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Mountain Valley asks court to deny request that it stop work on 2-Bcf/d pipeline

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Mountain Valley asks court to deny request that it stop work on 2-Bcf/d pipeline

Mountain Valley Pipeline LLC asked a federal court to deny pipeline opponents' motion to halt construction on the natural gas transportation project, saying environmental groups had failed to satisfy the necessary requirements for such relief.

Mountain Valley asked the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 4th Circuit to deny the motion to stay work on the EQT Midstream Partners LP-led, 2-Bcf/d pipeline project. Appalachian Mountain Advocates asked for the stay on environmental grounds on behalf of the Sierra Club, Appalachian Voices, Chesapeake Climate Action Network and other groups.

Attorneys for Mountain Valley made several arguments in a June 1 letter. They said the petitioners were unlikely to succeed in their claim, failed to balance the harm against them with the harm that would hit Mountain Valley, and failed to show there would be irreparable harm from construction at river crossings.

"In any event, the impacts identified by petitioners are temporary, not irreparable," the attorneys said.

Mountain Valley said the requirements of a nationwide permit issued by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers under Clean Water Act Section 404 would limit damage to the environment. Opponents have argued that the project should not be able to use the broadly based nationwide permit.

Mountain Valley also pointed out that the Corps required the developers to adhere to crossing methods approved by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, requirements that could take the place of a West Virginia condition to limit construction time on river crossings to 72 hours. (U.S. Appeals Court for the 4th Circuit docket 18-1173)

Appalachian Mountain Advocates charged in their motion that construction on Mountain Valley's river crossings would take longer than 72 hours. In response to the charge, on May 31, the West Virginia Department of Environmental Protection announced plans to waive or modify the condition. The environmental groups criticized the state's move.

"It's been made clear that our Department of Environmental Protection is only concerned with protecting polluter profits and not West Virginians," Sierra Club organizer Bill Price said.

The approximately $3.7 billion Mountain Valley pipeline project is a joint venture of EQT Midstream, NextEra Energy Inc., Con Edison Transmission Inc., WGL Midstream Inc. and RGC Midstream LLC. FERC approved the 301-mile project in October 2017 and approved tree felling in early 2018. The pipeline would run from West Virginia to Virginia to connect Appalachian gas production with downstream markets. (FERC docket CP16-10)