Professor arrested for protesting MVP pipeline

From an Article by Laurence Hammack, Roanoke Times, June 28, 2018

After spending all day locked to a piece of excavating equipment about 20 feet off the ground, a pipeline protester came down Thursday evening to cheers from supporters and charges from Virginia State Police.

Virginia Tech professor Emily Satterwhite was taken into custody following her 14-hour blockade of construction of the Mountain Valley Pipeline as it crosses Brush Mountain.

Early Thursday morning, Satterwhite climbed up the boom of a John Deere excavator, which had been left parked overnight on the pipeline construction’s right-of-way through Montgomery County.

She then inserted her forearms into a lockbox device that was secured to the excavator’s hydraulic piston, leaving her stuck in a trap of her own making — and stumping law enforcement officers who were called to the scene to get her down.

Late in the day, using two cherry pickers that came chugging up a narrow Forest Service road, police were lifted on platforms to reach Satterwhite. Then, they used saws and grinders to free Satterwhite and take her back to the ground at about 8:25 p.m.

Wearing a “Stand with Red” T-shirt, in tribute to another MVP protester, Satterwhite waved to the crowd below, which erupted into applause. “Be like Emily,” the crowd chanted. “Not like MVP.”

It was not clear what Satterwhite, a professor of Appalachian studies at Tech, will be charged with. State Police Sgt. Rick Garletts said the charge will likely be trespassing, but authorities were still considering other options Thursday night.

After being checked out by rescue workers on the scene, Satterwhite would be taken to jail, Garletts said.

A representative of the group Appalachians Against Pipelines said Satterwhite’s affiliation with Virginia Tech has nothing to do with the blockade, and she is acting as a private citizen.

Satterwhite used a device called a sleeping dragon to lock herself to the excavator. A sleeping dragon is an elbow-shaped piece of pipe in which a protester inserts their arms into each end and then chains their hands together inside the device, complicating efforts to remove the person from whatever they have attached themselves to.

Other pipeline protesters have chained themselves to heavy equipment and sat in trees along the pipeline’s path in recent months. “I guess it was just my turn to step up,” Satterwhite said Thursday morning from her spot about 20 feet off the ground.

As she spoke, state police and U.S. Forest Service officials were arriving on the scene. By about 9:45 a.m., a half-dozen sheriff’s deputies, state police officers and MVP officials had gathered at bottom of the excavator. They told Satterwhite that if she didn’t come down voluntarily, she’d go to jail.

Satterwhite indicated she was not going to come down and was willing to face the consequences. “It’s not what I want to do, it’s what I’m willing to do,” she said. After a brief conversation, the officers moved a short distance away from the excavator and huddled in discussion.

At 12:30 p.m., a state police officer used a megaphone to give Satterwhite a second chance to come down voluntarily. She did not. Then an official with Mountain Valley Pipeline made the same request. “This is not your land,” Satterwhite replied.

As the day wore on, a crowd of more than 30 spectators arrived at the remote scene, stomping a trail along a silt fence that kept them off the construction right of way. One person arrived with four large pizzas. Another played Bach on a cello in a vain attempt to drown out the noise of heavy earth moving equipment, which continued nearby as the standoff played out.

On the other side of the fence, a contingent of Mountain Valley construction workers joined law enforcement officers, squinting in a bright sun as they looked up at their human blockade.

“Go home and tear up your own yard,” someone in the crowd yelled across an expanse of freshly bulldozed earth. Throughout the day, Satterwhite yelled a running commentary about the pipeline’s environmental damage and the failure of state officials to stop it.

Sara Bohn, a member of the Montgomery County Board of Supervisors, helped mediate negotiations between the protester and the law enforcement officials. “There’s no doubt in my mind, she’s up there for the long haul,” Bohn said.

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See also: “Appalachian Ire Continues to Spread Against Pipelines” – It’s Going Down

Water is Life! We Won’t Back Down!

From an Article by Brad McElhinny, WV MetroNews, March 28, 2018

CHARLESTON, W.Va. — Authorities broke up a group of protesters who were blocking an access road that was being used for the Mountain Valley Pipeline. A protest that had been going on for about a month in the Jefferson National Forest on the border of West Virginia and Virginia escalated this morning when pipeline opponents blocked the access road.

The protesters put up a large pole overnight across the access road to the project in the Jefferson National Forest on the West Virginia/Virginia border. In addition to that, about 30 protesters gathered at the access road gate along Pocahontas Road on Peters Mountain.

The U.S. Forest service called the actions illegal and dangerous.

About 4:30 p.m., the group Appalachians Against Pipelines wrote on social media that authorities had broken up the protest and arrested some of the organizers. The authorities were trying to get one of the protesters off the pole, the group wrote.

UPDATE Cops arrived at monopod blockade on forest service road in large numbers, arrested direct support and dispersed support rally. Currently SHAKING THE MONOPOD TREE and endangering the sitter. #StoptheMVP. — Appalachians Against Pipelines, Mar 28, 2018

The protester on the pole produced live video of the scene below. A little after 6 p.m. the protesters said the police had gone away, leaving the protester on the pole.

The U.S. Forest Service, which has authority there, released a statement saying the location of the protest isn’t safe in the first place. “For the protesters in the areas under the closure order, the protest site is located within an area under emergency closure for the Mountain Valley Pipeline Project and is not a safe or legal location for a protest to occur,” stated Jessica Rubado, spokeswoman for the Forest Service.

The Forest Service on March 11 issued an order closing the access road and a 400 foot corridor along the pipeline’s 3.5 mile route through the national forest.

The protesters were aware the Forest Service would object.“Yes, I imagine they would object to the road being blocked,” said a protester who spoke with MetroNews this morning.

That protester, contacted by telephone, said the gathering was meant to discourage authorities from taking action on pipeline opponents who have been in platforms in trees along the intended pipeline route for more than a month.

“What this blockade is doing is it’s not only preventing Mountain Valley Pipeline from accessing their worksite but also preventing National Forest Service or State Police of the potential for any extraction of the tree sitters,” said the protester who did not reveal his name.

The protesters said their presence will also halt the daily construction of a 7-mile road leading to the site of the company’s planned boring through Peters Mountain.

Appalachians Against Pipelines put out a release about the latest protest tactics this morning. The protester who spoke with MetroNews answered the phone number that was included in the release.

A group of protesters has been in trees along the pipeline’s intended path since February 26, more than a month now. Today’s actions ramped up that protest.

Mountain Valley Pipeline is up against a deadline to fell trees along the 303-mile project. March 31 is the end of a window meant to lessen the impact on migratory bird and bat habitats.

The pipeline developers have said if they fall behind, they won’t be able to clear the trees until the same time next year. That would put the project behind and endanger the contracts already in place to supply natural gas, the developers have said.

Lawyers for Mountain Valley Pipeline tried to get an injunction in Monroe Circuit Court, but Judge Robert Irons ruled against the motion last week. The judge said MVP hadn’t been able to prove the protesters were inside Mountain Valley’s right of way.

The Forest Service included a statement today that the agency is committed to an expeditious but cautious resolution. The federal agency said, though, that remoteness of the area where the protest is located and weather conditions are complicating factors.

Forest Service law enforcement officers are closely coordinating with both West Virginia and Virginia state police and Mountain Valley Pipeline, LLC security for assistance and technical expertise, the agency stated.

This morning’s protest is actually on the Virginia side of the mountain. The protester said representatives of the forest service have been in the area near the tree protesters every day but had not yet taken any action to remove them.

Social media posts from the protesters have indicated for days that they believe some action by the forest service may be imminent.

The forest service, almost a week ago, designated a spot for protesters to gather at Caldwell Fields in Montgomery County, Virginia — still in the national forest but miles from the tree-sit protest.

This morning, the protester who spoke on the telephone said crowds will gather where they believe is right. “The idea is that folks should be able to support the Peters Mountain stand from wherever they please,” he said.”The forest is public. So to tell us we can’t gather here, we aren’t going to follow that rule.”

Five or six workers clean up after Rover pipeline

From an Article by Scott DiSavino, Reuters News Service, January 12, 2018

(Reuters) – Ohio environmental regulators on Friday told federal energy regulators the state has significant concerns about the potential for a spill from Energy Transfer Partners LP’s drilling under a river as the company works on the Rover natural gas pipeline.

The Ohio Environmental Protection Agency said in a filing with the U.S. Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) that it learned this week that 148,000 gallons of drilling fluid were “lost down the hole” that ETP is drilling under the Tuscarawas River in Stark County, Ohio.

That is the same site as a spill last April of 2 million gallons of mostly clay and water used to lubricate drilling blades, which led FERC to temporarily ban ETP from new horizontal drilling.

The state has “significant concerns for the potential of similar releases as occurred at this location in April,” it said in the filing. “We are deeply concerned this second drill under the Tuscarawas River is heading towards a similar outcome which resulted in the previous release to the environment.”

The state EPA said in its filing the company has not discovered any new spills in the area. Ohio, which asked FERC to ban all of ETP’s horizontal directional drilling in November, said in its filing on Friday it wants more information on the Tuscarawas drilling.

FERC in December allowed ETP to complete all horizontal drills on the Rover project, including those in Ohio. Pipeline companies use horizontal directional drilling to cross under large obstacles like highways and rivers.

Once finished, the $4.2 billion Rover pipeline will carry up to 3.25 billion cubic feet of gas per day from the Marcellus and Utica shale fields in Pennsylvania, Ohio and West Virginia to the U.S. Midwest and Ontario in Canada. One billion cubic feet per day of gas can supply about five million U.S. homes.

ETP said in December it expected to finish Rover by the end of the first quarter. About 0.9 bcfd of gas was already flowing on the completed portions of the pipeline, according to Reuters data.

Major gas producers that have signed up to use Rover include units of privately held Ascent Resources LLC, Antero Resources Corp, Range Resources Corp, Southwestern Energy Co, Eclipse Resources Corp and EQT Corp.

Rover is in WV Counties Doddridge, Tyler, etc.

Politics can suppress environmental protection

CONTACTS: Cat McCue, Appalachian Voices, cat@appvoices.org, and Roberta Bondurant, Protect Our Water, Heritage, Rights, bondurantlaw@aol.com

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE – December 7, 2017

Today the Virginia Water Control Board approved the permit for the proposed fracked-gas Mountain Valley Pipeline that would run 300 miles from West Virginia through six counties of Virginia. The 5-2 vote came after a full day of public comment yesterday from about 85 people, almost all of them of landowners and experts arguing against the pipeline based on its unprecedented impacts on streams, rivers, drinking water supplies, wetlands and groundwater. Communities and organizations have been fighting the controversial project since it first was proposed in 2014.

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

Tom Cormons, Executive Director of Appalachian Voices, a leading nonprofit advocate for healthy communities and just economies in Appalachia.

“We are thoroughly disappointed by the board’s decision. Thousands voiced their opposition to this pipeline based on evidence that it cannot be built without violating the federal Clean Water Act and the board’s obligation under Virginia law. DEQ created a rushed, haphazard process, limited the scope of the board’s review, and abdicated the state’s authority to the Corps of Engineers for oversight of pipeline construction at almost 400 water crossings.

“We applaud the efforts of several members who expressed concern that the draft permit would not provide reasonable assurance, as required by law, that water quality would be protected, and particularly we applaud members Nissa Dean and Roberta Kellam who cast the two dissenting votes.

“The board should have rejected the permit today because they lacked enough information to make a reasoned decision. Instead, it approved an utterly deficient permit.

“The record demonstrates this project would ultimately violate the law. We are considering all options and expect the outcome will be determined in the courts.

If the company breaks ground on the project, citizens along the entire route are prepared to watchdog every action, along every mile, every day of construction and afterwards, and compel agencies to act when violations inevitably occur.

“Next week, the board will be presented with an equally deficient permit for the proposed Atlantic Coast Pipeline, and should exercise its full authority to reject the permit.”

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

Roberta Bondurant, steering council of Protect Our Water, Heritage, Rights, a coalition of grassroots groups along the route of the proposed Mountain Valley Pipeline:

“The board failed in declining to exercise its authority of review and supervision in pumping the brakes on this process, so as to allow ample time to gather more information on which to make a decision. The board’s inquiries today highlight the massive chasm of information and understanding lacking in its review process– which reaffirmed the imperative to deny the project or opt for further inquiry. Grave concerns persist regarding water sources and geography implicated by proposed construction, of the proper use, benefit and details of water monitoring programs, and of the shocking lack of financial protection and bonding options for communities and individuals in this proposed project.

“The people of Virginia will continue to fight what amounts to a huge experiment of industrial development and the impacts on land, water and people. No doubt the challenge to natural gas in Virginia is a marathon–there are other permits, legal challenges– a multitude of hurdles ahead for the MVP. For our great places, our clean water, our children and for generations after them–we will carry on.”

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WV-DEP: Wednesday, November 1, 2017 @ 10:57 AM
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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: November 1, 2017

WVDEP Announces Permit Adjustments for Mountain Valley Pipeline

“State Stormwater Permit includes enhanced inspection and enforcement, stronger environmental guidelines for project”

CHARLESTON, W.Va. – West Virginia Department of Environmental Protection (WVDEP) Cabinet Secretary Austin Caperton announced today that the agency has lifted the suspension of the Mountain Valley Pipeline (MVP) state Stormwater Permit. The suspension of the state Stormwater Permit was put in place in September to allow the agency to properly respond to all public comments received.

Additionally, the state has chosen to waive the individual 401 Certification of the federal permits for the MVP. The Army Corps of Engineers recently reissued, with provisions that are specific to West Virginia, the Nationwide 12 permit which is used for stream crossings. These new conditions, when combined with specific requirements that are included in the state’s storm water permit, will allow for better enforcement capabilities and enhanced protection for the state’s waters.

“This is a case where the public review and comment system worked especially well,” noted Secretary Caperton. “This summer, after months of diligent work, WVDEP put forth for public review and comment a draft certification and permit for the MVP pipeline. As a result of some of the issues that were included in those public comments, our agency developed a revised strategy that will better utilize the state storm water permit to provide significantly stronger safeguards for the waters of West Virginia.”

West Virginia is unique among all surrounding states in that it has a stormwater permitting program for oil and gas activities that it created nearly five years ago. The program was purposely designed to provide protection from the impact of large-scale projects like the MVP that are otherwise exempt from federal National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System (NPDES) permit conditions.

For more WV-DEP news and information, go to www.dep.wv.gov.

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Dereliction of Duty: WVDEP Abandons Water Quality Review of Fracked Gas Pipeline — State Surrenders to Fossil Fuel Industry Instead of Protecting Health of West Virginians

CHARLESTON, WV — Today, the West Virginia Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) waived its opportunity to review the water quality impacts of the fracked gas Mountain Valley Pipeline. Under section 401 of the Clean Water Act, states must certify that proposed pipelines will not violate state water quality standards before construction can begin. DEP has the responsibility to determine whether or not to issue that certification for West Virginia, but announced today they are abdicating that responsibility.

WV-DEP previously certified the MVP, but in response to a lawsuit brought by Appalachian Mountain Advocates on behalf of a coalition of environmental groups, a federal court set aside that certification and allowed DEP to start over. That coalition is now exploring legal strategies in response to today’s news.

Derek Teaney, Senior Attorney at Appalachian Mountain Advocates, issued this statement:

“This is an outrageous and unprecedented dereliction of duty by DEP. After assuring a federal court that it was committed to reconsidering whether the MVP would degrade the hundreds of streams that it would impact, DEP has thrown up its hands and admitted that it is not up to the task of protecting West Virginia’s environment. This action suggests that DEP does not believe in the laws–including the antidegradation policy–that it is charged with enforcing. It also makes you wonder whether DEP intends to give the Atlantic Coast Pipeline–the other ill-conceived pipeline project it is currently reviewing–the same free pass it has just given to MVP.”

Angie Rosser, Executive Director, West Virginia Rivers Coalition said:

“DEP is a taxpayer-supported agency whose job is to protect public health and the environment. But when it came to one of the biggest projects DEP needed to review to protect water quality, the agency quit on the citizens of the state. We often hear from our political leaders that we don’t need federal agencies to regulate, that the state can handle it. But waiving their authority to do so is no way to handle it. It appears that political favor to industry has won the day over the agency’s responsibility to do everything in its power to protect the public’s right to clean water.”

>>>>> See also the Comments on this Article

Comments on the Atlantic Coast Pipeline (ACP) are Due THIS Friday, August 4th

From West Virginia Rivers Coalition, Main Web-site, August 1, 2017

You have an opportunity to comment on the proposed Atlantic Coast Pipeline’s Water Quality Certification, the permit that ensures the project meets West Virginia’s water quality standards.

As proposed the Atlantic Coast Pipeline would span three states — North Carolina, Virginia and West Virginia. In West Virginia alone the pipeline would impact approximately 400 stream segments, some streams would be crossed multiple times.

We’ve reviewed the ACP’s Water Quality Certification and found that it lacks critical information the WVDEP needs to certify that the project will be able to meet WV’s Water Quality Standards. View our fact sheet on the permit here.

We made it easy to submit comments online! Click here to comment on the Atlantic Coast Pipeline’s Water Quality Certification.

Comments are due this Friday, August 4.

>>> For more information contact West Virginia Rivers Coalition:
>>> www.wvrivers.org – (304) 637-7201

View of MVP simulation at Giles High School, Pearisburg, VA

Environmental groups ask court to review W.Va. decision to issue pipeline water quality permit

From an Article by Duncan Adams, Roanoke Times, June 9, 2017

Five environmental watchdog organizations filed a petition Friday with the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit that seeks a review of a water quality permit issued in West Virginia for the proposed Mountain Valley Pipeline.

The petitioners, represented by Appalachian Mountain Advocates, are contesting the issuance of the permit in March by the West Virginia Department of Environmental Protection.

The law firm had previously requested that the department hold a hearing to allow it to dispute the permit. The DEP denied that request in May.

The individual 401 water quality certification permit would allow the 42-inch diameter buried pipeline and related access roads to cross streams and wetlands in West Virginia, where the pipeline would be about 196 miles long and be served by about 147 miles of temporary and permanent access roads.

According to the DEP, the pipeline’s construction would involve 631 stream crossings and 424 wetlands crossings.

Derek Teaney, a lawyer with Appalachian Mountain Advocates, said that the federal appeals court is the proper venue for the petition according to the federal Natural Gas Act. He said the petition likely will trigger the court to respond with a schedule for the case, including deadlines for the filing of motions and briefs.

The petitioners are the West Virginia Rivers Coalition, Appalachian Voices, the Sierra Club, the Indian Creek Watershed Association and the Chesapeake Climate Action Network.

“West Virginia communities have already suffered enough as a result of fracking, and building the Mountain Valley Pipeline would lock in decades more of this reckless practice and the environmental destruction that comes with it,” Deb Self of the Sierra Club said in a news release.

“This pipeline threatens to do irreparable harm to Appalachia’s treasured streams and forested hillsides, and it is critical that the state thoroughly examine these impacts rather than rubber-stamping a project that is bad for our communities and our environment.”

Recently, there has been controversy in Virginia, where the Department of Environmental Quality recently clarified that it will not review stream and wetlands crossings as part of its approach to considering whether to issue an individual 401 water quality certification for the Mountain Valley Pipeline and separate but similar Atlantic Coast Pipeline.

Instead, the DEQ said it will look more at “uplands” effects on water quality, such as runoff from steep slopes and potential problems in areas of karst landscapes that include sinkholes and caves, and will rely on the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to review stream and wetlands crossings.

Ironically, critics of the certification in West Virginia contend that the state’s DEP failed to adequately consider these sorts of uplands effects.

Among other concerns expressed about the DEP permit, Appalachian Mountain Advocates has alleged:

• The department did not establish current water quality baseline data for streams that the pipeline would cross.
• The department failed to adequately consider effects on water quality from land disturbance and subsequent erosion unrelated to stream crossings.
• Because the pipeline’s route is not yet final and property surveys are incomplete, the “locations and effects of discharges associated with the construction and operation of the Mountain Valley Pipeline [are] ill-defined and impossible to fully evaluate.”
• The department did not adequately evaluate the effects of the pipeline’s construction and operation on public drinking water supplies.

Jake Glance, a spokesman for the West Virginia DEP, could not be reached Friday for comment.

As proposed, the Mountain Valley Pipeline would transport natural gas at high pressure from Wetzel County, West Virginia, to the Transco pipeline in Pittsylvania County, passing through 11 counties in West Virginia and six in Virginia.

As an interstate pipeline, the 303-mile, $3.5 billion Mountain Valley project needs approval from the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission before construction can begin.

The project also needs to secure other required permits and will need to be granted a right-of-way permit by the U.S. Bureau of Land Management to cross about 3.4 miles of the Jefferson National Forest.

Natalie Cox, a spokeswoman for Mountain Valley, could not be reached Friday for comment about the environmental groups’ petition.

Pipeline opponents have noted that New York’s Department of Environmental Conservation has denied 401 water quality certification permits for two major natural gas pipeline projects, alleging that their construction would violate state water quality standards.

The two projects, the Constitution Pipeline and the Northern Access Pipeline, have appealed the New York decisions to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit.

>  >  >  >  >  >  >  >  >  >

See also:  Appalachian Voices article here

Subject: Announcement on ACP 401 certification application

Friends,

An urgent matter, pipeline-related, the Atlantic Coast Pipeline (ACP) has filed a “State Water Certification Application” to the West Virginia Department of Environmental Protection (WVDEP) as required by Section 401 of the nation’s Clean Water Act. The ACP will try to show that their construction will not impair water quality and quantity nor the wildlife, recreation, and potable water that depends upon high quality water. Many of us fear that the pipeline construction will significantly impair water quality.

The announcement has been in the Pocahontas Times newspaper Legal Advertisements for the past several weeks. Public comment period ends May 8, 2017 (postmarked). Comments may be made to WV Department of Environmental Protection, Division of Water and Waste Management, 401 Certification Program, 601 57th Street SE, Charleston, West Virginia 25304.

Several groups and persons, including Eight Rivers Council, are making efforts to request a local public hearing in Pocahontas County. WVDEP is not required to hold public meetings, but can do so at their option. You may make a request for a public hearing but should do so by this Friday April 28, via email at dep.comments@wv.gov

For your inspiration, in May 2016 the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation refused a 401 certification for the proposed Constitution Pipeline, which effectively ended its construction. Would West Virginia’s DEP do the same? Let them know how precious our water is and how the threat of pipeline construction sedimentation and karst disturbance could sabotage our water.

April Pierson-Keating
Mountain Lakes Preservation Alliance
www.mountainlakespreservation.org

New York State rejects another pipeline

National Fuel’s pipeline project would have crossed more than 190 creeks and streams up through Allegany, Cattaraugus, Erie and Niagara counties, according to the specifications

From an Article by T.J. Pignataro, Buffalo NY News, April 8, 2017

The state Department of Environmental Conservation has rejected National Fuel’s plans for a 97-mile pipeline to carry natural gas from northwestern Pennsylvania to Elma.

The DEC determined there was too big a threat to water quality and wildlife to grant National Fuel the water quality certificate required to construct the Northern Access Pipeline.

“After an in-depth review of the proposed Northern Access Pipeline project and following three public hearings and the consideration of over 5,700 comments, DEC has denied the permit due to the project’s failure to avoid adverse impacts to wetlands, streams and fish and other wildlife habitat,” the DEC announced.

“We are confident that this decision supports our state’s strict water quality standards that all New Yorkers depend on,” the DEC statement added.

A series of public meetings was held on the proposal in February to gauge feelings about the project. Environmental groups and residents raised concern about threats the pipeline posed to water quality, including its planned crossing of Cattaraugus Creek, which is the sole source drinking water aquifer for residents in a 325-square-mile area.

Part of the project would have involved developing a compressor station in the Town of Pendleton along with additional pipeline connections in Niagara County. And, a third part of the project would have included upgrading a compressor station in the Town of Elma.

In all, the pipeline project would have crossed more than 190 creeks and streams in Allegany, Cattaraugus, Erie and Niagara counties.

DEC officials determined National Fuel’s plans did not “avoid or adequately mitigate” impacts that could harm water quality and associated resources.

“Crossing multiple streams and freshwater wetlands within a watershed or basin, including degrading riparian buffers, causes a negative cumulative effect on water quality to that watershed or basin,” the DEC reasoned in its denial.

“If allowed to proceed, the project would materially interfere with or jeopardize the biological integrity and best usages of affected water bodies and wetlands,” the statement added.

[[It is the second large-scale project designed to transport natural gas from wells employing hydraulic fracturing in Pennsylvania that was shot down by the DEC in just less than a year. Last April, the DEC denied a water quality permit to the Constitution Pipeline. Planned by another gas company, the pipeline was to run through the Southern Tier counties of Broome, Chenango, Otsego, Delaware and Schoharie. An appeal in the case is still pending.]]

Opponents of the project celebrated the news Saturday. “This is a huge victory for all of us,” said Kim Lemieux, an organizer of the Pendleton Action Team fighting the project. “I can’t tell you how good I’m going to sleep tonight.”

Another Pendleton resident and a leader of the action team, Paula Hargreaves, said the DEC’s findings confirmed what her organization had been saying all along. “This was going to be so devastating,” Hargreaves said. “For them to agree with us? It’s absolutely brilliant.”

Hargreaves called the DEC’s findings a victory in a single “battle” and said the organization intends to remain vigilant in anticipation of the gas company resubmitting their plans.

National Fuel officials declined to comment until Monday, when the utility will release a statement.

Read the DEC’s full Notice of Denial here

Natural gas pipe stacked for quick retrieval

Mountain Valley Pipeline Public Notice on Permit Applications

Public Notice Information, WV-DEP, Compiled from Internet Sources, March 10, 2017

The West Virginia Department of Environmental Protection – Division of Water and Waste Management will hold public hearings regarding the proposed Mountain Valley Pipeline project for State 401 Water Quality Certification, Natural Streams Preservation Act Permit, and for Oil and Gas General Water Pollution Control Permit. Comments can be made by letter or email.

Please note that you can mention that your comments apply to all three permits, rather than sending three separate mailings.

Please send comments before March 19th for the MVP permits listed below to either this email address: DEP.Comments@wv.gov or by regular mail to the address listed below (Attn: Sharon Mullins).

1. WV Natural Streams Preservation Act Permit

2. WV State 401 Water Quality Certification and Oil

3.  WV Gas General Water Pollution Control Permit

The Mountain Valley Pipeline project is comprised of approximately 195 miles of natural gas pipeline along with compressor stations, meter stations, access roads, and interconnects through: Wetzel, Harrison, Doddridge, Lewis, Braxton, Webster, Nicholas, Greenbrier, Fayette, Summers, and Monroe Counties in West Virginia.

>>> The associated Oil & Gas Construction Stormwater General Permit (WVR310667) would be for the discharge of stormwater associated with the disturbance of 4,214 acres of land for the of construction of this project.

>>> The Natural Streams Preservation Act permit (NSP-17-0001) being sought is for a proposed crossing of Greenbrier River in Summers County near Pence Springs.

>>> The State 401 Water Quality Certification (WQC-16-0005) would be for activities that will or may discharge fill into waters of the State. Mountain Valley Pipeline project is proposing to mitigate for the streams and wetlands permanently impacted by this project.

Any interested person may submit written comments on the Oil & Gas Construction Stormwater General Permit, the Natural Streams Preservation Act Permit, and/or the State 401 Water Quality Certification by addressing such to the Director of the Division of Water and Waste Management during the comment period, which ends on March 19, 2017 at 8 PM. Comments or requests should be emailed to dep.comments@wv.gov or by mail addressed to:

Director, Division of Water and Management, DEP
ATTN: Sharon Mullins, Permitting Section
601 57th Street SE
Charleston, WV 25304-2345

Applicant Type Permit ID:
Mountain Valley Pipeline, LLC Oil & Gas Construction Stormwater General Permit WVR310667
Mountain Valley Pipeline, LLC State 401 Water Quality Certification WQC-16-0005
Mountain Valley Pipeline, LLC Natural Streams Preservation Act Permit NSP-17-0001

Additional Information

State 401 Water Quality Certification application (WQC-16-0005) (This is a large PDF file, which may take a moment to download and view)

Natural Streams Preservation Act permit application (NSP-17-0001) (This is a large PDF file, which may take a moment to download and view)

​Oil & Gas Construction Stormwater General Permit (WVR310667)

Instructions for navigating the Oil and Gas Construction Stormwater General Permit webpages

>>> Contact: Laura K. Cooper, Assistant Director – Water Quality Standards

Division of Water and Waste Management, WV Department of Environmental Protection

Office:  304-926-0499 x1110  Mobile: 304-206-8901

Email:   Laura.K.Cooper@wv.gov

Room 2169, 601 57^th St SE; Charleston, WV