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Yesterday, the Army Corps of Engineers (‘Corps’) pushed back the deadline for the West Virginia Department of Environmental Protection (WVDEP)’s decision on whether or not to grant Mountain Valley Pipeline permission to construct across water bodies. The Corps has given the WVDEP until December 30th to make the decision on MVP’s Clean Water Act Section 401 permit application, which would allow it to install MVP’s fracked-gas pipe under streams and rivers in WV.
The proposed fracked gas pipeline would drive 197 miles of pipeline through West Virginia, about 65% of the total route, and build three compressor stations. We know this pipeline is neither necessary nor inevitable, and we know there should be no new fossil fuel projects during a climate crisis that they caused. So we sat down with our Co-Chair Russell Chisholm to hear his take on what this news means for our movement to stop MVP.
Does this have any implications for the Boring amendment that’s being considered by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC)?
RC: It likely does not change the timing for a decision from the now full 5-member commission. We anticipate that the amendment request to change 181 stream and wetland crossing methods could be taken up at the earliest in the December FERC meeting on the 16th.
Would this lead to a similar request from the Virginia DEQ?
RC: I’m not aware of any plans the Virginia DEQ has to change their decision date of December 14th for Virginia’s Section 401 draft permit. DEQ received MVP’s Joint Permit Application (JPA), on March 4, 2021 and had originally asked for a full year to review, a time period allowed under the Clean Water Act.
What does this mean for the Army Corps of Engineers decision?
RC: The timeline for a decision on MVP’s application under the authority of Section 10 of the federal Rivers and Harbors Act of 1899, and Section 404 of the Clean Water Act will be up to the Corps once they have answers from Virginia and West Virginia on the 401 permits. It seems unlikely that the Corps would issue a decision on the 404 permit before January now that West Virginia DEP has been given a December 30 deadline.
What are they trying to verify?
RC: According to the Gazette-Mail article, the Corps said it approved the extension request from the DEP on November 18th after receiving a request from the agency on November 2nd to extend the deadline to act on the water quality certification request for the pipeline project to December 30th “due to the lack of final documentation for many key components of the project,” according to Brian Maka, Army Corps of Engineers Huntington District spokesman. DEP spokesman Terry Fletcher said the DEP asked for additional time to “thoroughly evaluate and verify all information submitted to date.” We have yet to learn more about the specifics.
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