Conservation groups are fighting yesterday’s decision by the United States Department of Agriculture, allowing construction of the Mountain Valley Pipeline to resume as soon as possible. If they get the green light, workers would begin cutting a one-hundred foot wide swath of trees along a three and a half mile section of Jefferson National Forest. Robbie Harris has more.
The U-S-D-A ruling requires the U.S. Forest Service to “minimize environmental impacts s to the national forest” when and if it resumes work on the pipeline. But opponents say that’s not possible and that the stalled project is being rushed through.
“It’s basically two bands of the national forest that constitutes some of our most beautiful and valuable areas in Virginia."
That's David Sligh, with Wild Virginia, part of a group of organizations asking the Federal Court of Appeals to strike down the Forest Service's decision to resume pipeline construction.
He says, “The forest service has a pretty sacred trust. They're there to look out for our land, for the resources that belong to all of us. “
The Forest service’s OK is not the final decision, the Bureau of Land Management must also weigh in.