Updated 6:40 p.m. June 10: This story has been updated with comments from Del. Sam Rasoul.
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Developers of the Mountain Valley Pipeline on Monday said that the natural gas project is ready to go and asked federal regulators for authorization to begin operating by Tuesday.
The request comes a decade after the project was first announced in 2014 with an anticipated completion date of 2018. It has been delayed for years by legal and permitting challenges and has seen its price tag more than double from $3.5 billion to $7.85 billion.
The 42-inch-diameter pipeline is designed to transport up to 2 billion cubic feet of natural gas daily from West Virginia through six Virginia counties, ending at a Transco compressor station in Pittsylvania County.
“Mountain Valley confirms that the Project facilities are mechanically complete,” Matthew Eggerding, deputy general counsel for the pipeline joint venture company, wrote in a letter to the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, which regulates the construction of interstate pipelines. “Hydrotesting is complete on all Project facilities. The final segments of the Project are currently being purged and packed with natural gas. All welding, testing, cleaning, drying, and tie-ins are complete.”
Hydrotesting is the process of pushing highly pressurized water through pipes to verify their strength. Last month, that testing led to the rupture of a pipe segment in Roanoke County, an event that pipeline opponents — and even some supporters — said proved that the project isn’t yet ready to go into service but which developers said simply showed that the testing process works.
Developers and supporters of the 303-mile pipeline say it will meet demand for natural gas; their efforts were aided last summer by Congress fast-tracking the project’s completion. Opponents say the pipeline is unnecessary, dangerous and bad for the environment, and they continue to resist it and its proposed $370 million extension into North Carolina.
Eggerding’s letter Monday also said the company has satisfied the requirements of a safety order from the U.S. Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration that arose last year out of concerns over the pipeline’s physical integrity after years of exposure to sun and weather.
But Jessica Sims, field coordinator for the nonprofit Appalachian Voices, noted in a statement Monday that the federal pipeline safety agency “has not yet provided the public with key safety information — including whether the pipeline is in compliance with all aspects of the consent agreement and the results of a recent study of a pipe that ruptured during high-pressure testing.”
“The community is in the dark about important safety and environmental considerations from the Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration and FERC, while Mountain Valley Pipeline pressures FERC to prioritize the company’s sales schedule,” Sims said.
Del. Sam Rasoul, D-Roanoke, also objected Monday to Mountain Valley Pipeline’s request for in-service authorization. In a letter to FERC, he referenced the PHMSA order and also noted that only about two-thirds of the land affected by the pipeline has been restored following construction activity.
“As the drinking water, farms and livelihoods of many along the route have already been negatively impacted, adherence to the consent agreement, and all necessary safety and restoration requirements is imperative to minimize further harm,” Rasoul wrote. “This process should not be rushed.”
Eggerding wrote that Mountain Valley Pipeline “notified PHMSA of its full compliance prior to introducing natural gas to the final segments.”
“Multiple shippers have executed agreements to commence transporting volumes using the Project facilities beginning the day after the Project declares in-service, which further heightens the need for prompt authorization to meet market demands,” he wrote.
