Virginia fines Mountain Valley Pipeline for environmental violations after another quarterly review

State officials have ordered the Mountain Valley Pipeline to pay $30,500 for violating environmental regulations during a three-month period before the pipeline began operating, marking the fourth consecutive fine of this type.

The Virginia Department of Environmental Quality levied the penalty after it found nearly two dozen violations of erosion and sediment control rules, according to the report dated Tuesday. Nearly all problems were corrected within a day.

The DEQ’s quarterly review covers March 11 through June 10, so it predates when the 303-mile, 42-inch-diameter natural gas pipeline from West Virginia into Southside Virginia began operating on June 14.

But the reporting period does include May 1, the day that a pipeline segment in Roanoke County failed during hydrostatic testing , in which highly pressurized water is pushed through a pipe to test its integrity. After that event, pipeline opponents and even some supporters said it showed that the pipeline was not yet ready for operation, but Mountain Valley said it showed that the testing process had worked as intended.

The DEQ report is sparse on details but lists an event that day in which sediment impacted a location in Roanoke County. DEQ levied a $6,500 fine for that incident, which was one of three in the latest report that merited that maximum individual penalty for the release of sediment into water or wetlands.

A DEQ spokesperson did not respond to Cardinal News’ inquiry seeking confirmation that the May 1 event in the report was the testing incident, and a Mountain Valley spokesperson said he was unable to confirm the connection.

“The recent letter from VADEQ includes stipulated penalties for the second quarter of 2024, which were primarily related to issues involving the installation of erosion control devices,” Mountain Valley Pipeline spokesperson Shawn Day said in an email. “These noted items were quickly resolved, and full payment will be made without dispute.”

Day added that Mountain Valley “agreed to unprecedented oversight and transparency of project work,” including more than 47,800 state, federal and third-party environmental inspections and more than 72,000 inspections by the project’s internal environmental team.

“If an issue is identified, the project team moves quickly to address it,” he said.

Before this latest penalty, the DEQ had fined Mountain Valley $68,000 over the previous three quarters since construction resumed last summer. The DEQ’s quarterly reviews stem from a December 2019 consent agreement in which Mountain Valley Pipeline agreed to pay $2.15 million to settle a lawsuit filed by the state environmental agency.

The $7.85 billion Mountain Valley Pipeline is capable of transporting up to 2 billion cubic feet of natural gas daily from West Virginia through six Virginia counties, ending at a Transco compressor station in Pittsylvania County.

Pipeline supporters say it will meet a demand for natural gas from the Marcellus and Utica shale regions from Mid-Atlantic and Southeast markets. The pipeline’s co-owners include the parent company of Roanoke Gas, which says Mountain Valley is vital to expanding regional natural gas service.

The largest of the pipeline’s five co-owners was Canonsburg, Pennsylvania-based Equitrans Midstream Corp. but is now Pittsburgh-based EQT Corp. after the former reunited with the latter earlier this week in a $5.45 billion merger.

Last summer, Congress gave the Mountain Valley Pipeline a boost by fast-tracking permits it needed to complete construction and shielding it from most legal challenges. That led to the dismissal of court cases focused on its impact on endangered species and national forests .

Opponents say that the pipeline is unnecessary, unsafe and bad for the environment. They argue that Congress improperly gave developers eminent domain authority to seize private land for it. Some have expressed concerns about the quality of pipeline that was left exposed to sun and water for years, and about the fact that some of the land impacted by construction has yet to be restored .

Pipeline opponents have continually opposed the project and its proposed $370 million MVP Southgate extension into North Carolina, not only in the courtroom but also in the field, with some protesters locking themselves to equipment to slow construction.

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