REGULATORY SYSTEM TEST

The Dominion Pipeline Monitoring Coalition has submitted a complaint and request for enforcement to the Virginia DEQ concerning non-compliance with Virginia erosion and sediment control and stormwater management requirements at the Columbia Gas of Virginia (CGV) pipeline construction project on Peters Mountain in Giles County. CGV failed to prepare and adhere to Continue Reading →

FOREST SERVICE REJECTS ACP SOIL SURVEY

The misrepresentation of staff qualifications and protocols, the lack of quality assurance, and the avoidance of Forest Service oversight, caste further doubt on all of Dominion’s “privileged” or withheld environmental studies, surveys, and plans. Dominion spokesmen claim there was no misrepresentation related to the soil surveys it hastily conducted for the proposed ACP route Continue Reading →

PETERS MOUNTAIN REVISITED

Pipeline construction over steep Appalachian mountains creates significant runoff and slope-failure problems. Dominion Transmission, Inc., for example, was fined in 2014 for serial slope failures at one of its pipeline projects in West Virginia. In that case, as in others, the difficulties associated with construction in extreme landscape have been compounded Continue Reading →

STREAM ZERO

One small stream in West Virginia is at the epicenter of mega pipeline construction in the central Appalachian region. If industry plans go forward, a two-mile stretch of Meathouse Fork and it’s tributaries, Big Isaac Creek and Laurel Run, will be crossed by three of the largest pipelines ever built in the region. The smaller of these, Continue Reading →

IN THE PUBLIC INTEREST

The Nelson County Board of Supervisors is calling on Virginia Governor Terry McAuliffe and state environmental officials to ensure public access to erosion and sediment control plans for the Atlantic Coast Pipeline. In a 4-0 vote (July 14, 2015), the supervisors passed a resolution requesting that: DEQ will require project-specific Erosion and Continue Reading →

RESPONSIBLE PLANNING

The following is a letter to the Richmond Times-Dispatch published on May 7th. It was submitted by Greg Buppert, a Senior Attorney with the Southern Environmental Law Center. Mr. Buppert observes that Dominion started the project with a straight line from West Virginia to Virginia. It’s not too late, he Continue Reading →

SIGNIFICANT ISSUES

The effectiveness of standard measures for mitigation of water resource impacts associated with pipeline construction is a significant issue that needs to be systematically examined during EIS preparation. The EIS should analyze the provisions, implementation, and effectiveness of water-related environmental laws, regulations, and best management practices that apply to pipeline Continue Reading →

BROKEN REGULATORY SYSTEM

Virginia’s Governor McAuliffe has repeatedly declared that the 550-mile Atlantic Coast Pipeline can be built in an environmentally sound way. He first promised, at a joint Commonwealth-Dominion Press Conference, that the ACP would be the most environmentally responsible pipeline ever built in U.S. history. Although our governor has a limited understanding of the environmental Continue Reading →