MVP & ACP to disturb mountains, rivers & streams
Atlantic Coast Pipeline — Blast Radius – Evacuation Zone
Review by S. Tom Bond, Resident Farmer, Lewis County, WV, May 14, 2016
Below is a summary of a really great piece of work from the Dominion Pipeline Monitoring Coalition! It is in splendid detail, it is clear as a bell, and it is easy to understand. I say that it is really, really great.
The proposed 42 inch Atlantic Coast Pipeline (ACP) runs through Lewis County (WV) about 3 (three) miles southwest of my property. Just west of us a few miles is a place where the Mountain Valley Pipeline and The Momentum Gathering Pipeline box in the tree farm of Tom Berlin, a retired Environmental Science professor, formerly at Alderson-Broaddus College.
Monday I am leading about 20 Virginia Tech students over an area close to Tom Berlin’s to see the present Lightburn Station and will point out the location of the proposed Hollick Station of ACP. It is the first on what is called the ACP, but a large diameter pipe extends northwest of it. Dominion paid $3M for a smallish farm for it, a place where the only reasonable use is fox hunting, it is so grown up. It is not marked on the map, but I can provide a screen grab of the location, along the Harrison-Lewis line near Lightburn Station, which shows up clearly.
I am going to talk about externalized costs, a term used in economics for the costs to others resulting from the project, such things as medical expenses, property damages, injuries to adjacent enterprises, and costs which must be born by government, etc. I think environment impacts will be covered well by others at other points. Being a property owner, I am acutely aware of externalized costs, and they falsify the cost benefit ratios used to justify this kind of project.
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On 5/14/16 , Rick Webb wrote:
It has been suggested that FERC might be responsive to concerns about the impact of the proposed ACP on human safety and property values, and that maps showing the extent of the blast radius and the evacuation zone might be effective in communicating such concerns.
Here is a quick guide to using the DPMC’s Atlantic Coast Pipeline – Environmental Mapping System to create maps showing the blast radius and evacuation zone in relation to areas of interest and concern. Screen shots are very informative as attachments.
(1) Go to the DPMC website, www.pipelineupdate.org.
Select ACP-ENVIRONMENTAL MAPPING SYSTEM in the right-hand sidebar. You will see the pipeline route alternatives in the region from the beginning of the pipeline in WV to Buckingham County in VA. This initial map view displays the route alternatives submitted to FERC on 10/30/15, 4/15/16, and 5/6/16. (see ACP-EMS-1)
(2) Display the part of the map and the layers of interest.
Zoom in and pan using the mouse and/or on-screen controls. Select the icons at the upper right to change the base map and select layers to display. The example shows the Stuarts Draft area, with a US Topo Map base map, The selected layers are the 4/15/16 ACP route and the Blast Radius and Evacuation Zone. The transparency of the Blast Radius and Evacuation Zone has been adjusted. (see STUARTS DRAFT)
Note that clicking on map features (such as the Blast Radius and Evacuation Zone) opens popup windows that provide information about the selected feature. Also note that some layers are not displayed at all map scales.
(3) Print or save your map.
The online mapping system provides options for adding text to map views and printing or saving as a pdf. Another option is to capture a screen shot of the map that can be edited in another program. (see STUARTS DRAFT MAP PRINTOUT)
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Finally, note that the ACP-Environmental Mapping System includes many other layers and base map options. Another example is focused on the Wintergreen/Spruce Creek area of Nelson County in Virginia. In this view property parcels are displayed. By zooming-in further the impact to individual properties can be highlighted. (see WINTERGREEN-SPRUCE CREEK)
Rick Webb, Coordinator
Dominion Pipeline Monitoring Coalition
rwebb.dpmc@gmail.com
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Public Comment Period on Mountain Valley Pipeline 401 Water Quality Certification Extended
From WV Department of Environmental Protection, May 13, 2016
Charleston, WV – The West Virginia Department of Environmental Protection (WVDEP) Division of Water and Waste Management (DWWM) will be extending the public comment period on the State 401 Water Quality Certification for the proposed Mountain Valley Pipeline project until further notice.
Originally, the public comment period, which is required under state regulation 47CSR5A, would have ended next week, but because of widespread public interest in the proposed project, DWWM will be scheduling public hearings to discuss certification of the proposed project. Information about the dates and locations of those hearings will be made public as soon as plans are finalized.
The $3.5 billion project, developed by EQT Corp., involves a 42-inch-diameter pipeline that would run 301 miles south from the Equitrans L.P. transmission system near the MarkWest Energy Mobley Complex in Wetzel County to a Transcontinental Gas Pipeline Co. compressor station in Pittsylvania County, Virginia. This project is one of multiple pipeline projects currently under review by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission.
When issuing certification, DWWM’s 401 Certification Program may consider the proposed activity’s impact on water resources, fish and wildlife, recreation, critical habitats, wetlands and other natural resources. In its 401 certification application, EQT anticipates that the Mountain Valley Pipeline project will have temporary impacts to approximately 49,892 linear feet of streams and 18.9 acres of wetlands and permanent impacts to approximately 3,125 linear feet of streams and 10 acres of wetlands within the Mountain State.
The 401 Water Quality Certification application is available for inspection between the hours of 9 a.m. and 4 p.m., Monday through Friday, at WVDEP headquarters, located at 601 57th Street SE in Charleston.
Comments and information relating to the certification should be emailed to DEP.comments@wv.gov with 401 Certification” in the subject line or mailed to:
West Virginia Department of Environmental Protection
Division of Water and Waste Management
401 Certification Program
601 57th Street SE
Charleston, WV 25304
Source: http://www.dep.wv.gov/news/Pages/Public-Comment-Period-on-Mountain-Valley-Pipeline-401-Water-Quality-Certification-Extended.aspx
For more DEP news and information, go to http://www.dep.wv.gov
### See also: http://www.FrackCheckWV.net
You say “they falsify the cost-benefit ratio used to justify such projects.”
Seems to me the trouble with cost benefit analyses is that they fail to ask the third question, which is “Are the people receiving the benefits we just outlined the same people as those paying the costs?
Because if not, then what we have is environmental injustice.” Who benefits from these pipelines, and the fracked gas drilling operations that supply them? Gas company employees and shareholders, and consumers on the east coast or in other countries who get cheap gas and needn’t bother with tightening and better insulating their homes, etc.
Who pays the costs? Everyone who lives near the drilling or the pipeline or the export stations, workers who have health impacts, and all future generation given the violent punch methane leaks deliver to an already staggering climate system.
Mary Wildfire, Spencer, WV