Mountain Valley Pipeline construction across streams, wetlands halted

The eight groups, represented by Appalachian Mountain Advocates, filed a challenge of the Corps’ Sept. 25 reissuance of two Nationwide Permit 12 approvals that would allow Mountain Valley to dig through some 1,000 streams, rivers, wetlands and other water bodies in the two states. The 4th Circuit had rejected the Corps’ first round of permit approvals in 2018.

“Communities along the pipeline route have been on edge these past several weeks as the company has moved in heavy equipment and started doing work, so we’re very glad the court pressed pause on this permit while the water-crossing issues are reviewed further,” said Peter Anderson, Virginia program manager at Appalachian Voices.

As noted in the groups’ filings, Mountain Valley Pipeline’s operator recently told its investors that it intends to blast and trench through “critical” streams “as quickly as possible before anything is challenged.”

The court had issued an emergency stay Oct. 16. Monday’s stay remains in effect until the court rules on the groups’ petition to overturn the Corps’ water permits for the Mountain Valley Pipeline project.

The groups filing the challenge include Appalachian Voices, Center for Biological Diversity, Chesapeake Climate Action Network, Indian Creek Watershed Association, Sierra Club, West Virginia Highlands Conservancy, West Virginia Rivers Coalition and Wild Virginia.

“This decision will help ensure the pipeline doesn’t keep posing catastrophic threats to waterways that people and imperiled species depend on to survive,” said Jared Margolis, senior attorney at the Center for Biological Diversity. “Despite the project’s clear failure to comply with the law, Mountain Valley keeps pushing this climate-killing menace. We’ll continue working to ensure this destructive pipeline doesn’t poison waters and threaten communities along its route.”

The Mountain Valley Pipeline is a natural gas transmission project planned to span approximately 303 miles from northwestern West Virginia to southern Virginia.

The MVP is being constructed and is owned by Mountain Valley Pipeline LLC, which is a joint venture of EQM Midstream Partners LP, NextEra Capital Holdings Inc., Con Edison Transmission Inc., WGL Midstream and RGC Midstream LLC. EQM Midstream Partners will operate the pipeline and own a significant interest in the joint venture.

The $5.4 billion project is currently about two years behind its original completion date.

During ETQ’s recent third-quarter earnings call, Chief Financial Officer David Khani said the company is considering selling off some of the still incomplete project’s capacity.

Such a deal could be a “very important financial catalyst” for the company, Khani said.

“Constructive conversations continue to take place regarding offloading some or all of our MVP capacity. We do not believe that striking a deal is dependent upon MVP being in service, and feel that the viability of executing a transaction continues to improve,” he said. “This is a very important financial catalyst for the company, one of which will drive material improvement to margins and free cash flow. Our team is very focused on this opportunity, and we continue to strive to have something in place at the end of the year.”

The developers of a second major pipeline project in West Virginia, the Atlantic Coast Pipeline, announced its cancellation in July.

Partners Dominion Energy and Duke Energy cited ongoing delays and increasing cost uncertainty that threatened the economic viability of the project.

A series of legal challenges to the project’s federal and state permits caused significant project cost increases and timing delays, according to a release announcing the cancellation.

“We regret that we will be unable to complete the Atlantic Coast Pipeline. For almost six years we have worked diligently and invested billions of dollars to complete the project and deliver the much-needed infrastructure to our customers and communities,” Thomas Farrell, Dominion Energy chairman, president and CEO, and Lynn J. Good, Duke Energy chair, president and CEO, said in a press release.