ÂÒÂ×ÄÚÉä

And the request comes the same month as a watchdog agency report finding gaping holes in federal oversight of areas of pipelines that could have the greatest impact to public safety and property. The report looms especially large with the Mountain Valley Pipeline given its high amount of pipe crossing over steep slopes.

Mountain Valley Pipeline LLC, the joint venture behind the pipeline, on Monday asked the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission to approve placing project facilities in service by May 23.

Mountain Valley said over 192 of the project’s 303.5 miles were in “final restoration,� which the company has defined as including installation of permanent erosion control devices, the return of topsoil, and seeding and mulching along the pipeline right-of-way. The project spans 11 counties in West Virginia and six in Virginia.

The company, a joint venture of energy companies led by Cecil Township, Washington County, Pennsylvania-based Equitrans Midstream Corp., said nine restoration-focused crews are working in five out of nine “spreads� or segments of the project, including three in West Virginia, as well as in the Jefferson National Forest.

Mountain Valley said it has finished all waterbody and wetland crossings throughout the 42-inch-diameter pipeline project. Earth-disturbance permits have been closed at all West Virginia facilities, the company told the FERC in its Monday filing.

Mountain Valley said the entire project area is expected to be fully restored by August 2024, depending on weather and other unidentified “external factors.�

But less than 27% of pipeline mileage is in final restoration in two sections in Virginia, which has a much lower area of pipeline in that phase than the West Virginia portion of the pipeline.

Environmental violations pile up after fast-track

West Virginia’s path to final restoration has included a spate of environmental violations in recent months since the federal government fast-tracked the project’s completion through the Fiscal Responsibility Act in June 2023.

The DEP issued Mountain Valley Pipeline a notice of violation following a Feb. 14 inspection that found the company allowed sediment-laden water to enter Hungard Creek in Summers County, having improperly installed a silt fence and not maintained secondary containment measures.

A DEP inspection the previous month resulted in a notice of violation after finding Mountain Valley improperly installed a rock construction entrance in Monroe County.

The DEP issued Mountain Valley a notice of violation after a December 2023 inspection found Mountain Valley failed to maintain a public road next to a construction entrance clear of debris from a Monroe County construction site.

Mountain Valley’s latest weekly environmental compliance monitoring report filed with the FERC April 18 reported:

• New movement of a land slip south of Copley Road in Lewis County resulted in trees falling across an access road.
• A heavy rain event caused a slip near an access road in Lewis County that resulted in sediment entering a stream.
• Flooding and debris washed down onto the right-of-way at waterbody crossings in Monroe County, with erosion controls overwhelmed by floodwater and debris deposited onto bridges.
• Federal regulators have approved dozens of variance requests expanding the area covered by the project since Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts Jr. lifted a lower court’s hold on key federal approvals for it in late July.

The approved deviations have covered dozens of acres, including requests to increase right-of-way access, withdraw water from streams in seven West Virginia counties and add work space for equipment storage and parking.

In its Monday filing, Mountain Valley said it hadn’t yet completed pipeline coating and dent detection surveys required by a consent agreement it entered into in October 2023 with the federal Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration, or PHMSA.

The consent agreement requiring corrective measures the PHMSA struck with Equitrans came after the agency found project conditions may pose safety risks.

Activists call planned ‘in-service’ date reckless

Environmental advocates say the consent order doesn’t sufficiently address longstanding concerns over the integrity of the coated steel pipe or corrosion issues that may come from pipe that was already installed in the ground.

The National Association of Pipe Coating Applicators has recommended against aboveground storage of coated pipe for longer than six months without additional ultraviolet protection. But some of the pipe slated for use in constructing the Mountain Valley Pipeline had been lying uninstalled along the route for years.

The pipeline is designed to cross over 75 miles of slopes greater than 30%, an unusually high amount of pipeline over slopes that steep.

Environmental groups jeered Mountain Valley’s request for federal approval of an in-service date next month.

Jessica Sims, Virginia field coordinator for Appalachian Voices, a Virginia-based environmental nonprofit, called the request “brazen� in an email Tuesday, noting the company has completed fewer than two-thirds of the project to final restoration and hasn’t fully complied with the October consent agreement with PHMSA.

“Requesting an in-service decision by May 23 leaves the company very little time to implement the safety measures required by its agreement with PHMSA,� Sims said. “There is no rush, other than to satisfy MVP’s capacity customers’ contracts — a situation of the company’s own making. We remain deeply concerned about the construction methods and the safety of communities along the route of MVP.�

Protect Our Water, Heritage, Rights Coalition — a coalition of Virginia and West Virginia groups fighting fossil fuel expansion — called Mountain Valley’s proposed in-service date “reckless and impossible� in a statement Monday.

Report finds significant PHMSA oversight holes

This month, the federal Government Accountability Office released a report finding PHMSA:

• Does not collect detailed data comparing the actual impact of a pipeline incident when one occurs with the potential impact radius that the operator had calculated for the pipeline
• Uses an equation for determining the potential impact radius of a pipeline rupture that doesn’t match findings from investigations of recent gas ruptures and is based on assumptions that may not be realistic, including an assumption an individual near a rupture would be able to evacuate or find shelter in 30 seconds
• Allowed nearly 40% of operators to report incomplete data on methods they used to identify high-consequence areas in 2022, something the GAO said the PHMSA attributed to an error in its report submission system
• Uses incident report forms as a catalyst for investigations, but operator incident reports don’t always provide detailed explanations for any injuries and fatalities that occur outside of the pipeline’s potential impact radius
• May find it more difficult to assess whether a particular method is accurate for operators identifying high-consequence areas without incident forms that allow PHMSA to assess the full impact of certain pipeline incidents

Just over one-fifth of significant onshore gas transmission pipeline incidents in high-consequence areas from 2010 to 2022 were caused by “natural and outside force damage,� according to the GAO report.

Citing that percentage, Protect Our Water, Heritage, Rights Coalition co-director Chisholm called the Mountain Valley Pipeline a “very dangerous test case of ‘high consequence’ assessment.�

Chisholm noted 21% of incidents resulting from “natural and other outside force damage.�

Bill Caram, executive director of the Pipeline Safety Trust, a Bellingham, Washington-based pipeline safety nonprofit, said the potential shortcomings of the current potential impact radius calculation and its use to determine high-consequence areas are especially concerning for the people around large-diameter, high-pressure gas transmission pipelines.

“[T]he GAO report shows that PHMSA is falling short in several areas,� Caram said in an email.

A PHMSA spokesperson said the agency installed a team of its own engineers to examine what additional data from pipeline operators is needed for potential impact radius calculations prior to the GAO report.

“PHMSA will consider all options, including rulemaking, following a thorough review of each recommendation and the results of its own analysis,� the spokesperson said.

Meanwhile, fear over completion of the $7.2 billion pipeline lingers among its critics, including Chisholm.

“We are watching our worst nightmare unfold in real time: the reckless MVP is barreling towards completion,� Chisholm said.