ROANOKE — A federal agency has ordered a stop to construction of the entire Mountain Valley Pipeline, which has run into repeated problems with erosion since it began its path through the Roanoke and New River valleys.
In a letter to pipeline officials Friday, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission cited an appeals court decision last week that reversed earlier-granted approvals for pipeline work in the Jefferson National Forest.
With construction of that 3.6-mile segment of the natural gas pipeline now on hold, FERC determined that work on the rest of the 303-mile project should not proceed.
“MVP is hereby notified that construction activity along all portions of the project and in all work areas must cease immediately, with the exception of any measures deemed necessary … to ensure the stabilization of the right-of-way and work areas,” the letter stated.
The stop-work order appeared to be temporary, with FERC saying that the U.S. Forest Service and Bureau of Land Management likely will be able to reissue approvals that were struck down July 27 by the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.
Even so, it marked a huge win for opponents who have been fighting the massive pipeline for the past four years.
“We have said all along that we can’t trust polluting corporations to protect our water, and we’re relieved to see construction temporarily halted along the entire route of the MVP,” an attorney for the Sierra Club, which brought the legal challenge, said in a written statement.
“This order is a victory for everyone who values clean water and a wake-up call for those who think they can put profits over people,” Nathan Matthews said.
“There is no right way to build these dirty, dangerous fracked gas pipelines, and we will continue to fight them until construction is stopped permanently.”
An MVP spokeswoman could not immediately be reached for comment.
Since April, inspections by state regulators along the pipeline’s route through West Virginia and Virginia have resulted in repeated warnings to the Mountain Valley Pipeline that its erosion and sediment control measures were lacking.
Despite evidence that muddy waters from construction sites were reaching streams and wetlands — and possibly private wells and public water supplies — construction of the $3.7 billion project mostly continued full-bore.
Then came the Aug. 31 opinion from the 4th Circuit. A three-judge panel for the court took the Forest Service to task for its “silent acquiescence” to what it termed Mountain Valley’s unrealistic claim that its erosion control measures would be 79 percent effective.
The appeals court ordered a new review of the Forest Service decision, along with a related right-of-way approval by the Bureau of Land Management.
While that process is pending, it makes no sense for pipeline construction to continue outside the national forest, the Sierra Club argued in a letter to FERC on Monday that sought a stop-work order.
An order from the agency last October allowing the project to move forward was conditioned on the pipeline having all federal authorizations — which it no longer had after the appeals court decision.
While that point was largely procedural, the Sierra Club also pointed to practical considerations.
If, for example, the renewed approval process by the Forest Service required the pipeline to take an alternative route through the national forest, “this runs the risk that sections of the pipeline that will have been already constructed will need to be moved, adding unnecessary expense and environmental impact,” the Sierra Group’s letter said.
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