Cardinal News: Then & Now takes a look back at the stories we brought you over the last 12 months. Through the end of the year, we’re sharing updates on some of the people and issues that made news in 2025. This installment: Mountain Valley Pipeline’s plan to build a compressor station in Montgomery County.
A proposal to expand the natural gas capacity of the Mountain Valley Pipeline by 30%, first discussed publicly in July, is now in the hands of state and federal regulators.
The project, called MVP Boost, calls for building a new gas compressor station in Montgomery County and upgrading three existing stations in the West Virginia counties of Braxton, Fayette and Wetzel.
Among other requirements, the Montgomery County station would need an air permit from the state, and a public hearing on the developer’s air permit application is expected in the spring.
The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, which regulates construction of interstate pipeline projects, has been collecting public comments as it weighs whether to approve MVP Boost.
Developers hope that FERC will approve the project by November 2026 and that it will be operational by mid-2028. They say that it will help meet growing demand for natural gas from markets in the Southeast and from data centers in Northern Virginia.
“This project will provide significant benefits to local communities, the region and our country for decades to come, and we’re committed to building and operating it safely and responsibly,” Mountain Valley spokesperson Shawn Day said in an email.
Opponents say increasing methane gas production will harm the environment, including by contributing to climate change. Locally, opponents say noise, emissions and other byproducts of the proposed Montgomery County compressor station could harm nearby neighborhoods and that the station could lead to further developments nearby, such as data centers.
“There are people in that area that cannot move, don’t have that luxury of moving,” said Crystal Mello, a Montgomery County resident and community organizer opposed to MVP Boost. “That’s my concern is that end of town is going to get industrialized, and once it starts, I just fear it won’t stop.”
The Mountain Valley Pipeline is a 303-mile, 42-inch diameter natural gas pipeline that runs from West Virginia through Southwest Virginia, including through Montgomery County, and into Pittsylvania County. There, it connects to the major Transco pipeline system outside Chatham.
MVP Boost is one of two significant projects underway to expand the Mountain Valley Pipeline. The other, called MVP Southgate, would extend the pipeline 31 miles from Pittsylvania County into North Carolina. FERC gave Southgate its seal of approval on Thursday; the project still requires federal and state water permits.
Same pipeline, more gas
The Mountain Valley Pipeline began operating in June 2024, a decade after it was first announced and after legal and permitting challenges more than doubled its construction timeline and cost.
It carries up to 2 billion cubic feet of natural gas daily to utility and industrial customers.
Among its customers is Roanoke Gas, whose parent company is a minority stakeholder in the pipeline joint venture. Roanoke Gas used the pipeline to open a natural gas tap at Summit View Business Park in Franklin County and hopes to expand residential service to the town of Rocky Mount.
MVP Boost would increase the pipeline’s 2 billion cubic feet daily capacity by 600 million, to 2.6 billion cubic feet daily, by increasing the pressure of the gas.
Developers originally proposed a smaller increase of 500 million cubic feet daily. They added the further 100 million after seeing strong demand from potential customers this past summer, according to EQT Corp., the largest single stakeholder in the Mountain Valley Pipeline joint venture.
The new compressor station in eastern Montgomery County and the upgrades to the West Virginia compressor stations are necessary to move the additional gas along the pipeline, developers say.
Natural gas is pressurized as it moves through a pipeline. Over distance, it loses pressure due to friction and changes in elevation. Compressor stations along a pipeline’s route renew that pressure to keep the gas moving.
Mountain Valley proposes building the Swann Compressor Station on a 64.5-acre parcel of land at 6684 Cove Hollow Road in Elliston.
The property was formerly owned by Old Virginia Brick Company. Mountain Valley bought it in 2021.
The surrounding area is a mix of homes, businesses and undeveloped land along U.S. 11/460 in the Ellison and Lafayette communities.
Interstate 81 is a short distance to the north, and both highways carry travelers between Salem and Christiansburg.
The property abuts U.S. 11/460 on its north side, and just across that highway are the Rowe furniture plant and the Eastern Montgomery Park, along with other companies and homes.
The south fork of the Roanoke River runs along the west side of the Mountain Valley Pipeline-owned property, with neighborhoods on the other side.
The Roanoke County border sits a little under a mile to the east. Land to the south and east of the proposed site is largely undeveloped.
Vital infrastructure or blight on community?
Mello works with Protect Our Water, Heritage, Rights (POWHR), an environmental advocacy group opposed to the Mountain Valley Pipeline.
Mello said she is concerned about the proposed compressor station’s visibility and noise, along with the pollutants it will emit.
A report prepared by Mountain Valley Pipeline as part of its application for the state air permit says the compressor station’s natural gas-fired turbines will operate 24 hours a day, seven days a week.
The station also would include equipment for pigging, a process by which devices called “pigs” are launched through pipes to perform inspections and maintenance.
The station would take up about 19 acres of the 64.5-acre parcel. That portion, Mello said, is about the same size as the White House grounds.
“It’s not a small site. It’s going to be very noticeable,” Mello said.
Mountain Valley Pipeline said, via documents submitted to FERC as part of its application, that the station’s tallest components would be 55-foot-tall turbine stacks and that the station would be visible to some nearby neighborhoods as well as drivers along a roughly 1.4-mile stretch of U.S. 11/460.
Its visibility would be “negligible,” or it would not be visible at all from other areas near the site, including other parts of U.S. 11/460, the Eastern Montgomery Park and the Lafayette Historic District, due to the shape of the land and screening from vegetation and built structures.
Noise from the station would not be much greater than what already comes from nearby traffic and wildlife, according to Mountain Valley’s application.
Furthermore, it would have to remain within limits set by FERC and Montgomery County ordinances on noise and vibrations, Mountain Valley said.
Emissions from the station’s three turbines could include formaldehyde and carbon monoxide.
Mello said she and others worry about the effect those emissions would have on nearby residents’ health.
She was part of a 2022 study in partnership with the Appalachian Studies Program at Virginia Tech that surveyed residents within 1 mile of the border of the Ellison and Lafayette communities in Montgomery County.
That study found that about two-fifths of households there reported preexisting health conditions, about a quarter reported having a disabled resident and about two-fifths reported having residents who are children or elderly, “all of whom are more susceptible to negative health effects of air or noise pollution,” according to POWHR.
“People already have health issues down there, are already fighting cancers and lung diseases. They don’t need more,” Mello said.
Day said that the station would be a “minor source” of emissions, and that the state permit it seeks is a common type of air permit.
“It’s important to note that all emissions from the proposed Swann Compressor Station will be well within limits established by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and the Virginia Department of Environmental Quality, standards specifically designed to protect public health, including sensitive populations such as children and older adults,” Day said in an email.
He added that the company will voluntarily add extra equipment to further reduce emissions at the station.
The DEQ is currently reviewing more than 200 other minor source air permits from entities including colleges, construction companies, data centers and hospitals, according to agency data.
Looking ahead to reviews, permits
Mello and other project opponents hope to convince FERC and the DEQ to deny the approvals that MVP Boost needs to move forward.
Although the Montgomery County property is zoned for agricultural use, MVP Boost would not require a rezoning or other local land-use approval from the Montgomery County Board of Supervisors. FERC approval would override that need, according to a county spokesperson.
Nonetheless, the county government has filed to participate as an interested party in the FERC case. Generally speaking, interested parties in FERC cases can take actions, including submitting comments and potentially asking the commission to reconsider its decisions.
On Dec. 15, the Montgomery County Board of Supervisors voted 5-2 to tell FERC that the board opposes building the compressor station, in large part over safety concerns raised by residents about Norfolk Southern trains stopping on a nearby railroad and potentially blocking emergency vehicles’ access to the site.
Other entities that have filed to participate, stating they have an interest in the case, include Roanoke County; the nonprofit Appalachian Voices; the Sierra Club; and Duke Energy, which wants to buy gas from MVP Southgate.
Both sides for and against MVP Boost have held community meetings in Montgomery County to share their perspectives.
Project opponents say there is precedent in the 2021 denial of an air permit when Mountain Valley Pipeline sought to build a compressor station in Chatham that would have been part of MVP Southgate.
The board that denied that proposed permit said the station would negatively impact nearby communities.
One difference between then and now that could come into play: the proposed Chatham air permit was denied by a state air pollution control board against the DEQ’s recommendation.
After that, the General Assembly passed a law transferring that permitting authority from that board to the DEQ.