Dominion Outlines New National Forest Route for Pipeline

Energy companies behind the Atlantic Coast Pipeline have carved a new proposed route through national forests in West Virginia and Virginia.

The alternate released Friday is in response to federal concerns about the national gas pipeline’s initial path through sensitive areas.

Dominion Resources Inc. says the new route would reduce by one-third the pipeline’s path through the George Washington and Monongahela national forests, but add 30 miles to the project. The alternate route would also affect 249 new landowners.

Dominion said it worked extensively with the U.S. Forest Service to select the new route after foresters rejected the initial plan. The Forest Service feared, in part, the pipeline would harm a salamander that lives in high elevations in the Shenandoah Mountains and is found nowhere else in the world.