ATLANTIC COAST PIPELINE

Federal regulators order Atlantic Coast Pipeline to provide a plan for project wind-down, restoration

  

Almost four months after the cancellation of the Atlantic Coast Pipeline, federal regulators have ordered the project developers to provide a plan for what they intend to do with the facilities and the lands where the natural gas pipeline was supposed to be built. 

The order from the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission applies to both the Atlantic Coast Pipeline and the Supply Header Project, a roughly 38-mile pipeline that was expected to connect the ACP with existing pipelines in Ohio and Pennsylvania. 

“In order for us to determine if additional commission authorizations are required in conjunction with cancellations, we will need more detail about your plans regarding the authorized facilities,” wrote Rich McGuire, director of FERC’s Division of Gas Environment and Engineering, in an Oct. 27 letter to Dominion Energy Transmission, Inc., the majority owner of the project. 

FERC has asked that the plan be filed within 60 days. 

Among the requested information is a schedule for final arrangements regarding the project’s different phases and restoration activities related to them, a description of how areas where construction has begun but no pipe has been installed will be restored and “a plan for the long-term restoration of disturbed rights-of-way.”

The company will also be required to provide an update on the status of its discussions with affected landowners, including “preferences regarding treatment of pipeline segments that have already been installed,” “preferences for removal of felled trees that have not been cleared” and “preferences on how disturbed areas would be restored, depending on their land use type.” 

The cancellation of the planned 604-mile pipeline left in limbo many landowners who had granted easements for the project, whether willingly or not. 

Atlantic Coast Pipeline signed a range of easements with landowners along the project’s path. While some included clauses terminating the easement if the pipeline wasn’t built within a certain period of time or imposing other restrictive terms, others granted the developers broader rights on a permanent basis. READ MORE HERE

 


The Atlantic Coast Pipeline is Cancelled

Jorja Rose. 7.16.20. Food & Water Watch

With many still grieving a recent Supreme Court ruling allowing the Atlantic Coast Pipeline to cut through the Appalachian Trail, big news hit last Sunday that Dominion and Duke Energy are canceling the pipeline altogether, with Dominion also selling off its remaining fracked gas holdings

The shutdown announcement from Dominion and Duke Energy comes after six years of entrenched legal battles, public protest and direct action to disrupt construction, and a price tag that grew to 8 billion dollars. The delay itself seemed to challenge the claim for initiating the project — that Virginia desperately needed this pipeline in order to meet the state’s increasing energy needs. To the contrary, Virginia’s energy needs have plateaued for the next decade

Why We Need To Do More Than Shut Down Pipelines One By One

An unlikely coalition of groups and interests united to stop the pipeline, and they didn’t quit fighting until they won. But even though this victory is a testament to grassroots activism, the sheer amount of time and the collaboration required to make this happen were enormous. Halting the fossil fuel agenda project by project is a strenuous battle and doesn’t necessarily win systemic change, making it an unsustainable strategy. Duke and Dominion didn’t make their decision out of goodwill — they made it with an eye to their bottom line.

Dominion made the right decision for the wrong reasons. While a thriving clean energy economy does have the potential to bring well-paying jobs and increased investments to Virginia, profit isn’t the driving motivation for humanity’s move toward renewable energy. The transition to renewables is non-negotiable, and it needs to be funded by the companies that have wrecked our environment and exploited both people and resources for centuries — whether they want to make that payout or not. We have to move towards renewable energy because refusing to implement change will result in mass death, ecological crisis, and a hugely diminished quality of life. 

Virginia Should Show Leadership For A Green New Deal 

Virginia has the capacity to lead nationally in this transition, and the cancellation of the ACP should be an opening to speed ahead with the hard work of greening our state. Recent changes in the state’s legislative makeup made us hopeful for aggressive environmental legislation.  READ MORE HERE

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 


 

 

 

 

 


‘Mitigation’ money from Atlantic Coast Pipeline nowhere in sight

RALEIGH — Eight North Carolina school districts tapped to split $57.8 million from Atlantic Coast Pipeline developers aren’t likely to see that money anytime soon.

Pipeline partners haven’t paid the state because a memorandum of understanding negotiated with Gov. Roy Cooper includes conditions that haven’t been satisfied. Court challenges against pipeline construction filed by environmental groups threaten to prolong the wait.

“At this time, no funds have been paid to the state,” Duke Energy spokeswoman Tammie McGee told Carolina Journal by email. The first installment was due July 24.

“We remain committed to fulfilling our obligations under the mitigation agreement,” McGee said, once the terms are met.

McGee said the agreement among Cooper and pipeline partners called for half of the $57.8 million to be paid to the state when construction authority was granted for the entire pipeline, and construction was not tied up by a court order or “a reasonable risk” of being halted by court order.

“The remainder will be provided when the project is placed into commercial service,” McGee said.

Dominion Energy and Southern Company Gas, also partners in the $57.8 million deal, haven’t responded to questions about it. A fourth partner, Piedmont Natural Gas, is owned by Duke Energy.

The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission approved construction of the $6.5 billion pipeline in late 2017. The 600-mile underground transmission line will carry 1.5 billion cubic feet of natural gas daily from West Virginia, through Virginia, to Robeson County in southeast North Carolina.

Construction has been on again, off again amid regulatory and legal skirmishes.

The 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ordered construction halted on Sept. 24. Environmental groups sued to kill U.S. Forest Service permits to drill below the Blue Ridge Parkway and Appalachian Trail in Virginia. A three-judge panel Sept. 28 heard oral arguments on that challenge, as well as a second challenge to state water quality permits.

“In addition to these other federal approvals that are now in litigation … the FERC approval for the overall pipeline is now in court, and being challenged,” said D.J. Gerken, senior attorney for the Southern Environmental Law Center who argued the case before the three-judge panel.

“It hasn’t happened very often for FERC to get held up,” Gerken said. “That will be playing out for a while.”

The pipeline partners don’t have to make any payments until those matters are resolved, so the eight school districts in the pipeline’s path won’t see any money before then.

The GOP-led legislature devised the school funding plan after saying Cooper’s side deal was illegal. The mitigation fund Cooper set up bypassed a constitutional mandate requiring state revenues to be allocated by the General Assembly. Lawmakers passed House Bill 90 assuming control of the money, redirecting it to school districts.

“Only if the funds are received will they go to those affected schools,” said Joseph Kyzer, a spokesman for House Speaker Tim Moore, R-Cleveland. 

“The money wasn’t actually appropriated in this year’s budget. Thus, the non-receipt of those funds to this point does not create any budget gap,” Kyzer said.

Cooper termed the multimillion-dollar side deal a voluntary contribution for renewable energy projects and economic development, and to offset habitat damage. But the deal was hammered out in secret among the parties, and details of its genesis remain elusive.

Republicans suggested the deal was a political slush fund for the Democratic governor, saying a pay-to-play scheme could harm the state’s business climate.

State Department of Environmental Quality officials testified in a March meeting of the Joint Legislative Commission on Energy Policy the $57.8 million was not necessary for mitigation. They already negotiated an all-inclusive $6 million payment from pipeline developers to cover all repair costs due to construction, based on a standard formula used in granting state permits.

At an Aug. 29 meeting the Joint Legislative Committee on Governmental Operations created an investigative subcommittee to delve deeper into the matter. The subcommittee was scheduled to meet Oct. 4, but the session was postponed until mid-November. The Cooper administration requested the delay so it could focus on Hurricane Florence recovery efforts.

 

 

 

Dominion Energy’s Atlantic Coast Pipeline Suffers Setback
June 14, 2018, 09:32:00 AM EDT By Zacks Equity Research,

Dominion Energy, Inc .’s D Atlantic Coast Pipeline recently hit a regulatory roadblock, as a few environmental groups filed a petition with the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) to halt the natural gas pipeline’s construction.

Environmental Safety is the Heart of the Matter

Three environmental groups namely Sierra Club, the Defenders of Wildlife and the Virginia Wilderness Committee are the ones to oppose. They want construction work of the pipeline in West Virginia – which was authorized by FERC last month – to be stalled due to violation of the Endangered Species Act. The opponents claim that the federal appeals court refuted a required permit from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and allowed construction to proceed anyway. The environmental groups allege that the pipeline’s developer did not have a valid Incidental Take Statement, as the federal agency did not set specific limits on damage that can be done to endangered species during construction and operation of the pipeline.

While the owners of the pipeline project deny that the court rulings debunk the Fish and Wildlife Service’s approval, the environmentalists demand the construction to be suspended until a revised Incidental Take Statement is issued.

Full Story HERE


Federal agency approves some in-stream pipeline work during fish-spawning season

CLARKSBURG — The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission on Wednesday approved a June 8 request from Dominion Energy to conduct work on the Atlantic Coast Pipeline and supply header projects in some waterways before the July 1 end of warmwater fish spawning season.

The variance request submitted by Dominion indicates developers had already secured fish spawning season restriction waivers for the work from the West Virginia Division of Natural Resources.

In-stream activities outlined in the request include culvert work, installation of temporary span bridges and “exploratory drilling to determine presence of rock, followed by blasting if necessary, which will help with overall planning and reduce amount of time for in-stream work,” according to the request.

Waterways listed in the request include Kincheloe Creek and Hog Camp Run in Lewis County; Grassy Run, Gravel Run and Laurel Run in Upshur County; Big Battle Run and Little Battle Run in Doddridge County; Indian Creek in Tyler County; and unnamed tributaries Harrison, Lewis, Upshur, Doddridge, Tyler and Wetzel counties.

Full Story HERE

 


March 15, 2018
VMRC Schedules ACP Public Hearing

What: Virginia Marine Resources Commission Public Hearing on Atlantic Coast Pipeline
When: 9:30am – ? , Friday, March 16
Where: Newport News City Council Chambers at 2400 Washington Avenue, Newport News, Virginia

A public hearing will be held by the Virginia Marine Resources Commission (VMRC) beginning at 9:30 a.m. on March 16, 2018, in the Newport News City Council Chambers at 2400 Washington Avenue, Newport News, Virginia, to consider an application submitted by Atlantic Coast Pipeline, LLC to install a natural gas pipeline beneath the bed of 48 non-tidal streams and/or rivers with drainage areas greater than 5 square miles, which are considered to be State-owned subaqueous bottomlands of the Commonwealth, beneath 3 tidal streams and approximately 1.6 acres of tidal wetlands along the designated pipeline corridor in Highland, Bath, Augusta, Nelson, Buckingham, Prince Edward, Cumberland, Nottoway, Dinwiddie, Brunswick, Greensville and Southampton Counties and the Cities of Chesapeake and Suffolk for the Atlantic Coast Pipeline Project (ACP).

Copies of the application may be examined at the VMRC Office, Habitat Management Division.

Send comments/inquiries to: Marine Resources Commission, Habitat Management Division, 2600 Washington Avenue, 3rd Floor, Newport News, Virginia 23607.

Public NoticeHERE


Dominion fails in attempt to bar testimony on pipeline’s potential $2.3 billion hit for ratepayers

Utility regulators at the State Corporation Commission have refused Dominion Energy’s request to strike expert testimony that claims its contentious Atlantic Coast Pipeline will cost its Virginia ratepayers as much as $2.3 billion extra on their bills.

Surveyors mark the route of the Atlantic Coast Pipeline in Deerfield, Va., Thursday, Feb. 8, 2018. Dominion Energy has gone to great lengths to build support for its approximately $6.5 billion dollar Atlantic Coast Pipeline. The Associated Press has documented the energy giant’s immense public outreach and lobbying efforts by obtaining public records and interviewing company officials, supporters and opponents of the pipeline, which would run through West Virginia, Virginia and North Carolina. (AP Photo/Steve Helber)

In an order released Monday on Dominion’s integrated resource plan, the long-range forecast on how the company will meet customer needs between 2018 and 2032, the commission allowed testimony by natural gas industry analyst Gregory Lander to remain part of the record. 

Lander, retained by environmental groups opposed to the 600-mile project, which Dominion has said will cut utility bills and boost employment, used the company’s own data to predict the pipeline will increase bills for Dominion’s nearly 2.5 million ratepayers between $1.6 billion and $2.3 billion.

“We deny any objections we took under advisement and admit all evidence, including the testimony of … Lander,” the commission said. “We have given this evidence the weight due when making our finding herein.”

Environmental groups, including the Natural Resources Defense Council in Washington and the Southern Environmental Law Center in Charlottesville, took it as vindication of claims that the pipeline is a bad deal for Virginia.  Full story HERE


Lumbees tell their side in Atlantic Coast Pipeline documentary

Opponents of the Atlantic Coast Pipeline are deploying an increasingly common weapon in advocacy campaigns: a documentary film.

Their 19-minute production, “Robeson Rises,” features Lumbee Indians and an African American who live near the route of the planned 600-mile natural gas pipeline that is set to run through eight North Carolina counties. At times resolute and tearful, the local residents are shown organizing against the interstate energy project that they say threatens their ancestral land and their cultural identity.

The film’s organizers say their project is unusual even by the standards of the political documentary, which takes sides by design. They agreed to cede artistic independence to empower the subjects of the film to make editorial decisions to tell their own story in their own way.

“The community brings its own intentionality as to who owns the narrative,” said Andy Myers, campaign coordinator of Working Films, a Wilmington organization that coordinated the project. “It hasn’t been without some challenges because we were balancing the artists’ autonomy as a filmmaker with the needs of the community.”  Full story HERE

 

Group plans to keep watchful eye on Atlantic Coast Pipeline
By Johnny Oliver – March 3, 2018

STAUNTON, Va. (WHSV) — As the Atlantic Coast Pipeline inches closer to final approval, people concerned with its development are looking at ways to keep track of it. 

A meeting of Pipeline CSI on Saturday in Staunton drew more than 100 people. The group discussed the possibility of members of the community serving as whistleblowers if the pipeline does get built, using drones and planes to monitor construction.

“This just reflects the amount of public support that the opposition forces have had all along against the pipelines,” said David Sligh the conversation director for Wild Virginia and one of Pipeline CSI’s organizers.

The group said it has already checked in on tree felling in Bath County using planes.

Sligh said all the people that showed up to the meeting are determined to continue the battle against the pipeline.

Developers behind the Atlantic Coast Pipeline are confident its construction will be safe to the public, citingmultiple, overlapping layers of protection”, including placing hundreds of inspectors on site every day. A spokesperson with Dominion Energy told WHSV the project has already gone through one of the most thorough regulatory process in recent history.

Pipeline developers are pushing forward with a construction start date of Spring 2018 — eventaking several landowners to courtto gain access to their properties. A federal judge granted immediate usage of several properties, and deferred a decision on others.  For full video HERE


The only good byproduct of the Atlantic Coast Pipeline: Citizen activism in our region
Editorial Board, The News Leader   March 2, 2018

In the nearly four years since we began reporting and writing about the proposed Atlantic Coast Pipeline, never did it seem unlikely that Dominion Resources would eventually get its way, ripping up our mountainsides, sawing through forests, bulldozing across streams and digging its way through the Shenandoah Valley.

Perhaps Dominion has its own version of the state seal, with a motto beneath a vanquished opponent that’s edited to read, “Thus always to those who oppose Dominion.” 

If they do, it’s because they bought it and paid for it, along with the rest of our state government. That they’re willing to pay one landowner $360,000 to use his land for staging for two years is no surprise. That they’re reportedly willing to pay pretty much what any landowner wants for land restoration or spring for bovine medical bills related to mistakenly munched boundary markers shows that either Dominion is the best of neighbors, or that the costs to create the Atlantic Coast Pipeline are just chump change compared to the profits they’ll reap once it’s done. We tend to think it’s the latter, making us the chumps.

But they’ve created something else, unintentionally. Their project has given rise to a group of citizen activists who are not likely to stand down any time soon. Take for exampleSaturday’s gathering of the Allegheny-Blue Ridge Alliance, a group that is determined to hold Dominion responsible for its tepid environmental promises, even if the official regulators don’t have the stomaches or wherewithal to do it themselves. Others fought to a rare victory this week in a zoning battle over an ill-placed work yard along a busy state highway in a rural agricultural area. Dominion could appeal, or just decide to drop cash on someone else with land nearby.  Continue story HERE


Pollution Control Permit allows for Atlantic Coast Pipeline inspection
February 15, 2018

UPSHUR COUNTY, W.Va. (WDTV) — A State General Water Pollution Control Permit has been issued from the Department of Environmental Protection’s Division of Waste and Water Management.

The permit was brought up in today’s Upshur County commission meeting and it’s meant to regulate storm water runoff that comes from oil and gas related construction, in particular, building the Atlantic Coast Pipeline. According to the D.E.P, proper engineering and other accepted methods will be installed during the pipeline construction. These installations will be able to control pollutants of storm water runoff even after the project is completed.

“It’s very important. Whenever you’re crossing a stream or going under a stream, you want to make sure you do the least amount of disturbing to the environment as possible” says Upshur County Commission President Sam Nolte.

The Construction Storm Water Permit gives the DEP the ability to enforce and inspect at any part of the construction process.

Communication director for the D.E.P says that these inspections ensure that work is being done properly and safely, but there are only so many inspectors, so if you see something, say something.

“If they see something that they think may not be right, if they see muddy water in a stream, if they see runoff from the pipeline to go ahead and give us a call and let us know, because even though we have a lot of inspectors, we can’t be everywhere at once” says Communication Director for the Department of Environmental Protection Jake Glance.

Original WDTV postHERE

 
 

North Carolina environmental agency delays decision on water quality permit for Atlantic Coast Pipeline
Duncan Adams, September 16, 2017  The Roanoke Times

Heightened scrutiny of the water quality impacts of two controversial natural gas pipelines appears to be the trend in West Virginia and North Carolina.

In response, pipeline opponents in Virginia hope the Virginia Department of Environmental Quality will amp up its review of the projects and adjust a related timetable many environmental watchdogs have characterized as rushed.

Both the Mountain Valley Pipeline and the separate but similar Atlantic Coast Pipeline would begin in West Virginia and cross into Virginia. The Atlantic Coast project would continue into North Carolina, ending in Robeson County near Lumberton.

Each would transport natural gas through a 42-inch diameter buried pipeline that would cross hundreds of streams and wetlands in Virginia.

On Thursday, the North Carolina Department of Environmental Quality notified Atlantic Coast Pipeline LLC that the department needed more information about a host of water quality concerns before it can process the company’s application for Clean Water Act 401 water quality certification. Previously, a decision on the certification had been expected Monday.

The 401 certification essentially offers verification by a state that a project will not degrade state waters or violate water quality standards.

Last week, the West Virginia Department of Environmental Protection reported it was withdrawing and re-evaluating the 401 water quality certification granted in March to the Mountain Valley Pipeline.

That action came after a lawsuit by Appalachian Mountain Advocates on behalf of plaintiffs who argued the DEP’s analysis of the project’s effect on water quality in West Virginia was woefully incomplete.

 Full story HERE

Protesters speak out against Atlantic Coast Pipeline
Steven Graves, September 13, 2017   WVEC

VIRGINIA BEACH, Va (WVEC) — About two dozen protesters met to voice their opposition of the Atlantic Coast Pipeline on Wednesday. It was part of a statewide effort called the “People’s Pipeline Vigil.” Participants prayed for Hurricane victims and state leaders.

They gathered feet from Virginia Beach’s Department of Environmental Quality office.

Many were pushing for official denial of water permits needed for Dominion Energy to move forward with construction of the natural gas line. If constructed, it would go through parts of Hampton Roads.

“We really have to get a commitment, a political will and a commitment to renewables and off of fossil fuels. They’re not sustainable,” said Teresa Stanley with the Interspiritual Empowerment Project. “We don’t need them. It’s not helpful.”

Protesters have planned a “sit-in” at DEQ offices on Thursday.

In response to the protests, Dominion Energy spokesperson Aaron Ruby said in-part, “We understand not everyone supports it, but the vast majority of Virginians do. They want cleaner electricity, lower energy costs and new jobs, and they understand we need new infrastructure to make that possible.”

See VIDEO HERE


Atlantic Coast Pipeline: The Keystone of the East
Laura Ingles.  June 30, 2017  Blue Ridge Outdoors

The Atlantic Coast Pipeline is the Keystone of the East.

Dark clouds over pipeline construction in hilly landscape, Slovenia, Europe.

The Atlantic Coast Pipeline is a proposed 600-mile natural gas pipeline with a route stretching from Lewis County, West Virginia to Northampton County, North Carolina. It’s a collaborative venture between five of the largest utilities in the Mid-Atlantic—Dominion Energy, Duke Energy, Piedmont Natural Gas, Virginia Natural Gas and Public Service Company of North Carolina. Since Dominion Energy is the partner with the leading ownership percentage, Dominion is responsible for constructing and operating the pipeline.

Supporters of the Atlantic Coast Pipeline say it will boost the economy and meet a growing demand for natural gas energy. Opponents say it will violate the Clean Water Act and private property rights, threaten drinking water supplies, and put natural resources at risk. The pipeline also is a massive investment in a fossil fuel infrastructure at a time when renewables are on the rise. The opposition is vocal and ready to file appeals if the project is approved.  Full Story HERE

 
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Dominion touts Atlantic Coast Pipeline progress, mountain construction concerns opponents

Despite avid opposition from some residents along the route of the proposed Atlantic Coast Pipeline, including some Nelson County residents, Dominion executives on Thursday outlined important milestones and progress made on the project.

“I am pleased to say the project continues to move forward on all fronts,” Diane Leopold, president and CEO of Dominion Energy, said of the $5 billion, 600-mile natural gas pipeline that would cross West Virginia, Virginia and North Carolina.

In Nelson County, the route crosses 27 miles.

During a teleconference Thursday morning, Leopold said to date, Dominion has completed production on more than 65 percent of the steel pipe that will be used for the project, and the company expects to complete pipe production later this year.

She added Dominion has procured almost 85 percent of the land, materials and services it needs to build the pipeline.

Additionally, Dominion has completed more than 98 percent of land surveys, which has resulted in more than 300 route adjustments to avoid environmentally and otherwise sensitive areas. Dominion also has signed mutual easement agreements with 60 percent of landowners along the route.

“We’re very pleased with the progress we’ve made,” Leopold said. “We expect that progress to accelerate as we get closer to construction.”

Leopold cited a favorable draft environmental impact statement, which was released by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) in December 2016, and a favorable preliminary approval from the U.S. Forest Service for drilling underneath the Blue Ridge Parkway and Appalachian Trail as important milestones for Dominion.

Leopold also briefly talked about support for the project.

“Opponents may receive much of the attention,” Leopold said. “It is their right to speak out. But it is clear that the majority believes this project should and must be built.”

Leopold cited bipartisan support in all three states the pipeline would cross, as well as support from labor unions and local governments, as evidence for her statement. Story continues HERE

 

 
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Dominion, Environmentalists Spar over Mountaintop Removal Claims
Posted by on in

 

CLARKSBURG, W.Va. — Dominion and environmental groups spent much of Thursday and Friday sparring over claims that construction of the Atlantic Coast Pipeline would lead to significant damage to 38 miles worth of ridge line in West Virginia and Virginia–even going so far as to invoke images of mountaintop removal.

“For a 50 foot wide strip on some of these ridge lines, there won’t be trees replanted,” Dominion Spokesperson Aaron Ruby said in a phone interview Friday. “Otherwise, you would not notice. I mean, the contours of the ridge lines will remain exactly the same as they always have been, which is obviously not the case when you are talking about strip mining or mountain removal.”

A number of environmental groups offered criticism of Dominion and the proposed construction of the Atlantic Coast Pipeline in a conference call Thursday morning–specifically looking at 19 miles of ridge lines in West Virginia and an additional 19 miles in Virginia.

“This is the best available data that is consistent across our entire study area,” Dan Shaffer, Communications and Research Coordinator for the Allegheny-Blue Ridge Alliance, said Thursday. “That study area is from the initial point of the pipeline in southern Harrison County southeast to the eastern border of Buckingham County in Virginia.”

A new five-page briefing paper highlights the work done using GIS mapping software, which finds that mountaintops would be removed between 10 and 60 feet along the proposed route of the Atlantic Coast Pipeline.

“The whole point of this was to characterize areas of concern and get an idea of just how much of an issue ridge top removal is going to be,” Shaffer said. “And we were really surprised at just how much of this was going to happen and it’s geographic distribution throughout the route in West Virginia and western Virginia. It’s going to be a mess.”

Aaron Ruby shot back though, saying that the groups involved used the term mountaintop removal to invoke an image that is completely different than what Dominion is planning.

“The reality is we are not removing the tops of mountains,” he said. “That is a gross exaggeration and a total mis-characterization of what we are doing.” Story continues HERE

 
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Lou Whitmire , Reporter 4:04 p.m. ET April 22, 2017
Mansfield News Journal
MANSFIELD OH- Judy Handmaker says she has cried over the Rover natural gas pipeline cutting through her family’s almost 80 acres of farmland on Ohio 545.  Handmaker, 73, of Louisville, Ky., said her ancestors including Samuel Osbun, who served in both the Revolutionary War and the War of 1812, settled in Richland County after the war, having owned farmland stretching from Richland Shale Road to Franklin-Church Road.  “They came to Ohio because the land is good and rich,” she said.
Handmaker said she and her sister, Beth Houston Statzer of Virginia, are very distressed about what has happened to their family farm because of the pipeline.  “We fought it. We hired an attorney to speak for us. I can’t begin to tell you how much our family is linked to the area,” said Handmaker.  Their property is located next to Dayspring, the county home.
Full story HERE

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Motion to Rescind and Revise the DEIS

This serves as notice that a Motion to Rescind and Revise the DEIS has been filed by Friends of Nelson, Wild Virginia, Heartwood and Ernest Reed, intervenors, on Docket#CP15-554-000 et.al.  Appendixes are available on the FERC library site.

2017 03 08 FoN Motion to Rescind or Revise ACP DEIS – FINAL

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The Peoples Hearing

On December 2, We The People  held hearings to investigate the abuses of power and law being inflicted by FERC in communities across America.

The People’s Hearing was held at the National Press Club in Washington, DC on December 2, 2016. 63 representatives from 15 states and the District of Columbia came to testify to the abuses of power and law inflicted by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission. Over 150 people were in attendance of the hearing including reporters and congressional staff members.

We thank the legislators who sent representatives to join us:

  • Congressman Frank Pallone (Democrat from NJ, Ranking member on the House Committee on Energy and Commerce),
  • Congressman Morgan Griffith (Republican from Virginia),
  • Senator Maria Cantwell (Democrat from Washington, Ranking member on the Senate Committee on Energy and Natural Resources)
  • Senator Bob Casey (Democrat from Pennsylvania).

For more information and videos of hearings, check HERE

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Residents voice concerns at Atlantic Coast Pipeline meeting in Elkins

ELKINS, W. Va. (WDTV) – A controversial issue that’s been going on in our area for sometime now involves the Atlantic Coast Pipeline. The pipeline is a 600-mile long natural gas line that will go through Harrison, Lewis, Upshur, Randolph and Pocahontas counties. Wednesday night, many got to voice their thoughts on the project.

Ever since this has been brought about many have been concerned about the pipeline and its impact on water, safety and property owner’s rights. Wednesday’s meeting was designed to hear comments and concerns from folks in Randolph county. Many citizens were there voicing their concerns about the environment and the natural water ways of Elkins

“The destruction of the underground karsts, the springs, the water table. The steepness of the pipe. It’s a 42 inch pressure pipeline. Elkins Spring is going to be in the evacuation zone and the blasting zone. It’s taking out a lot of our friends cabins and homesteads. Just mass destruction to an area and the watershed. Just destroying the underground water tables,” said Daron Dean, of the Elkins Spring Resort.

A Dominion representative at the meeting says the pipeline is a good idea.

“The environmental impact study has indicated from the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission that these problems to the pipeline are minimal to the point where it really doesn’t expose any real environment significant impact,” explained Bob Fulton.

These meetings will continue until April 6th.

More info HERE

 


Protest Walk Begins in North Carolina

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Mar 3, 2017
 
On May 21, 2014 –Marvin Winstead got something that changed his life.

“I’m sitting here minding my own business when one day a letter shows up from a company, telling me that my property is identified as being in the corridor of a proposed, natural gas pipeline.”

He did not receive the news well.  

“It was infuriating. It’s saying, in their letter, what a big company they have. They were saying, as far as I was concerned, they were trying to intimidate me. ‘We’re a great, big company. We got the biggest this and the biggest that and so many billions. You know, we’re the big corporate bully and you’re the little guy we’re going to push around. That’s how it made me feel.”

Winstead is a farmer and Nash County Native. With the pipeline tunneling his property, he’s concerned about the impact it will have on his crops and the general safety of his community.

“If there is ever a leakage problem with that pipeline, if there’s ever an explosion, those people will be, you know, the potential is their home will be blown away and if they’re home, they’ll be blown away with it.”

Winstead helped organize a three county walk in November to oppose the project that included about 40 people.

Now he and an estimate 50-60 people are about to embark on a longer trek – 200 miles along the entire length of the pipeline in North Carolina. Organized by Walk to Protect Our People and the Places We Live (or APPL). The journey begin Saturday, March 4.

Listen to full interview HERE


Stop the Atlantic Coast Pipeline

 
This massive pipeline would carry unnatural gas from the fracking fields of West Virginia across the Blue Ridge mountains to southeast Virginia and North Carolina traversing more than 20 steep mountains, requiring clear-cutting of our National forests, and crossing more than 1,900 streams and rivers.  Yet FERC’s Draft Environmental Impact Statement (DEIS) doesn’t come close to addressing the pipeline’s potential for irreparable damage to wetlands, creeks, forests, and farmland. It also fails to acknowledge that the pipeline would encourage more fracking, lock us into costly, redundant infrastructure, and accelerate climate change for decades to come.  Full story HERE
 

Community and Conservation Groups Blast FERC Findings on Fracked-Gas Atlantic Coast Pipeline

America’s next big pipeline fight is emerging in the mountain towns and farming communities of West Virginia, Virginia and North Carolina. With federal regulators poised to rubber-stamp the proposed fracked-gas Atlantic Coast Pipeline, landowners, community leaders and their allies are taking inspiration from the water protectors at Standing Rock and vowing to stand together to stop it. In response to requests from numerous elected officials and organizations, FERC has extended the usual 45-day period for public comments; the deadline is April 6, 2017. PRESS RELEASE WITH CONTACT INFORMATION
FERC DEIS


Greater Greenbrier Conservation Focus Area
The Greater Greenbrier CFA encompasses the Greenbrier River watershed from the joining of the East and West Forks at Durbin downstream to the confluence with the New River. In the Allegheny Mountains Ecoregion, it includes a globally significant karst landscape surrounded by ridges and valleys of shale and sandstone. Complete PDF of Conservation Focus Area Plan (Draft)


Are the Atlantic Coast Pipeline and the Mountain Valley Pipeline Necessary?
An examination of the need for additional pipeline capacity into Virginia and Carolina’s  Complete PDF Prepared for Southern Environmental Law Center and Appalachian Mountain Advocates


Landslides and the ACP
December 28, 2016
Two reports have been submitted to FERC that substantiate the dramatically increased probability of landslides following the extensive excavation associated with construction of the proposed ACP and related access roads.

The Proposed Atlantic Coast Pipeline Route through Little Valley in Bath County, Virginia: An Assessment of Landslide Risk and Slope Stability Factors, prepared by Malcolm G. Cameron, Jr., Coordinator of Geohazards Analysis, Dominion Pipeline Monitoring Coalition

Landslide Analysis, Monongahela National Forest Flood Event (June 2016), prepared by the USDA Forest Service, Monongahela National Forest.


We will get back to you
December 16, 2016 by Rick Webb

picture1Dominion officials acknowledge that the proposed Atlantic Coast Pipeline faces significant environmental challenges due to construction across steep, highly-erodible, and landslide prone mountain landscape. They assure us, however, that project construction will adhere to the highest standards, and that the company will go “above and beyond” legal requirements. Yet they will not discuss details. Although Dominion representatives are available to discuss environmental issues with the public or the press, they are not actually prepared to provide answers to substantive questions. Continue


ACP Station not wanted or needed
December 8, 2016

compressorThe proposed Atlantic Coast Pipeline (ACP) and Buckingham County compressor station are not needed and not wanted by the communities they threaten and the Virginia counties they impact.  There is growing opposition to the ACP project proposed to run some 600 miles through Virginia, West Virginia and North Carolina.  For more information visit Friends of Buckingham County

Allegheny – Blue Ridge Alliance (ABRA) Weekly Updates
December 16, 2016
ABRA 109
December 9, 2016
(PDF)
abra-108


Say NO to the ACP

ACP – Story Map Series (Dominion Pipeline Monitoring Coalition)

Atlantic Coast Pipeline Monitoring A water quality monitoring program for streams in the path of the proposed Atlantic Coast Pipeline. 

A Question of Need Existing pipelines provide enough gas for our region through 2030; we do not need the ACP or the MVP.  

ACP and Our National Forests The proposed Atlantic Coast Pipeline cuts through the heart of the Monongahela and George Washington National Forests. 

Ground Truth about ACP Access Roads Access roads can be as problematic as the pipeline itself and may be subject to even less regulatory oversight.

Forest Fragmentation and the ACP The Atlantic Coast Pipeline would pass through areas of outstanding biodiversity in Virginia and West Virginia, fragmenting core forests and threatening species that depend on interior forest habitat.

Dominion’s Pipeline Threatens Protected Private Land Dominion has asked the Virginia Outdoors Foundation to give up stewardship on 10 conservation easements to make way for the ACP.

Unique Shale Barrens Threatened by the ACP The alternate route for the Atlantic Coast Pipeline puts three unique shale barrens in the George Washington National Forest at risk.

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