Literally. And it couldn’t have come at a worse time.
Last week Kathy Chandler, a resident of Bent Mountain, Va., a small rural community that overlooks the scenic Roanoke Valley, while taking a walk noticed muddy water running through her pasture. Knowing that the controversial Mountain Valley Pipeline was constructed through the area, she contacted the Virginia Department of Environmental Quality.
The state agency sent compliance agent John McCutcheon to investigate the same day. His report last Wednesday (May1) stated, “The origin of the sediment-laden water reported in the complaint was from the rupture of a section of pipe during hydrostatic testing the morning of 5/1/2024. Inspectors investigating the complaint observed turbid water in the stream channels conveying the release water.”
The report added that workers from the pipeline’s builder, Equitrans Midstream, were preparing the site for rupture repairs. The problems could delay the startup of the pipeline. Equitrans recently told the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission they hoped to have the 303.5 mile line in service by the end of May. The Bent Mountain break could upset that schedule.
An official from the federal Pipeline & Hazardous Materials Safety Administration (PHMSA), part of the U.S. Department of Transportation, told the Charleston (W.Va.) Gazette that testing of the 42-inch diameter pipe was on hold while Equitrans investigates the cause of the pipe failure and what remedial actions are required. The spokesperson said the agency could not determine an estimated timeframe for diagnosis and remedial action.
Natalie Cox of Equitrans, based in Cannonsburg, Pa., told the Gazette that “the disruption of this hydrotest demonstrates that the testing process is working as designed and intended,” noting that the hydrostatic testing has been completed for about 269 miles of the pipeline’s route. Equitrans has completed all but about a mile of laying the pipe.
The federal regulators have long had concerns about the integrity of the anti-corrosion coatings on the pipe, much of which has been sitting exposed to inclement weather for long periods. PHMSA last August issued Mountain Valley a proposed safety order. The order said, “The MVP construction project has been halted for long periods of time while pipe segments have been buried without cathodic protection (CP) installed, and without other corrosion control processes and inspections at different junctures.
“The construction delays have caused the coated steel pipe staged along the Affected Facility right-of-way to be exposed to the elements and ultraviolet (UV) radiation for long periods of time.”
The Gazette-Mail noted, “The National Association of Pipe Coating Applicators has recommended against aboveground storage of coated pipe for longer than six months without additional ultraviolet protection,” adding “some of the pipe slated for use in constructing the pipeline had been lying uninstalled along the route for years during project hiatuses amid court challenges.”
Equitrans and PHMSA reached an agreement on heightened scrutiny last October, as E&E News reported.
First proposed in 2014 to move 2 million cubic feet per day of fracked natural gas from the Marcellus and Utica shale formations to Virginia and North Carolina, the developers projected it would be in service in 2018 at a cost of $3.5 billion. The proposal has drawn fierce local opposition from the moment Equitrans and a group of other midstream gas firms filed for Federal Energy Regulatory Commission permission to build it in 2015.
The current estimated cost if Mountain Valley goes into service this month is about $7.85 billion.
Over the years, the pipeline has been delayed by opposition in local, state, and federal courts, including the U.S. Supreme Court. The high court ultimately upheld FERC’s authority to override state and local objections with a grant of federal eminent domain.
The pipeline also generated political heat as reviews by other federal environmental and land use agencies held up the project. When the Biden administration took over the White House and U.S. Senate, Democrat Joe Manchin of West Virginia became chairman of the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee and a strong proponent of Mountain Valley. Most of the pipeline runs through his state, employing a lot of voters. The state is also a shale gas producer. Manchin used his power in a fragile Senate majority to muscle a legislative boost to the project.
Manchin’s original attempt in 2022 to speed up the pipeline project won support from Democratic leaders and the White House, but ultimately failed. A year later, last June, the administration’s brokered deal with House Republicans to raise the federal debt ceiling included Manchin language to streamline approval of all federal permits.
–Kennedy Maize