Tag: natural gas

Report: Mountain Valley Pipeline Testing Released Water Again

The June 4 rupture involved an 8-inch connecting hose. According to a report Equitrans filed to Virginia’s DEQ, the release lasted for 15 minutes until a valve was closed, shutting it off.

Updated on Thursday, June 27, 2024 at 4 p.m.

Testing equipment on the Mountain Valley Pipeline (MVP) experienced a rupture in southwest Virginia this month, days before it asked for and received permission to begin carrying natural gas.

The June 4 rupture involved an 8-inch connecting hose. According to a report Equitrans filed to Virginia’s DEQ, the release lasted for 15 minutes until a valve was closed, shutting it off.

The rupture happened after hydrostatic testing of the pipeline, where water is pumped through it at high pressure to demonstrate its integrity. The hose was used to release water from the pipeline section under inspection, following the testing, when the hose failed.

Equitrans Midstream, the pipeline’s builder, reported the incident to the Virginia Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ), the Virginia Department of Emergency Management and the Virginia Department of Health’s Office of Drinking Water.

Residents and community groups have been concerned about the project’s safety since a May 1 rupture released a large volume of water and badly damaged a section of the 42-inch main pipe.

They also have expressed anger that Equitrans Midstream didn’t let them know when the pressure testing took place or about the unintentional releases of water, which in some cases caused property damage. A landowner in Bent Mountain, Virginia, reported the May 1 incident. 

The June 4 rupture, at Elliston, Virginia, took place 10 days before the pipeline began operating. 

Neither the company nor its regulators have shared the details of a laboratory analysis of the pipe that was damaged on May 1. They also did not elaborate on what happened on June 4 and how much water was released.

The DEQ report categorizes the incident as an “unauthorized discharge of pollutant(s)” and identifies the pollutant as non-potable water. 

The incident may have affected water quality in the Roanoke River, which supplies drinking water to three municipalities in the area.

The environmental compliance report noted “the South Fork Roanoke River was turbid upstream and downstream,” but added that the condition “was believed to be caused from overnight rain events within this area.”

Natalie Cox, a spokeswoman for Equitrans Midstream, said the 303-mile pipeline “has been safely flowing gas since June 14, 2024.”

Cox said all appropriate state and federal agencies were notified of the incident. It was also reported in a weekly environmental compliance report the company filed with the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC).  

That document appeared in FERC’s public docket on June 20. The DEQ investigation of the incident was closed the next day.

Cox said Tuesday all restoration activity related to the June 4 rupture had been completed.

Celeste Miller, a spokeswoman for FERC, said the commission was notified “shortly after the occurrence.” Miller referred safety questions to the Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration, which is part of the U.S. Department of Transportation.

FERC approved the pipeline to begin service on June 11, a day after Equitrans Midstream declared it “mechanically complete.” The commission published a summary of a phone call between officials at FERC and PHMSA, and FERC noted that PHMSA had no objections to granting the approval.

Since construction started on the pipeline in 2018, residents have complained about its impact on their groundwater and drinking water and the erosion due to the steepness of the slopes.

Equitrans Midstream has said it complied with every requirement to complete restoration.

**Editor’s Note: This story was updated to clarify that the failure was in an 8-inch hose, not the pipeline itself.

Federal Data: Utilities Used Coal Plants Less In 2023, Even In W. Va.

Four of the five main power plants in the state produced less electricity in 2023 than in any year since 2001, according to U.S. Energy Information Administration data.

Electricity output from West Virginia’s five utility owned coal fired power plants was the lowest last year in more than two decades. 

Four of the five main power plants in the state produced less electricity in 2023 than in any year since 2001, according to U.S. Energy Information Administration data.

The only plant that did not set a record low last year: Mon Power’s Harrison Power Station in Harrison County.

A decade ago, according to federal data, coal accounted for 44 percent of overall electricity generation in PJM, the nation’s biggest grid operator. In 2023, that fell to 14 percent.

The agency projects that 20 percent of PJM’s coal plants will shut down by 2028, as coal becomes less economically attractive than natural gas and renewables.

In 2021 and 2022, the West Virginia Public Service Commission approved hundreds of millions of dollars in upgrades to the five plants to comply with U.S. Environmental Protection Agency rules on coal ash disposal and wastewater treatment.

While the Harrison plant operated 364 days last year, according to federal data, Appalachian Power’s Mitchell plant in Marshall County operated only 258 days.

In 2021, Kentucky’s Public Service commission declined to make Kentucky customers share the cost of the wastewater treatment upgrades at Mitchell with West Virginia customers.

In early 2022, Appalachian Power estimated the cost of retrofits to Mitchell at $148 million.

After the Kentucky PSC made its decision, the West Virginia PSC ruled that West Virginia customers would shoulder the entire sum.

According to the U.S. Energy Information Administration, the Harrison, Fort Martin, Mountaineer and Amos plants are among the top coal generators in the PJM region, which includes West Virginia.

Of the five West Virginia plants, just Fort Martin and Harrison have expected retirement dates, 2035 and 2040, respectively.

Appalachian Power is an underwriter of West Virginia Public Broadcasting.

‘That’s All They Care About, Putting This Pipe In The Ground’

After a decade of planning and construction, residents of Bent Mountain, Virginia, said they still worry the Mountain Valley Pipeline could affect their safety, their water quality and their property values.

It isn’t easy to get a clear view of where the Mountain Valley Pipeline burst during a water pressure test in early May.

So Robin Austin, who lives nearby, guides a reporter through the woods where the Blue Ridge Parkway connects to U.S. highway 221.

At the edge of the fence, a giant trench comes into view. It is filled with workers and heavy construction equipment. They’re replacing the damaged section of pipe that burst on May 1.

“This is a site where we’ve had water problems in the past,” she said. “Just the topography of the land and the way this watershed is. It runs off. It’s a wetland right against 221. And it enters the culverts and goes to the streams.”

The day the pipe broke, Austin called her neighbor, Kathy Chandler, and told her brown water was pouring across her property. Chandler reported it to the Virginia Department of Environmental Quality.

That’s how the public first knew that the pipeline test had failed. The federal agencies that regulate pipelines said little about the incident. But on June 11, they approved the pipeline to begin carrying large volumes of gas, at high pressure, from West Virginia to Virginia.

“Once the gas is in the line, we don’t have any control now,” Austin said, “but at least we have action we can take.” 

Chandler, Austin and other Bent Mountain residents have been fighting the project for a decade. 

Last month at the Bent Mountain Center, a converted school building, they said they still worry the pipeline could affect their safety, their water quality and their property values.

“I don’t want to be known as the girl with the muddy creek,” Chandler said. “That is an issue for us up here. Horrible, repeat events to our water, our surface waters. But the real life-threatening event for our neighborhood is that a pipe split open under pressure.”

Equitrans Midstream, the builder of the Mountain Valley Pipeline, has repeatedly insisted that the failed pressure test poses no safety risks. On May 10, Todd Normane, an Equitrans senior vice president and general counsel for the pipeline, wrote to the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission that the incident demonstrated that the testing worked. He criticized pipeline opponents for asking the commission to delay or deny its approval to begin service.

John Coles Terry III and his wife, Red Terry, in Bent Mountain, Virginia, on Friday, May 10, 2024.

Photo by Curtis Tate/West Virginia Public Broadcasting

Uphill Battle

Bent Mountain sits on a plateau just inside Roanoke County. It is about 17 miles, and 30 minutes down a twisting road to Roanoke, the most populated city in southwest Virginia.

Coles Terry, who lives in Bent Mountain with his wife, Theresa, or “Red,” said he’s not convinced local emergency response agencies have the materials or a plan for a fire should the pipeline fail again. Bent Mountain residents are miles away from a municipal water connection. Most rely on wells and springs.

“If it does catch fire,” Coles Terry said, “the county has got $50,000 worth of foam, somewhere.”  

“They won’t tell us where,” Red Terry said.

“They won’t tell us where,” Coles Terry said. “They won’t tell us how they plan to get it up here. They won’t tell us how they plan to get it where the fire is raging.”

Coles Terry, his brother Frank and sister Liz were part of a court-ordered settlement of more than $500,000 for the pipeline easement on their property. A U.S. district judge cut the award in half, but the Fourth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals last month ruled the Terrys should receive the higher amount. 

U.S Sen. Joe Manchin

Manchin’s Move

The Terrys were among hundreds of residents the pipeline builder sued to gain access to their land via eminent domain. Many tried to challenge the decision by FERC to grant the pipeline the authority to use eminent domain, but were ultimately not successful.

Pipeline opponents had been successful in challenging the project’s permits, bringing construction to a halt for prolonged periods.

That all changed a year ago, when Congress enacted the Fiscal Responsibility Act, a spending deal that required the completion of the pipeline.

One of the pipeline’s chief supporters, West Virginia Sen. Joe Manchin, a Democrat turned Independent, attached the provision to the bill.

“This is a great day for American energy security and an even greater day for the state of West Virginia,” Manchin said at the end of July last year after construction resumed on the pipeline.

According to Chandler, Austin and Terry, it resumed at a pace they had not seen before.

“If this is a matter of national security, then it should be the safest pipeline in the country,” Chandler said. “It should absolutely be the tip-top safest. And with this recent event, that cannot be assured.”

Kathy Chandler, a resident of Bent Mountain, Virginia, looks at the site of a failed pressure test on the Mountain Valley Pipeline near her property.

Photo by Curtis Tate/West Virginia Public Broadcasting

‘We’re just the landowners’

Austin and Chandler showed some other places in the area where the pipeline crosses farms and wetlands and also where it begins to ascend steep slopes.

Chandler says the topography and geology of Bent Mountain makes it a risky place to build a pipeline.

“Bent Mountain plateau, our neighborhood, has every geohazard known to pipeline construction,” Chandler said. We have the steepest slopes, we have rocky soil, we have highly erodible soils, we have water crossings, we have shallow water, we have a seismically active zone.

Coles Terry says the pipeline’s builder and its regulators haven’t listened to residents’ concerns. 

“We’re just the landowners,” he said. “Everything we said would happen has happened. Everything we told them was bad and wrong has come true. We’ve had people way smarter than me come in and tell them the same thing. But the pipeline, the MVP, the companies, they have one job, one job, that’s to put the pipe in the ground. That’s all they care about, putting this pipe in the ground.”

They wrote letters, they made phone calls, they attended public meetings. They visited lawmakers in Richmond and Washington. In Red Terry’s case, she camped out in a tree in 2018 until a judge threatened to fine her $1,000 a day.

The residents have taken time away from their families to campaign against the pipeline and have lost loved ones along the way. They say it has also affected their health.

“My blood pressure will never be normal again,” Coles Terry said.

In some places, the break in the landscape is so subtle, you wouldn’t even know a major piece of fossil fuel infrastructure was just below the surface. The Mountain Valley Pipeline might not be visible, but it is on the minds of the people of Bent Mountain.

Mountain Valley Pipeline Begins Operations, Thanks Manchin

The nearly $8 billion pipeline began construction in 2018. It encountered some of the most rugged and remote terrain in Appalachia, and opposition.

After a decade of planning and construction, the Mountain Valley Pipeline is now moving natural gas.

It stretches 303 miles from north central West Virginia to southern Virginia. And as of Friday, the Mountain Valley Pipeline is in operation.

The nearly $8 billion pipeline began construction in 2018. It encountered some of the most rugged and remote terrain in Appalachia, and opposition.

Opponents succeeded in blocking the project in federal court until last summer when West Virginia Sen. Joe Manchin made its completion assured as part of a spending deal.

“This pipeline is essential in ensuring the nation’s energy and national security and providing affordable, reliable natural gas to hundreds of thousands of Americans,” Manchin said in a statement Friday.

In its announcement Friday, pipeline builder Equitrans Midstream thanked Manchin, as well as Sen. Shelley Moore Capito and Rep. Carol Miller.

“We are grateful for the ongoing professionalism and tremendous efforts of the federal and state agencies that worked tirelessly for many years to ensure MVP’s construction activities met or exceeded all applicable permitting requirements,” said Thomas Karam, executive chairman of Equitrans Midstream. “In addition, we would not be commencing commercial operations were it not for the relentless advocacy and commitment of our federal and state elected officials.”

The pipe burst during water pressure testing in Bent Mountain, Virginia, last month, raising concerns among residents about its integrity.

Nevertheless, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission approved the pipeline for service earlier this week. Residents, community groups and state and local officials had urged FERC to deny the pipeline’s request to enter service.

Capito has been one of the pipeline’s biggest supporters. She endorsed Manchin’s effort to approve all of its permits in the Fiscal Responsibility Act last year. Manchin chairs the Energy and Natural Resources Committee, while Capito is the senior Republican on the Environment and Public Works Committee, giving them a prominent voice on energy infrastructure.

“This critical project is in now in service and can begin to deliver needed energy to markets up and down the Atlantic coast,” she said in a statement Friday. “This entire process took a lot of perseverance, and I’m glad we fought every step of the way to help the Mountain Valley Pipeline come to fruition, which will benefit workers and consumers for years to come.”

At full capacity, the pipeline can move 2 billion cubic feet of gas a day under high pressure.

“Natural gas is an essential fuel for modern life, and, as a critical infrastructure project, the Mountain Valley Pipeline will play an integral role in achieving a lower-carbon future while helping to ensure America’s energy and economic security for decades to come,” said Diana Charletta, president and CEO of Equitrans Midstream.

Court Upholds Landowners’ Award From Mountain Valley Pipeline

The Mountain Valley Pipeline got federal approval earlier this week to begin service. That same day, a federal court upheld a jury verdict the company had appealed.

The Mountain Valley Pipeline got federal approval earlier this week to begin service. That same day, a federal court upheld a jury verdict the company had appealed.

Mountain Valley Pipeline had sued Frank, Coles and Elizabeth Terry, of Bent Mountain, Virginia, for a 50-foot easement on their property for the project.

A jury awarded the Terrys $523,000, but then U.S. District Judge Elizabeth Dillon cut it in half.

Last month, a three-judge panel on the Fourth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals reinstated the original jury award. On May 28, Mountain Valley Pipeline appealed the decision and asked for the entire Fourth Circuit to hear the appeal.

On Tuesday, the court denied both requests, preserving the original award for the Terry siblings.

In an email, Natalie Cox, a spokeswoman for Equitrans Midstream, the pipeline’s builder, said she wouldn’t comment on whether the company would appeal again.

Also Tuesday, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission approved the Mountain Valley Pipeline to begin operating, though it isn’t clear when gas will flow through the 303-mile pipeline in West Virginia and Virginia.

FERC had earlier allowed the pipeline’s builder to use eminent domain to acquire the easements it needed. Landowners challenged the agency’s decision in court but did not prevail.

The pipeline failed a water pressure test at Bent Mountain on May 1, releasing a large volume of water and sediment into nearby properties. The ruptured pipe was sent to a laboratory for analysis, but federal regulators and the company have not shared any results.

Safety, Health Doubts Linger Near Mountain Valley Pipeline’s Path

The Mountain Valley Pipeline could start moving natural gas anytime now, but the people who live near it still have questions about their safety and health.

The Mountain Valley Pipeline could start moving natural gas anytime now, but the people who live near it still have questions about their safety and health.

On Tuesday, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) approved the pipeline to begin operating.

That’s despite a flood of comments on the commission’s public docket in recent weeks opposing or seeking to delay the decision.

Last month, the pipe burst during water pressure testing in Roanoke County, Virginia, and state and federal regulators haven’t shared much information about what happened.

Natalie Cox, a spokeswoman for Equitrans Midstream, which built the 303-mile pipeline, didn’t give a timeline for when gas would begin moving through it. 

“Final preparations are underway to begin commercial operations,” she said in an email.

People in affected communities are now wondering what to expect, including Russell Chisholm, of Newport, Virginia, co-director of Protect Our Water, Heritage, Rights.

“I think it’s weighing heavily on everybody up and down the 303 miles of the route,” he said in a call Wednesday with reporters.

Chisholm said there were likely to be problems with leaks that could affect residents’ health.

Autumn Crowe, interim executive director of the West Virginia Rivers Coalition, said safety remained a concern for communities near the pipeline.

“It’s important for the public to know, it’s important for emergency responders to know, it’s important for everyone along the route to know when and how much gas is going through the pipeline,” she said on the call.

Jessica Sims, Virginia field coordinator for Appalachian Voices, said regulators had not done enough to reassure the public of the pipeline’s integrity or share sufficient detail about the failed pressure test on May 1.

“The public is still in the dark about important safety and environmental considerations from the Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration and FERC,” she said.

The groups conceded they had few legal options remaining to challenge the pipeline, but said they would continue to monitor it.

Exit mobile version