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Mountain Valley Pipeline working with W.Va. officials after wastewater citations

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Mountain Valley Pipeline working with W.Va. officials after wastewater citations

The developers of the Mountain Valley gas pipeline said they are working with West Virginia officials after environmental regulators issued two notices citing the company for failing to control wastewater runoff from construction sites along the pipeline route.

The West Virginia Department of Environmental Protection, or DEP, recently cited Mountain Valley Pipeline LLC for failing to install erosion- and sediment-control devices at a construction site in Wetzel County. As a result, sediment-laden water was released from the site, resulting in pollution to a nearby stream, according to the DEP.

"The MVP project team immediately worked to install new devices and increased staffing on crews that are responsible for monitoring, maintaining and repairing them," Natalie Cox, a spokeswoman for the project, said June 12. There was no delay in Mountain Valley's projected in-service date, targeted for late 2018, Cox said.

The 303-mile Mountain Valley pipeline would carry gas from the southwestern Appalachian Marcellus and Utica plays to markets in the South and mid-Atlantic. The 2-MMDth/d pipeline would run from the Equitrans transmission system in Wetzel County, W.Va., to Transcontinental Gas Pipe Line's Zone 5 compressor station 165 in Pittsylvania County, Va.

The project is a joint venture of EQT Midstream Partners LP, NextEra Energy Inc., Con Edison Transmission Inc., WGL Midstream Inc. and RGC Midstream LLC. EQT Midstream Partners would operate the pipeline.

Under state regulations, the pipeline developers were given 20 days to reply in writing with details of the compliance measures being taken. The DEP notice was issued May 9 and followed a similar notice sent to the pipeline developers the previous month. The notices do not carry monetary penalties.

Long-standing issues with runoff

Critics of the Mountain Valley project have long complained that the pipeline's construction sites, some of which of are along steep slopes in a mountainous region of West Virginia, were especially vulnerable to problems with water runoff.

State regulators had addressed some similar water-related issues in regard to the pipeline in fall 2017. In November, the DEP lifted a suspension of the project's state stormwater permit, which had been put in place in September 2017 to allow the agency to properly respond to all the public comments received on the topic.

At the same time, the state said it was choosing to waive the individual Clean Water Act Section 401 certification of the federal permits for Mountain Valley, citing the reissuance by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers of a nationwide permit 12 for stream crossings. That permit included provisions specific to West Virginia.

State regulators said these new conditions in the Corps permit, when combined with specific requirements included in the state's stormwater permit, would "allow for better enforcement capabilities and enhanced protection for the state's waters" than the individual 401 certification of the federal permits.

Jim Magill is a reporter for S&P Global Platts, which, like S&P Global Market Intelligence, is owned by S&P Global Inc.