A new 50-mile pipeline is gathering natural gas from north central West Virginia and sending it to markets.
The Stonewall Gas Gathering Pipeline began operations on November 30. The Exponent Telegram reports that the pipeline runs from Doddridge County to a Columbia Gas pipeline in Braxton County that transports gas to markets across the Mid-Atlantic and the Gulf Coast.
The pipeline is owned by M3 Midstream, also known as Momentum. Momentum spokesman Dave Mashek says the pipeline will carry up to 1.4 billion cubic feet of gas daily when it becomes fully operational next summer.
Stonewall Gas Gathering spokesman Jerry Tingler says the pipeline gathers gas produced in an area around Doddridge, Harrison and Lewis counties, along with portions of southern Pennsylvania.
Opponents of a proposed 550-mile natural gas pipeline are asking a West Virginia county to support their efforts seeking a combined review of that energy project and others.
The Exponent Telegram reports that the Virginia chapter of the Sierra Club delivered its request Thursday before the Upshur County Commission.
The Sierra Club’s Kirk Bowers said commissioners should ask for a collective environmental impact statement for the Atlantic Coast Pipeline, as well as others. Each is now being reviewed separately.
Bowers questioned whether all those pipelines are truly needed.
A representative of the Dominion Resources said the projects are needed, and energy companies wouldn’t otherwise propose them.
The Atlantic Coast Pipeline would deliver natural gas from West Virginia to the Southeast. The pipeline would run through Virginia and North Carolina.
The government has fined a pipeline construction contractor $7,000 stemming from the death of a worker at a Moundsville job.Fifty-seven-year-old Steven…
The government has fined a pipeline construction contractor $7,000 stemming from the death of a worker at a Moundsville job.
Fifty-seven-year-old Steven Ray Hupp of Macfarlan was killed Jan. 10 when he was pulled between the track and the frame of a crane.
The Charleston Gazette reports that the U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Administration cited Snelson Companies Inc. after examining the worksite. Hupp was employed by Snelson and was working on a pipeline that would run to a gas processing plant north of New Martinsville.
OSHA said Snelson did not train workers to safely park and block off equipment parked on a slope.
State regulators are investigating a pipeline fire at a drilling pad in Tyler County.The fire occurred early Friday at Jay Bee Oil & Gas' Gorby Marcellus…
State regulators are investigating a pipeline fire at a drilling pad in Tyler County.
The fire occurred early Friday at Jay Bee Oil & Gas’ Gorby Marcellus Shale drilling pad in the Big Run area.
West Virginia Department of Environmental Protection spokesman Jake Glance says there was a rupture in the natural gas pipeline on the pad. He tells The Intelligencer and Wheeling News-Register that the fire burned for about an hour before it was extinguished.
No injuries were reported.
The newspaper says the fire’s flame could be seen for several miles.
The cause of the fire hasn’t been determined.
Glance says the DEP and the company are investigating.
The Monroe County Landmarks Commission recently submitted a letter to the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, or FERC. The group opposes the latest proposed route for the Mountain Valley Pipeline, which cuts very close to a historic mineral springs hotel.
“Well the reason we really got involved, and at first we weren’t going to get involved, was when they changed the proposed route to the alternate route. It came right through Salt Sulphur Springs Historical district,” said Mary Pearl Compton, a former state legislator and a current member of the Monroe County Landmarks Commission.
Credit MVP
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Proposed route for the Mountain Valley Pipeline through Monroe County, with Alternative
During the 1800s, the mineral spring waters of Salt Sulphur Springs were famous for their supposed healing powers, and the Salt Sulphur Springs hotel was built in 1820.
The mineral springs are still running at Salt Sulphur Springs, though the spring houses are not open to the public. The resort closed in the 1920s, and was later restored. The hotel is owned by Betty Farmer, who hosts events inside the ballroom and many weddings outside on the lawn.
The Mountain Valley Pipeline is a proposed 300-mile line that would transport natural gas from Wetzel county to Virginia.
MVP recently released a new alternative route, which puts the pipeline through a hill that sits just behind the historic Salt Sulphur Springs hotel. The gas pipeline would be buried, but the historic commission says they don’t want the pipeline to run within view of this historic district. They say the 75 foot right of way that would be cut along the route would affect the view from the historic district. They also say they’re concerned that the construction of a 9 food deep trench would obstruct the flow of the mineral springs underground.
Credit Historic American Buildings Survey
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Front and side of the Salt Sulphur Springs Chapel, located along U.S. Route 219 in Salt Sulphur Springs in Monroe County, West Virginia, United States. Built in 1840, it is a part of the Salt Sulphur Springs Historic District, a historic district that is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.
At first the historic commission didn’t want to get involved in the pipeline debate. But the alternative route would run too close to areas that Compton says Monroe County residents value culturally. Aside from the Salt Sulphur Springs resort, this would also include the Hanging Rock Raptor Observatory on Peter’s Mountain, the Potts Valley Rail Trail, and the historic community of Waitville.
“We believe that this is not the right route and that another route should be selected. Because the cultural attachment to Monroe County and to a lot of West Virginians and people all over the country. Not only the cultural impact but particularly the historical impact,” said Compton.
Credit Dan Schultz, Traveling 219
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Hanging Rock Raptor Observatory on Peter’s Mountain
Another concern for many of the county’s residents is that the area’s porous karst topography makes this a dangerous location for a pipeline. That’s because under the ground here are many many sinkholes, streams, and caves. One example of the karst in Monroe County is Scott Hollow Cave, which is the third-longest cave in West Virginia with a length of 24.7 miles.
Mountain Valley Pipeline Company spokeswoman Natalie Cox says that her company is in the early phases of surveying, and that EQT company that would be constructing the pipeline does have experience building pipelines through karst.
“It can be constructed safely and it could be maintained safely, in this type of topography. And what Mountain Valley has done is to hire a third party karst topography expert, if you will, to do analysis along not only the proposed route but the alternative routes as well.”
That engineering consulting company is Draper Aden Associates, located in Blacksburg, VA.
Meanwhile, the Mountain Valley Pipeline Company has other issues before it can continue to survey the proposed and alternative pipeline routes. Last month, MVP filed suit against 103 West Virginians, demanding access to their land for surveying. The result of this case would likely create a precedent for future eminent domain cases like this one in West Virginia.
According to the Mountain Valley Pipeline website, the company is still planning on sending its formal pipeline proposal to the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission by October of this year. MVP says they plan to begin construction in late 2016. According to an economics benefit report that MVP commissioned by FTI Consulting, the pipeline is projected to generate about 8,000 jobs in West Virginia between 2015-2018.
A Department of Environmental Protection spokeswoman says about 6 miles of a creek in Marshall County have been affected by a spill from a ruptured natural gas pipeline.
