For the last 3 months, the ‘Mountain Valley Watch’ has been documenting, what it says are repeated failures to prevent damage to Virginia waterways from construction of the Mountain Valley Pipeline. The 300 mile conduit for natural gas will run through southwestern Virginia.
“We were told by scientists who we hired to do studies before they ever got certification to go ahead that they couldn’t do that kind of construction in this mountainous, karst region without damaging VA waters,” says Rick Shingles. Shingles is a spokesman for the group of citizen scientists and engineers who fly drones and fixed wing aircraft over pipeline construction sites to check for trouble. “And what we found was that even when they use best management practices under storm events where there’s heavy saturation of soils, they cannot stop erosion and sedimentation from impacting Virginia waters.
Mountain Valley Watch submitted nearly 3-hundred carefully documented problem reports to the Department of Environmental Quality for consideration during the Water Control Board's meeting tomorrow (Tuesday August 21st) in Richmond.
Last Friday, the company building the Mountain Valley Pipeline released half its construction workers while certain permits are on hold. And it moved its completion date from early next year to late 2019.
