There are two people sitting in trees which are in the right of way that the Mountain Valley Pipeline has bought. They’ve been there for a few weeks, and people have been bringing them food and water. The county is no longer allowing people to do that. It probably won’t be long before they run out of water.
Quite a few Virginia State legislators are protesting the county’s decision to cut off the tree-sitters’ supplies. It will be interesting to see where this story goes.
The Rover Pipeline would like to start horizontal directional drilling again, but the FERC isn’t allowing it.
In a letter to Rover, FERC listed several things it’s expecting Rover to do, including figure out where the diesel fuel came from in what was supposed to be only bentonite drilling mud and let its supervisors and workers talk with FERC about the incidents.
While we at Nuttall Legal sure hope that this will educate the Atlantic Coast Pipeline and the Mountain Valley Pipeline on how to go about things, we don’t expect it. These companies only want to get pipe in the ground as fast as possible. If cutting a few “unimportant” corners will get pipe in the ground faster, the corners will get cut.
When construction on the pipelines begins, don’t expect it to all go smoothly.
The Rover Pipeline has been under construction in Ohio for about two months at this point. It’s not making a lot of friends.
The Ohio EPA has fined Rover $431,000 for 18 separate violations.
That’s a big number, but for a project that’s going to cost an estimated $4,200,000,000, it’s kind of small.
What’s really interesting is that the head of the EPA is frustrated with Rover’s attitude. In the Columbus Dispatch article linked above, he says, “All told, our frustration is really high. We don’t think they’re taking Ohio seriously. Normally when we have … a series of events like this, companies respond with a whole lot of contrition and whole lot of commitment. We haven’t seen that. It’s pretty shocking.”
If Rover doesn’t get its act together, they may find themselves facing a stop work order from the State of Ohio. They were able railroad landowners using federal law, but they are up against an entirely different animal when they tick off the head of a State agency that has the power to stop them in their tracks.
This also doesn’t inspire confidence that the end product is going to be well built. Management problems trickle down to workers, and quality suffers. It’s the natural way of all organizations.
UPDATE: May 11, 2017 — The FERC has halted drilling by the Rover Pipeline at eight locations in Ohio. Drilling already in progress is going to continue, as stopping the drilling increases the risk of collapse and spills. The Tuscarawas River location will have independent third-party oversight. Rover also has to double the number of environmental inspectors per construction spread.
UPDATE: May 16, 2017 — It turns out that the fine was not a fine, but a penalty that it will have to pay and that can be negotiated. A spokesman for the Ohio EPA seems to have made that comment that’s quoted above, not the head of the Ohio EPA, and everything about the situation is pretty fluid. It’s more than a little disappointing when facts get distorted by the news outlets. Who do you trust?
The State of West Virginia issued a 401 water quality permit for the Mountain Valley Pipeline back in March.
Opponents of the pipeline say the DEP’s review of the permit application was deficient.
Appalachian Mountain Advocates, represented by Derek Teaney, has sent the DEP a letter listing the allegations.
What I’ve heard through the grapevine is that the MVP did a lot of copying and pasting in it’s application. While some copy-pasta should be expected in an application of that sort, some things that should have received a more personal touch didn’t.
If the DEP doesn’t provide a satisfactory response there will most likely be a lawsuit in the works.
A directional drilling rig working on the Rover Pipeline leaked a bunch of drilling fluid while it was drilling under the Tuscarawas River a little while ago. This article from WMFD.com, a local news outlet, is a follow up story highlighting the efforts to clean the mess up and some doubts by the landowner as to whether the clean up is going well.
The Rover representative quoted in the article downplayed the seriousness of the spill, of course. The Ohio EPA will still be levying fines and monitoring the clean up, so I guess it’s serious enough for that.
We previously noted that Rover is off to a pretty bad start and that all of it’s mistakes are going to shake confidence in the pipeline industry. We haven’t seen anything to change that opinion yet.
The Rover Pipeline is a big project that starts in the northern part of West Virginia, crosses Ohio, and heads up to Canada. Construction began about a month ago. They’ve been very busy cutting trees and clearing the right of way since then. They’ve also been busy getting in trouble.
The Ohio EPA has already issued the Rover Pipeline a Notice of Violation for spilling 2 million gallons of drilling fluid in one location, and 50,000 gallons in another.
The Rover Pipeline already has a checkered reputation as far as construction work goes. It demolished a historic house that was being considered for the National Register of Historic Places. It also got an injunction against landowners who were trying to stop Rover from coming onto their property, but forgot to include most of the landowners with whom the Rover Pipeline had not been able to get easement agreements from.
Basically, it feels like this project which has been in the planning stages for years is not well planned.
It does not inspire confidence that the final product will be high quality (or in other words safe).
It also does not inspire confidence that the other major pipeline projects, the Atlantic Coast Pipeline, the Mountain Valley Pipeline, and the Mountaineer Xpress, will be any better.
The FERC is now scheduled to release its final environmental impact statement for the Mountain Valley Pipeline on June 23, 2017.
Once the FEIS is released, other agencies will have 90 days to make comments on it.
Once the 90 days has passed the FERC will approve the project. While technically the FERC is supposed to “make a decision”, the reality is that the FERC has only turned down four projects in it’s 38 year life.
Approval will come on September 21, 2017.
The only thing that could stop approval would be if the FERC still doesn’t have a quorum of commissioners on September 21.
The Mountain Valley Pipeline is one step closer to becoming reality. The West Virginia Department of Environmental Protection issued a 401 permit yesterday. A 401 permit allows the project to affect state waters. Without the permit, the MVP would not have been able to undertake construction on or near lakes, rivers, and streams. This allows that.
Quite a few people opposed this permit, noting that the MVP filing for this permit included a lot of paperwork that looked like it had been cut and pasted from other projects.
While I’ve been a fan of getting West Virginia’s gas to market, I also think it needs to be done responsibly, and with a little more consideration for the people whose property is being crossed by the pipeline. I’m beginning to seriously reconsider my support for the pipelines as I watch them deal with my clients and my community.
If you’ve wondered what will happen if you refuse to work with one of the big pipeline companies, here’s the preview.
The Rover Pipeline is just like the Mountain Valley Pipeline, the Atlantic Coast Pipeline, and the Mountaineer Xpress pipeline in that they all have eminent domain rights.
Once they get eminent domain rights, your fight is pretty much over.
The judge hearing the Rover Pipeline cases ruled that the Rover Pipeline gets immediate possession of the route that it wants.
Yep. You read that right. Immediate possession. Do not pass Go, do not collect $200.
At this point, the pipeline company is using all the might and power of the federal government to take private property and give it to a private company. It’s no longer a friendly conversation about where the pipeline should go and how much money it’s worth.
Speaking of which, the judge hasn’t ruled on how much money the landowners will get. We’ll be watching closely for that news.
More importantly, we’ll be watching to see what kind of changes the judge allows to the company’s standard easement agreement.
Reading the linked article is frustrating. The landowners are frustrated because the Rover Pipeline didn’t work with them — didn’t address the unique needs of the owners and their properties. That’s justifiable. The way these pipeline companies have been operating has been ridiculous.
I understand the importance of moving natural gas from here to there. I think it’s more important to actually work out agreements with landowners.
The very large pipelines that will be cutting through West Virginia are using federal eminent domain to acquire property from people who don’t want to sell to them. The only reason the pipelines can use federal eminent domain is because the pipeline is considered to be a “public use”.
This article by David McMahon, a West Virginia attorney and founder of the West Virginia Surface Owners’ Rights Organization, points out why a pipeline shouldn’t be considered a “public use”. I fully agree with him. The full article is worth the read, so I won’t summarize it here.
He also points out how West Virginians “are poor because we cede too often and too much to the drillers and pipeline companies”. Well said, Dave. Well said.