Wild Virginia & West Virginia are Targeted
Pocahontas County group opposes Dominion pipeline plan
From an Article by Paul J. Nyden, Charleston Gazette, June 28, 2014
Dominion Resources is considering building two pipelines, each 42 inches in diameter, to transport natural gas about 450 miles through the wilderness areas of Randolph and Pocahontas counties and down through Virginia to Lumberton, N.C. The pipeline would pass through the Monongahela Natural Forest.
An environmental group opposing the plans – “WV Wilderness Lovers vs. Proposed Pipelines” – explained its opposition to the project at the Pocahontas County Commission meeting at the county courthouse in Marlinton.
Lauren Ragland, a spokesperson for WV Wilderness Lovers, has said that compressor stations for the proposed pipeline “would be built every 10 to 40 miles because of the terrain. Normally, compressors are built every 40 to 100 miles. The noise levels and pollution levels will be terrible. The Snowshoe Mountain area is so gorgeous. I believe people will want to stop this,” Ragland said.
“Compressor stations run 24 hours a day. I just listened to a video, which had the live sound of compressor stations. It is not even a continual sound. It keeps on changing. I want to educate the public.”
Dozens of two-story turbines would run unmanned 24 hours a day and be lit up all night, Ragland pointed out. The quiet and dark nights in the local wilderness would be destroyed.
Jim Norvelle, a spokesman for Dominion Gas based in Richmond, Va., said, “Dominion has not decided to build this pipeline. We are in the very early preliminary stages of considering the project. We are searching for property that will be the best possible route with the least impact on the environment, culture and historical resources.”
The new pipelines would transport natural gas from the developing Marcellus Shale industry in northwestern West Virginia. “If we decide to go forward, there will be an ample opportunity for input from citizens, environmental organizations and landowners groups,” he said. Dominion, Norvelle said, has identified a potential pipeline corridor and “we are trying to find the best possible route.”
Ragland said she recently traveled with her friend, Sandra Osborne, along a rural road near Huttonsville, stopping at every home and business to talk about the proposed pipeline.
“We found out no one knew about it. We went door to door and made 42 stops. Only two or three people knew what we were talking about. There is a lack of knowledge, so we are trying to educate the public. This is not a normal pipeline. Its sounds would echo through the mountains.” Ragland said the compressors would also give off air emissions.
Norvelle said, “There are customers, both in industrial and electric utilities that are looking for alternatives to coal to generate electricity, especially alternatives that have less of an environmental impact. Natural gas has about half the carbon output that coal gas does. And Marcellus Shale natural gas is an abundant supply.”
Building pipelines, Norvelle stressed, will also boost local employment. It is an economic development project all along the route. Jobs will be created to build the pipeline and to supply industrial customers that want to tap off the line to get natural gas for their work.”
Two other companies are also looking into building natural gas pipelines in the same area:
Spectra Energy, a company based in Houston, Texas, is considering constructing a $4 billion pipeline from Pennsylvania, south through Maryland, West Virginia and Virginia down to North Carolina. In West Virginia, this pipeline would go through Hampshire County.
Equitable Resources and NextEra Energy Resources are considering constructing a pipeline 330 miles long from Mobley in Wetzel County down to Pittsylvania County in Virginia.
Ragland said no one from Dominion is scheduled to speak during Tuesday’s meeting at the Pocahontas County Courthouse. Ragland said water quality was the main concern of the residents she spoke to in the towns of Durbin, Frank, Bartow, Boyer, Green Bank and Cass. Ragland also pointed out that two historic Civil War sites — Camp Allegheny and Camp Bartow – are near Dominion’s proposed pipelines.
Thomas Farrell II, CEO of Dominion Resources, spoke at the City Club in Cleveland, according to an article in the Cleveland Plain Dealer.
Farrell dismissed environmentalists, called wind and solar power advocates “niche players” and argued that shale gas production will turn the U.S. into an “arsenal of energy.”
The development of shale gas is changing everything, Farrell argued. “I am talking about hydraulic fracturing – more commonly referred to as ‘fracking’…. We are now talking about the United States as the ‘new Middle East’ and ‘Saudi America.’”
WV Wilderness Lovers stressed the economic damages that gas pipelines will have locally.
“Tourism is the heart of tax dollars for Pocahontas County and jobs for the residents. Visitors come from all corners of the world to ride the rails from Cass and Durbin, ski, snowboard, and mountain bike at Snowshoe Resort.
“People enjoy fly-fishing at Elk River Inn and Restaurant in Slatyfork, along with hiking, caving and camping,” the group stated in a press release.
Ragland is also scheduled to speak at the meeting of the Randolph County Commission on July 17 in Elkins.
During Tuesday’s meeting in Marlinton, Ed Wade Jr. from the Wetzel County Action Group was scheduled to show photographs about the impact of pipeline construction.
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The proposed Dominion pipeline is a concern in Staunton, Augusta County, Virginia.
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With Central Virginia poised to become a gas pipeline cut-through, conservationists urge caution.
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The Wild Virginia pipeline factsheet is here.
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