MVP: One Very Bad Actor
Despite the Mountain Valley Pipeline’s ‘in-service’ status that was granted prematurely by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission on June 10, the pipeline is far from complete, and even further from ever being safe. MVP's last status report for the week ending June 28, 2024 shows it is 78.3% complete to final restoration. The MVP saved the hardest parts of the route for last, and tragically, completing 78.3% of the route didn’t teach the MVP many lasting lessons, so the last 21.7% isn’t going to be easy. MVP can’t wait to call the job ‘complete’ so they can go home. Communities along the pipeline aren’t so lucky. Their homes are booby-trapped by one of the largest diameter pipelines in the country, and on the continent.
It's a forever thing for as long as it's in service. - local resident Crystal Mello
Although the pipeline is considered ‘finished’ enough in MVP’s, FERC’s and the Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration’s eyes - finished enough that there’s now gas in the corroded, compromised pipe - horror and vigilance continues unabated for communities along the route. These residents are mourning the decimated streams and land that have been ruined by the MVP. Adjacent communities are holding their breath, now that it’s ‘in service.’ Heavy equipment continues to occupy the right of way (ROW), often directly above the pipe. MVP continues to withhold information, so residents remain watchful, hoping to learn updates on the infrastructure that may well destroy them. There will be no relaxing here, just fleeting moments of distraction before the realization of the potential horror below ground sets in again.
It’s high summer now, with temperatures in the mid- to upper-90s for weeks at a time. It’s a known fact the methane in the pipe will leak out, further contributing to rising temperatures. The MVP is a bumbling, bungling killing machine, locally and globally.
MVP tried to re-write the laws of nature when it planned this route. It hasn’t gone well, and in the process they’ve botched innumerable water crossings and lost tons upon tons of precious topsoil, either as pollution in formerly pristine waterways or airborne as dust. It’s no wonder that from early on, MVP lost its permits numerous times. No wonder MVP accrued $2 million in fines and more than 350 water violations… until a former MVP consultant was named the new director of Virginia’s Dept of Environmental Quality (DEQ), after which fines and violations came almost to a halt. Even now, after a month of operation, MVP continues to spew sediment pollution along its route. MVP just can’t seem to learn, and agencies aren’t holding it accountable.
Much of the work yet to be completed is restoration, which requires growing vegetation on the ROW to hold soil in place to prevent slips (landslides), which could result in a catastrophic pipe rupture. Even without the 42” girth of pipe below the surface, a denuded 125’ ROW of erodible soils is a difficult growing medium, especially in summer drought. Heavy machinery on the ROW kicks up clouds of dust, choking forests and communities.
In Monroe County WV, MVP recently ‘finished’ restoration on Maury Johnson’s organic farm. Rains came the night of July 5 and the aftermath demonstrated MVP’s ineffective erosion and sedimentation (E&S) controls. On July 6, Maury documented numerous instances of significant precious topsoil washed away. Topsoil isn’t just ‘lost’ when MVP can’t get E&S controls right: it spills into waterways, harming aquatic species and fouling the only water source for residents who rely on groundwater. The complaint Maury filed about this event was his 348th.
Maury toured the vicinity and found several other locations that had suffered from MVP’s ineptitude. At Painters Run in Lindside WV, MVP offloaded timbers, crushing a silt fence at the bottom of a steep slope. Maury’s complaint #348 was 52 pages in length.
Betty Werner (profiled in a previous post) scrutinizes MVP’s Environmental Compliance Monitoring Program reports and their weekly Status Reports in painstaking detail. With so much at stake, and with her unerring sense of justice, keeping tabs on MVP is very personal to Betty. Her family lost their dream farm to the MVP, so the company’s careless disregard and deceit hurts her deeply. Betty frequently writes FERC concerning the errors and omissions she finds in MVP’s reports, providing a service for which MVP has never expressed gratitude, much less the courtesy of a reply.
Follows is the full text of one of Betty’s exacting dissections of a previous MVP Status Report. (The ‘Mr. Eggerding’ mentioned is Matthew Eggerding, MVP’s Deputy General Counsel, who signs off on the weekly Status Reports to FERC.)
Since before construction began, the MVP has discounted communities along the route, and continuously lied to them.
MVP’s frequent refrain: ‘when we’re all done, you won’t even know the pipe is there.’ MVP’s damages will be felt forever.
From MVP’s website: obfuscation, denial and outright lies:
‘Increased use of natural gas has played an important role in our country’s efforts to lower carbon emissions and keep energy prices affordable.’
‘In our Nation’s quest to addresses(sic) climate change, the MVP will play an important role in our transition to a lower-carbon economy, and we are committed to meeting or exceeding all applicable regulations to ensure the safety of our communities, employees, contractors, and assets.’
(MVP) ‘encourage(d) open discussion with community members, landowners, and public agencies. These public meetings generated valuable feedback that helped shape the current route, which was carefully designed to utilize existing gas and electric transmission corridors when possible; to avoid sensitive or protected areas when feasible; and to limit surface disturbance and minimize the overall environmental footprint.’
‘MVP project team respects the concerns and opinions of community members; we value each landowner’s property; and we value the safety of our employees, contractors, and all those who live in our local communities. It is important that we work together with the members of our Virginia and West Virginia communities – reassuring them that we are constructing this pipeline safely and responsibly and striving to minimize impacts on their land and their day-to-day activities.’
‘Mountain Valley takes tremendous precautions to ensure the long-term safety of our pipelines – and once the pipeline is operational, we will utilize sophisticated technology to monitor the pipeline, in real time, 24-hours-a-day and 7-days-a-week.’
‘Mountain Valley maintains its steadfast commitment to environmental protection and will conduct our business operations in a sustainable and environmentally responsible manner at all times. Safety has always been, and will remain, our number one priority.’
‘As of spring 2023, total project work for MVP was roughly 94 percent complete, which included all work on the project’s three compressor stations and its three original interconnect facilities, with the additional Greene interconnect mechanically complete, as well as roughly 282 miles of pipe welded and in-place, and more than half of the right-of-way fully restored.’
Nowhere on MVP’s website is the true story of how the MVP achieved its current quasi-complete status - the act of Congress that allowed Section 324’s attachment to the debt ceiling bill - the dirty deal that bought WV Sen. Joe Manchin’s vote. MVP couldn’t finish the pipeline legally. Arrogance routed the hideous project where experts warned it shouldn’t and couldn’t go. MVP’s incompetence lost them time and permits, and their lack of respect for communities has made the route a war zone, pitting industry against lives and livelihoods. The sacrificed communities’ psyches and landscapes have been forever sacrificed.
Please donate to the legal defense fund for pipeline fighters: bit.ly/AppLegalDefense. Protectors face ever-increasing and expensive intimidation tactics and legal charges, but remain undaunted.
These worthy on-the-ground groups fight the MVP disaster:
https://www.aapsolidarity.org/
https://powhr.org/
https://7directionsofservice.com/
https://wvrivers.org/