MVP challenged by steep terrain in Braxton County, WV, etc.
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From an Article by Mike Tony, Charleston Gazette, November 30, 2021
The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers has again pushed back the deadline for West Virginia environmental regulators to decide on a key water permit application for the Mountain Valley Pipeline.
The state Department of Environmental Protection was supposed to make a decision on whether the water quality impact of constructing the Mountain Valley Pipeline across waterbodies would be too negative to allow by Monday. But the Corps has given the DEP until Dec. 30 to make that determination.
The Corps said it approved the extension request from the DEP on Nov. 18 after receiving a request from the agency on Nov. 2 to extend the deadline to act on the water quality certification request for the pipeline project to Dec. 30 “due to the lack of final documentation for many key components of the project,” Brian Maka, Army Corps of Engineers Huntington District spokesman said in an email Monday.
DEP spokesman Terry Fletcher said in an email Monday the DEP asked for additional time to “thoroughly evaluate and verify all information submitted to date. “We are reviewing the application for compliance with all applicable rules and regulations,” Fletcher said.
Fletcher declined comment when asked about any components that lacked final documentation, citing the agency’s pending review of the application under Section 401 of the federal Clean Water Act from Mountain Valley Pipeline LLC, the Canonsburg, Pennsylvania-based joint venture that owns the pipeline.
The Corps already granted the DEP an additional 150 days to make a water quality certification decision in June. The Corps also granted Virginia environmental regulators another 182 days in June, making their decision due Dec. 31. Maka said Monday the Virginia Department of Environmental Quality had not requested additional time beyond Dec. 31.
Both were originally allotted 120 days to review the water permit request. Virginia regulators submitted its request to extend its review period in March. West Virginia regulators followed suit in April.
The Clean Water Act gives states a maximum of one year to act on a Section 401 certification request, though it does not guarantee a state may take a full year to act on a request.
Pipeline developers have proposed a 125-foot-wide temporary right-of-way to construct the pipeline, and a 50-feet-wide permanent right-of-way to maintain and operate the pipeline once in service. Mountain Valley anticipates the project will temporarily impact more than 21,000 linear feet of streams and 10 acres of wetlands in West Virginia during the construction phase, and permanently impact more than 1,100 linear feet of streams and 2.2 acres of wetlands.
In West Virginia, the proposed project route would consist of 197 miles of pipeline, about 65% of the total pipeline route, and three compressor stations.
The pipeline is slated to run 303 miles from Northern West Virginia to Southern Virginia, crossing Wetzel, Harrison, Doddridge, Lewis, Braxton, Webster, Nicholas, Greenbrier, Fayette, Summers and Monroe counties in the Mountain State. It would transport up to 2 billion cubic feet per day of natural gas from the Marcellus and Utica shale formations to markets in the mid-Atlantic and Southeastern U.S.
The pipeline already has had adverse impacts on West Virginia’s waters. State environmental regulators proposed a consent order earlier this year requiring Mountain Valley to pay a $303,000 fine for violating permits by failing to control erosion and sediment-laden water. That penalty followed a $266,000 fine from the state in 2019 for similar erosion and water contamination issues.
The Virginia Department of Environmental Quality fined Mountain Valley $2.15 million that same year for water quality violations. The North Carolina Department of Environmental Quality reissued a denial of a water quality permit for the planned Southgate extension of the project in April.
Pipeline developers have estimated work is more than 90% complete on the now $6.2 billion project. But the project originally was scheduled for completion by the end of 2018 at a cost of just $3.5 billion. The project’s targeted summer 2022 in-service date is based on receiving all water-crossing approvals and the lifting of a remaining exclusion zone around the Jefferson National Forest by the end of 2021.
Legal challenges from environmentalist groups have stalled the project, including one that prompted Mountain Valley Pipeline LLC to abandon a blanket water permit issued by the Corps of Engineers and seek individual water permits.
Mountain Valley is also seeking a permit that would allow for discharging dredged and fill material into streams and wetlands. The Corps is reviewing that application under the authority of Section 10 of the federal Rivers and Harbors Act of 1899, and Section 404 of the Clean Water Act.
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has defined fill material as including rock, soil, clay, construction debris and materials used to create any structure in waters of the United States, a broad term that includes all interstate waters or waters that could be used by interstate travelers.
There is no deadline for a ruling on a Section 404 permit for the pipeline.
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WEST VIRGINIA DEPARTMENT OF ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION APPROVES SECTION 401 PERMIT FOR M.V.P. ON DECEMBER 30, 2021
In a letter to the U. S. ARMY CORPS OF ENGINEERS on December 30, 2021, Katheryn Emery, P.E., Acting Director of the WV Division of Water & Waste Water, writes as follows”
….. from page 11 ….
Finally, MVP proposes three trenchless crossings of traditional navigable waters in West Virginia. It proposes a guided conventional bore under the Elk River in Webster County, microtunneling beneath the Gauley River in Nicholas County, and a Direct Pipe crossing of the Greenbrier River in Summers County. MVP explains that these technologies are not reasonably expected to breach river bottoms, contribute to an “inadvertent return” of any drilling fluids, or otherwise result in a discharge. While WVDEP agrees with these assessments, it requires in the attached conditions that MVP adhere to its previously submitted inadvertent return plan for these bores.
VII. Conclusion — State § 401 Certification, as required by Section 401(a)(1) of the Clean Water Act, is granted subject to the conditions contained in Attachment A. Certification shall be effective 15 days from the date of this letter. Affected parties may request a hearing in accordance with Rules for Individual State Certification of Activities Requiring a Federal Permit, W.Va. Code R. § 47-5A-7 (2014).
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Meet a clean water activist fighting to protect Virginia streams from the Mountain Valley Pipeline – Energy News Network, December 8, 2021
From an Interview by Elizabeth McGowan, Energy News Network, December 8, 2021
David Sligh, conservation director for the nonprofit Wild Virginia, is one of several scheduled speakers for a Mountain Valley Pipeline protest in Richmond on Dec. 11, three days before state regulators consider a permit for the project.
The quest for approval of the Mountain Valley Pipeline has proved to be so herky-jerky over the past seven years that even diligent watchdogs need a spreadsheet to stay on top of each layered zig and zag.
One such dogged individual is David Sligh, conservation director for the nonprofit Wild Virginia. The Charlottesville-based attorney and University of Virginia graduate describes himself as a policy nerd who has worked for 35 years to make the promises of the country’s environmental laws real. That tenure includes a stint as a senior environmental engineer for the Virginia Department of Environmental Quality.
David Sligh will be one of several speakers at a pipeline protest scheduled from 1-4 p.m. on Dec. 11 at Byrd Park in Richmond. The Rev. William J. Barber II, chair of the Poor People’s Campaign, will deliver the keynote address at the event organized by the Violation Vigil Project.
It’s intentionally set to take place three days before the Virginia Water Control Board meets — and likely votes — to grant or deny a Clean Water Act permit for the natural gas pipeline.
In addition to Wild Virginia, the vigil is a collaboration of Sierra Club Virginia, Appalachian Voices, Chesapeake Climate Action Network, Protect Our Water Heritage Rights, and numerous other conservation and social justice organizations.
The limited liability company trying to complete the pipeline is a joint venture of EQM Midstream Partners, NextEra Capital Holdings, Con Edison Transmission, WGL Midstream and RGC Midstream. Currently, it’s way over budget and years behind schedule.
Plus, the owners have paid more than $2 million in penalties for 300-plus water quality violations in Virginia and West Virginia, according to a September 2020 report from the Natural Resources Defense Council.
If completed, the pipeline is designed to carry a glut of hydraulically fractured natural gas from West Virginia to a market in North Carolina that close observers say is nonexistent. It is actually two projects. The mainline is 303 miles and the 72-mile Southgate extension would reach into North Carolina.
That extension — and perhaps the entire pipeline — was dealt a significant setback last Friday when the Virginia Air Pollution Control Board voted resoundingly to deny a permit for the proposed Lambert compressor station in Pittsylvania County.
“This is a huge blow to the extension project,” Sligh said about the air board’s 6-1 rejection. “It doesn’t directly affect the mainline, but may affect the thinking about cost and benefits of carrying the gas from West Virginia if it can’t get to North Carolina.”
Initially, the entire pipeline route crossed close to 1,000 rivers, streams and wetlands. Construction executed thus far has already compromised hundreds of them.
Sligh is intimately familiar with the terrain the pipeline carves through in Virginia’s New River and Roanoke valleys. His family roots in the Roanoke region stretch back some eight generations.
“That’s home range for me,” he said. “Some of these water bodies I have loved all of my life.”
He’s deeply aware that pipeline construction has already compromised the delicate karst topography, formed by limestone and other soluble rocks. The 107-mile stretch of the pipeline’s path in Virginia is characterized by steep slopes and underground sinkholes, caves, aquifers, and streams.
Sligh finds it remarkable that so many Virginians are equally passionate about those landscapes. “In my long involvement in these fronts, I’ve never seen so many people who have stayed engaged with an issue for so long,” he said. “Now it’s time for the water control board to recognize they didn’t have the full story at first. They need to incorporate that new information into their next decision.”
In an interview with the Energy News Network, Sligh explains why protesters have stuck with their effort to shut down the pipeline. The transcript was lightly edited for clarity and length.
See the transcript here ….
https://energynews.us/2021/12/08/meet-a-clean-water-activist-fighting-to-protect-virginia-streams-from-the-mountain-valley-pipeline/
WEST VIRGINIA DEPARTMENT OF ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION APPROVES SECTION 401 PERMIT FOR M.V.P.
In a letter to the U. S. ARMY CORPS OF ENGINEERS on December 30, 2021, Katheryn Emery, P.E., Acting Director of the WV Division of Water & Waste Water, writes as follows”
….. from page 11 ….
Finally, MVP proposes three trenchless crossings of traditional navigable waters in West Virginia. It proposes a guided conventional bore under the Elk River in Webster County, microtunneling beneath the Gauley River in Nicholas County, and a Direct Pipe crossing of the Greenbrier River in Summers County. MVP explains that these technologies are not reasonably expected to breach river bottoms, contribute to an “inadvertent return” of any drilling fluids, or otherwise result in a discharge. While WVDEP agrees with these assessments, it requires in the attached conditions that MVP adhere to its previously submitted inadvertent return plan for these bores.
VII. Conclusion — State § 401 Certification, as required by Section 401(a)(1) of the Clean Water Act, is granted subject to the conditions contained in Attachment A. Certification shall be effective 15 days from the date of this letter. Affected parties may request a hearing in accordance with Rules for Individual State Certification of Activities Requiring a Federal Permit, W.Va. Code R. § 47-5A-7 (2014).