Virginia Tech team studies stream impacts

From an Article by Laurence Hammack, Roanoke Times, March 27, 2020

A winter hiatus in construction of the Mountain Valley Pipeline will last well into the spring. The latest delay came this week, with word that two federal agencies will take another month to review one of several approvals — set aside by legal challenges from environmental groups — that must be restored before work can ramp up on the highly disputed natural gas pipeline.

Thursday, March 26th had been the deadline for the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to finish their reconsideration of the project’s impact on endangered or threatened species of fish and bats.

But in a letter Wednesday to FERC, the Fish and Wildlife Service said the agencies and Mountain Valley had agreed to take another 32 days, pushing the completion date to April 27. It was the third such delay since December, when the review was originally set to be completed.

Despite the slow process with that and two other sets of suspended permits, the joint venture of five energy companies says it still plans to finish the 303-mile pipeline by the end of this year.

“Mountain Valley will continue to work diligently to obtain all necessary permits to complete construction of this vital infrastructure,” company attorney Matthew Eggerding wrote this week in a letter to FERC.

Since work began two years ago on the $5.5 billion project, regulatory agencies in Virginia and West Virginia have cited Mountain Valley for repeatedly violating erosion and sediment control regulations along the pipeline’s 303-mile path.

Other environmental problems, raised in legal challenges by the Sierra Club and other groups, have led to the suspension of three sets of permits: for the buried pipe to pass through the Jefferson National Forest, under more than 1,000 streams and wetlands in the two Virginias, and into the habitat of endangered species without causing them undue harm.

Last October, FERC ordered that all active construction be halted pending a review of a biological opinion, issued by the Fish and Wildlife Service in 2017, that found the pipeline would not significantly jeopardize protected fish and bats.

Candy Darter — Photo of Blue Ridge Outdoor magazine

“The additional time is also needed to allow the Service and the applicant to ensure that any additional information needs have been addressed,” field supervisor Cindy Schulz wrote in the letter to FERC.

When construction was halted last year, Mountain Valley was allowed to stabilize some work sites and maintain erosion control over the pipeline’s entire length from northern West Virginia to Chatham, near the North Carolina line.

Attorneys for the Sierra Club, which challenged the biological opinion and a second permit that allowed limited harm to protected species, have argued that the company is continuing active construction in a “steamrolling” attempt to finish the project.

“The measures currently in place are failing to protect endangered species from severe habitat degradation,” attorney Elly Benson wrote in a Nov. 5 letter filed with the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.

The appeals court has put on hold a lawsuit filed by the Sierra Club and other environmental groups until the review of the biological opinion is completed. Meanwhile, other agencies are continuing their court-ordered reconsideration of permits for the pipeline to cross the national forest and streams and rivers.

According to Height Capital Markets, an investment banking firm that has been following the project, delaying the endangered species case until April 27 is not expected to change Mountain Valley’s completion goal of late this year.

Wild Virginia seeks to protect our National Parks & Forests, etc.

Press Release from David Sligh, Wild Virginia, July 24, 2017

On Friday, the United States Forest Service released the Draft Record of Decision (ROD) to amend the Land and Resource Management Plans for the George Washington and Monongahela National Forests for the Atlantic Coast Pipeline.

Contrary to its independent duty to ensure the environmental review is complete and sufficient to support its draft decision, the Forest Service settled for the seriously flawed information presented by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) in its Final Environmental Impact Statement for the ACP.

The documents fail to depict the true effects of the construction and maintenance of the ACP. Some biological evaluations, roads analysis and consultation with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service are incomplete, a testament to the inadequacy of the content. Still the documents and the pipeline, present a clear and present danger to the forest in many ways that are documented.

>>> A total of 4,892 acres of interior forest habitat would be eliminated, creating 30,025 acres of new forest edge habitat and destroying 214 acres of National Forests

>>> ACP would cross 2.4 miles of porous and unstable karst areas on Forest Service lands and two cave systems of high significance: the Cocheran’s Cave Conservation Site and Burnsville Cove Cave Conservation Site.

>>> A total of 14 National Forest standards would be eliminated and circumvented as it applies to the pipeline, including impacts to soils, wetlands, old growth, the Appalachian Trail, and the endangered Indiana Bat.

>>> The cumulative impacts of both the ACP and the Mountain Valley Pipelines are not considered relevant to the Draft Decision, in clear violation of the National Environmental Policy Act.

“FERC found the construction and operation of the Atlantic Coast Pipeline may affect and is likely to adversely affect seven Endangered Species (Indiana bat, northern long-eared bat, Roanoke logperch, Madison Cave isopod, clubshell mussel, running buffalo clover, and small whorled pogonia),” said Misty Boos, Wild Virginia Executive Director. “It is outrageous that the Forest Service would sign off on a scheme like this with the full knowledge that it will harm endangered species.”

The Forest Service Draft Decision determines that the ACP “can be implemented with limited adverse impacts.” “It is interesting that this decision was made by the Regional Foresters in offices hundreds of miles away from these forests,” said Ernie Reed, President of Wild Virginia. “No one who has stepped foot in these forests could ever come to such a delusional conclusion.”

“The Final Environmental Impact Statement and this Record of Decision from the Forest Service make it clear that we cannot rely on the Federal Government to protect our forests and drinking water,” Boos said. “Now, the State of Virginia must stand up and do their job. The Virginia DEQ has the authority to protect the citizens of Virginia. All eyes are on the DEQ in the coming weeks. They must do what the Feds have not and choose our safety over private profits.”

Wild Virginia and others will be submitting formal objections to this Draft Decision. Litigation is certain to follow. “We and the many thousands of Virginians fighting to protect our public lands, our waters, and our communities will not accept the federal or state resource agencies’ abdication of their duties. We will challenge every flawed process and decision every inch of the way,” said David Sligh, Wild Virginia’s Conservation Director.

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Misty Boos, Director, Wild Virginia
P.O. Box 1065, Charlottesville, VA 22902
(434) 971-1553, misty@wildvirginia.org
www.wildvirginia.org