Curtis Tate Published

Mountain Valley Pipeline Hits New Roadblock Over Endangered Fish

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A natural gas pipeline project in West Virginia and Virginia has hit another legal roadblock.

The Fourth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals rejected the federal government’s assessment of the Mountain Valley Pipeline’s impact on two endangered fish.

The decision is the latest setback for the 300-mile pipeline, intended to carry two billion cubic feet a day of natural gas from northern West Virginia.

In recent weeks, the same court rejected a permit for the pipeline to cross through the Jefferson National Forest on the Virginia-West Virginia border.

The Sierra Club and other organizations had sued to block the permit and challenged the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service’s findings on the endangered fish.

The pipeline’s route crosses 1,100 streams, some of them home to the Roanoke logperch and the candy darter. The candy darter is on the verge of extinction.

The court’s ruling means the federal government will have to redo its evaluation, delaying the pipeline’s completion.