Mountain Valley Pipeline Asks Judge To Dismiss Whistleblower Lawsuit

The Mountain Valley Pipeline’s owner has asked a federal judge to dismiss a lawsuit by a welding inspector who claims he was fired after flagging safety violations.

EQT, the owner of the Mountain Valley Pipeline, asked U.S. District Judge David Faber last week to dismiss a lawsuit filed by Michael Barnhill, a welding inspector who lives in Texas.

In late 2023, Barnhill was working on construction of the 303-mile gas pipeline in Monroe County, West Virginia, and reported corrosion in the 42-inch diameter pipe.

Barnhill claims his concerns were ignored by his supervisors, and so he reported the problem to the federal Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration.

The corroded section of pipe was replaced, but Barnhill was fired.

In his lawsuit, Barnhill claims his firing was an illegal retaliation and that the federal Pipeline Safety Act protects whistleblowers.

The company claims Barnhill should have filed a complaint with the U.S. Department of Labor within 180 days and that under West Virginia law, he was an at-will employee who could be fired for any reason.

MVP was completed a year ago and carries two billion cubic feet of gas a day from north-central West Virginia to southern Virginia. The project took six years and $10 billion to build.

Safety concerns about the pipeline arose from a failed water pressure test on May 1, 2024, in Bent Mountain, Virginia. The burst pipeline released a large quantity of municipal water.

Residents who had been pushing back on the pipeline’s construction for years said it reinforced their fears about what could happen once gas began moving through it.

Additionally, the pipeline has struggled with erosion control issues during and after construction.

Last week, a federal appeals court in the District of Columbia dismissed a challenge to the construction of a 31-mile extension of MVP into North Carolina.