Construction of Mountain Valley Pipeline temporarily suspended

The Virginia Department of Environmental Quality and Mountain Valley Pipeline project teams have agreed to temporarily suspend pipeline installation in Virginia.

This comes after issues during inspections and complaint inspections.

The pipeline company is directing crews to enhance and restore controls along the pipeline route to ensure proper soil erosion and sediment controls are implemented.

Construction will resume within the project's 125-foot-wide right of way after MVP receives approval by the DEQ.

This comes after the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals granted a temporary stay last week as part of a lawsuit brought by conservation groups challenging a water-crossings permit.

At that point, company attorneys said in court filings that a stay would delay work on an 80-mile stretch of the natural gas pipeline at a cost of $600 million.

A filing said such a delay would push back completion of the project by at least eight months. It had been scheduled to be in service by the end of the year.

You can find a list of all the sites along the pipeline path under investigation

here

. Inspectors from the DEQ will stay at the site to monitor and review construction once it resumes.

You can submit pollution reports through the DEQ website

here

The pipeline has also been cited four times by the West Virginia Department of Environmental Protection for breaking water pollution rules.

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The Associated Press contributed to this report.

Statement from Appalachian Voices Executive Director Tom Cormons:

“This underscores the need for immediate and decisive action by the Northam administration. This temporary pause does not obviate the need for a formal stop-work order while the state conducts the stream-by-stream analysis for both pipelines that candidate Northam promised.”