Mountain Valley Pipeline may use controversial surveying law, judge rules

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Mountain Valley Pipeline may use controversial surveying law, judge rules

A judge said Giles County landowners could not exclude natural gas pipeline surveyors if proper notice was given.

Posted: Monday, August 24, 2015 6:30 pm

By Duncan Adams [e-mail] 981-3324

CHRISTIANSBURG — Foes of the Mountain Valley Pipeline project suffered a setback Monday when a circuit court judge found that a controversial state law that allows natural gas companies to survey private property without an owner’s permission is not unconstitutional.

Judge Robert Turk’s ruling focused on a Giles County case brought against Mountain Valley Pipeline by eight owners of property in the county who had denied access to route surveyors working for the pipeline company, which wants to build a 300-mile natural gas transmission pipeline from Wetzel County, West Virginia, to Pittsylvania County.

He shared his ruling Monday during a conference call with Wade Massie, a lawyer in Abingdon who represented Mountain Valley Pipeline, and Isak Howell, a lawyer for the plaintiffs who works with Appalachian Mountain Advocates, a West Virginia-based nonprofit organization.

Turk said that Virginia statute 56-49.01 allows a natural gas company to enter private property for surveying even if its owner has denied permission as long as the company has followed the statute’s notification requirements.

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1. Forest Service seeks public comment about pipeline surveying

Forest Service seeks public comment about pipeline surveying

Posted: Tuesday, August 25, 2015 11:00 pm

By Duncan Adams
[e-mail]
981-3324

The U.S. Forest Service’s regional office seeks public comment about whether it should allow crews working for Mountain Valley Pipeline to survey sections of the Jefferson National Forest in Giles and Montgomery counties for a pipeline route identified as “alternative 200.”

Precedent suggests the Forest Service will authorize the surveying. If that happens, Mountain Valley’s crews might have to hustle. ... Why?

The Forest Service has set Sept. 8 as the deadline for public comment about this latest round of surveying. Mountain Valley has said it hopes to submit its formal application in October to the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, which eventually will either approve or reject the interstate pipeline project.

In comments to FERC dated Aug. 18, Tom Speaks, supervisor of the Jefferson and George Washington National Forests, said the Forest Service “is concerned about any study proposed to be conducted post-filing rather than pre-filing.”