Two Atlantic Coast Pipeline Meetings in Elkins on January 21st

“Both sides to square off with interstate pipeline meetings”

From an Article by Chris Lee, Inter-Mountain News (Elkins, WV), January 17, 2015

Elkins, WV — Groups in support of and in opposition to the proposed Atlantic Coast Pipeline will hold meetings within sight of one another at the same time Wednesday.

Dominion Resources is planning an open house meeting at the Gandy Dancer Conference Center beginning at 5 PM to provide the community with informational materials. Officials said experts will be present, including engineers, representatives from the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission and other Dominion executives, who will field any questions or concerns about the project.

Beginning at noon, WV Matters is hosting an all-day gathering at the Iron Road Inn – located next to Gandy Dancer – celebrating the successes of the group that has tasked itself with informing the residents of West Virginia about the alleged personal health and public safety issues regarding pipeline construction and operation. According to a press release, high definition maps of the proposed route and an illustration of the alleged damages the northern region of West Virginia would sustain from pipeline and fracking activities will be on display at the WV Matters meeting.

Bob Orndorff, director of Government Affairs for Dominion Resources, said his company’s open house, which is a requirement of the pre-filing process they are working with the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission to complete, is also simply the right thing to do. “We are trying to hit each of the counties where the pipeline is planned and holding open houses so we can provide information very general and very specific information to all the residents in and around the areas where the pipeline will be,” he said. “We try to centrally locate these informational meetings to provide information about the project.”

Orndorff said meetings like this allow landowners the chance to have a dialogue with pipeline officials. “That’s part of the process that we use with these open houses. We’ll have individual landowners come up and tell us about specific features that are on their land so that we can understand better where we’d like to be and where they would like us to be as kind of part of a compromise that we go through as we look at these routes,” he said.

Orndorff said he understands this is an emotional issue. “If someone expresses their opinion and this is an opportunity for them to express their opinion we respect the opposition and deal with them on a daily basis, so my sense is, we’re ready,” Orndorff said. “We know how to handle individuals like that. We hope that people conduct themselves reasonably and we will do the same.” Orndorff said if the pipeline project is ultimately approved it will create jobs and promote economic growth in the region.

WV Matters officials oppose the pipeline project, however. “WV Matters is about facts, not opinion,” Dominion opposition event organizer Lauren Ragland said. “Our message is gentle. We’re not arguing. Some fight (but) we are sharing facts.”

Maria Gunnoe, community organizer for the Ohio Valley Environmental Organization and a sponsor for WV Matters, will be speaking about community organization and the “impacts of such a massive project on our ability to live in our beautiful state.” at the organization’s “celebration of the facts,” Ragland said.

“Dominion has been very secretive and in some cases dishonest with the residents. I personally feel that Dominion is intentionally creating a divide in order to conquer,” Ragland said. “While communities debate, discuss and deliberate, Dominion is moving forward.” Other speakers are scheduled throughout the day addressing multiple issues.

J. Barroso, a Mill Creek landowner, owns an expanse of property that includes several natural springs and caves and is home to at least one protected species. He said when requesting to come onto his land, prospectors threatened him with eminent domain if he refused to comply.

“My reply was clear: I react negatively, very badly indeed, to threats and intimidation! My answer was still a resounding no. And it is no to this day and until I get all the information I need, answers to all the questions I have been asking, etc.,” he wrote in a recent email exchange with The Inter-Mountain. “Until my concerns are addressed, I will continue to deny permission to survey. Anything else is akin to signing a blank check, or signing a contract without reading it, and no sane person does that!”

Barroso, who is currently traveling abroad, said he regrettably will be unable to attend the Dominion meeting to express his concerns, but he doesn’t believe much can be accomplished, regardless.

“The meeting, as I see it, and from other similar initiatives sponsored/organized by Dominion, is nothing more than marketing for Dominion,” Barroso wrote. “Landowners will get nothing out of it other than more pamphlets promoting the safety of the pipelines (we all know they are far from safe) and how natural gas is clean energy (we all know it is not! It burns cleaner than gas, but it is dirty energy when we consider the whole process, from extraction to final product) and how it will create jobs (which it will not, only temporarily and mostly for out of state workers).”

The 42-inch diameter, 550-mile long pipeline will deliver natural gas from the Marcellus and Utica Shale fields in North Central West Virginia to Robeson County in North Carolina. The pipeline’s capacity is expected to be approximately 1.5 billion cubic feet per day. The construction of the pipeline is expected to cost up to $5 billion.

The Atlantic Coast Pipeline is a joint venture of Dominion Resources, Duke Energy, Piedmont Natural Gas and AGL Resources.

Current maps show, in Randolph County, the pipeline will cross from Helvetia, through Mill Creek, along the Kumbrabow State Forest border, across U.S. Rt 250 near the Huttonsville Correctional Center and up to Cheat Mountain. The proposed route would pass through Monongahela National Forest.

The pipeline also would include the construction of  three (or more) compressor stations, the first of which would be located near the beginning of the route in WV. The second would be located in Buckingham County, VA, and the third would be located near the Virginia-North Carolina state line.

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For pipeline route maps see:  www.appalmad.org/maps and www.wvmatters.com

Tagged as: drilling, easements, eminent domain, environmental impacts, explosions, fires, flares, fracking, land disturbances, leaks, marcellus shale, noise, pipelines, right of way, road damages, sedimentation, subsidence, trucks, vents, water pollution