammack, Roanoke Times, April 24, 2019

A state regulation that delayed a key part of work on the Mountain Valley Pipeline — the crossings of more than 1,000 streams and wetlands in the two Virginias — has been revised in a way likely to benefit the project.

The West Virginia Department of Environmental Protection wrote in a letter Wednesday to federal regulators that it has modified about 50 conditions to permits issued by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.

One of the conditions was that the pipeline needed to be built across four major rivers in West Virginia within 72 hours. The Army Corps improperly bypassed that rule when it issued what’s called a Nationwide Permit 12 to the natural gas project, the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled in throwing out the authorization in October.

Although several more steps need to be taken before water body crossings can resume, a revised condition doing away with the time restriction in certain cases was seen as a victory for Mountain Valley.

However, complications from another court challenge involving a different pipeline in Virginia led one of the five partners in the joint Mountain Valley venture to say this week that completion of the project by the end of this year now “appears unlikely.”

Rebecca Kujawa, chief financial officer of NextEra Energy Inc., made her comments in a report on first quarter results posted to the company’s website.

Construction of Mountain Valley, which began last year, is expected to ramp up in the coming months following a winter lull, Kujawa said. But she expressed concerns about a 4th Circuit decision last year that prohibited the Atlantic Coast Pipeline from crossing the Appalachian Trail.

The Mountain Valley pipeline would also cross the scenic footpath, and backers worry that the project could be jeopardized by the Atlantic Coast ruling. “We are continuing to work through options with our partners and will provide a further update in the near future,” Kujawa said.

Natalie Cox, a spokeswoman for Mountain Valley, said Thursday that there have been no announced changes to the company’s most recent goal of a late 2019 completion date.

“However, in light of the ongoing permit challenges, the window to achieve these targets is becoming more narrow,” she wrote in an email. “The team has been pursuing options and alternatives that would address the outstanding issues and, if realized within the next few months, would allow for” completion late this year.

When work on the 303-mile pipeline began a year ago, plans were to have it done by late 2018. As for the Nationwide Permit process, Cox said, the next step will be for the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to review the modified conditions from West Virginia. Then the Army Corps will do the same.

Pipeline opponents were quick to react to the move, staging a protest early Thursday morning in which a man chained himself to equipment along the pipeline’s construction right of way in Lindside, West Virginia.

“To hell with your permits,” read a banner attached to a piece of welding equipment to which 22-year-old Holden Dometrius had locked himself, according to a news release from Appalachians Against Pipelines. After several hours of blocking work, Dometrius was removed by law enforcement officials.

The organization, which has been affiliated with more than dozen such blockades in West Virginia and Southwest Virginia, said the pipeline “endangers water, ecosystems, and communities along its route, contributes to climate change, increases demand for natural gas (and therefore fracking), and is entrenched in corrupt political processes.”

A clerk in the Monroe County Magistrate’s Court said Dometrius faces a felony charge of threatening terrorism and three misdemeanors: trespassing, obstruction and tampering with equipment. Dometrius, of Winston-Salem, North Carolina, was being held in jail in lieu of an $8,000 cash bond Thursday afternoon, the clerk said.

In October, the 4th Circuit vacated a Nationwide Permit 12 issued for a portion of the pipeline running through West Virginia. A legal challenge brought by the Sierra Club and other environmental organizations asserted that the Army Corps overlooked a requirement, imposed by the state’s environmental agency, that work on four major river crossings be completed within 72 hours to limit potential environmental harm.

Mountain Valley has said that digging trenches across the river bottoms for its 42-inch diameter pipe would take four to six weeks.

Two similar stream-crossing permits — one for Southwest Virginia and another for a second part of West Virginia — were suspended by the Army Corps days after the court ruling.

But by the time of the court’s opinion, the West Virginia Department of Environmental Protection had already initiated changes to address the court’s concerns. The department invited public comments in August — after the court had issued a stay to stream crossings in response to the Sierra Club’s lawsuit, which was later lifted — on a number of revisions to state conditions to the Army Corps’ permits, including one that removed the 72-hour time restriction in certain cases.

Concerns by regulators date back to Mountain Valley’s original plan to use a so-called “wet open cut” process to run the pipeline across streams and wetlands. That entails digging a ditch along the bottom of a flowing stream, and can lead to large amounts of sediment and other forms of pollution being washed downstream.

The company has since changed plans. It now proposes to use a dry-cut method, in which a temporary dam diverts the water from half of the river’s width while construction crews dig a trench for the pipe along the exposed river bed. The process is then repeated on the other half of the river.

While the dry-cut method takes longer than 72 hours, it poses less of an environmental risk, the Department of Environmental Protection said in explaining why it was removing the time restriction.

Appalachian Mountain Advocates, a nonprofit law firm that represented the Sierra Club in the 4th Circuit case, objected to the department’s plans during the written public comment period. In the past, a Sierra Club representative did not rule out the possibility of additional litigation if the Army Corps reissues its Nationwide Permit 12.

For Mountain Valley to get the $4.6 billion project fully back on track, it must still win approval from a second federal agency. The U.S. Forest Service had approved the pipeline to pass through about 3.5 miles of the Jefferson National Forest. That authorization was struck down last year by the 4th Circuit, which ruled that the agency failed to take into account expected problems with erosion and sedimentation.

The appeals court ruling sent the permit back to the Forest Service for reconsideration in July. Since then, the agency has said little about the process, other than it was “developing its response” to the issues identified by the court.

The Forest Service has also not responded to a Freedom of Information Act request seeking more information, which was filed in January by The Roanoke Times.

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

“Hell With Your Permits — Work Stopped At MVP Site In WV, Protester Charged with Felony” | Blue Virginia, April 25, 2019

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

Three (3) Protesters Arrested After Binding to MVP Equipment, WSET, June 5, 2018

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