Franklin and Roanoke Counties, Virginia have each taken action in response
to a request from BREDL that they petition Virginia Department of Environmental
Quality (DEQ) to require Mountain Valley Pipeline (MVP, LLC) to revise its
stormwater management calculations prior to any further pipeline construction
in Virginia. Both counties requested that DEQ require these revisions in light
of MVP, LLC's consistently abysmal failures to manage stormwater runoff during
pipeline construction to date.
On October 6, 2020, Roanoke County forwarded to DEQ a request from BREDL
and 49 residents of Roanoke County and neighboring communities to require MVP,
LLC to revise the Project Specific Standards and Specifications for Virginia,
the Erosion and Sediment Control Plans, and the Stormwater Management Plans for
the Mountain Valley Pipeline (MVP), prior to any further pipeline construction
in Virginia.
On October, 20, 2020, the Franklin County Board of Supervisors unanimously passed a resolution requesting that DEQ provide appropriate plan revisions of the MVP project to protect surface and groundwater resources in Franklin County. The following are excerpts from the resolution:
WHEREAS Franklin
County is required by the Virginia Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ) to
implement a comprehensive stormwater management and erosion and sediment
control program to reduce the environmental impacts of development projects
within the County; and
WHEREAS Franklin
County has been assigned a Total Maximum Daily Load (TMDL) for sediment in the
Roanoke River and is required by the Virginia Department of Environmental
Quality to implement an action plan to lower sediment loads to the Roanoke
River to meet the TMDL; and
WHEREAS the
required amount of land-disturbance associated with the MVP excavation far
exceeds the area of all land disturbing activities in a typical year for
Franklin County and has the potential to cause severe erosion in the County's
steep mountainous terrain and sedimentation in the County's lakes, rivers and streams;
and
WHEREAS many
Franklin County Citizens rely on untreated groundwater from wells or springs
for their domestic water supplies; and
WHEREAS the Blue
Ridge Environmental Defense League (BREDL) by letter dated October 6, 2020 has
identified a number of continued concerns related to erosion and sediment
controls and stormwater management in Virginia and Franklin County; and
WHEREAS without
very careful engineering and construction oversight, erosion and sediment from
the construction of the proposed Mountain Valley Pipeline could have severe
negative consequences for the County's lakes, streams, and rivers as well as
its domestic, agricultural, and business water supplies.
BREDL's October 6 letter to Franklin County, as cited in the resolution,
was signed by 35 residents of Franklin County. The letter contains a map
created by BREDL illustrating the MVP's 78 stream crossings in Franklin County. An article in the October 23 Franklin News Post described the Franklin County Board of Supervisors meeting at which the County’s resolution passed unanimously, saying:
Speaking on behalf of North
Carolina-based Blue Ridge Environmental Defense League and a Franklin County
group, Preserve Franklin, organizer Ann Rogers implored the board to demand
that MVP submit erosion and sediment control and stormwater management plans
specifically for Franklin County sites to the Virginia Department of
Environmental Quality.
Rogers asserted that considerable
damage has already been done by the pipeline construction and the continuation
risks tons of excess sediment washing into the Blackwater River and Smith
Mountain Lake. In a Wednesday phone interview she said she believed an attempt
by MVP to come up with specific stormwater plans for the county would show that
the potential problems could not be managed.
At the meeting, board members were on
board with her. “When we have all these rains, it seems like our rivers and
streams are a lot more dirty, a lot more mud running through those,” said
Blackwater District Supervisor Ronnie Mitchell. “Everywhere you see the
pipeline, it’s bare ground. There’s very little vegetation growing on it.”
Rocky Mount District Supervisor Mike Carter
pointed out flooded pipeline sites that drain into the town’s water system. “I
do not understand why Mountain Valley cannot get this route under control,” he
said.
County Administrator Chris Whitlow
noted that the county made a similar request in 2015, which was not fulfilled.
Assistant County Administrator Steve Sandy explained that the county has no
enforcement power over MVP’s erosion control measures.
“This board has done this in the
past,” said Boone District Supervisor Ronnie Thompson. “They’re not doing what
they promised, and our hands are tied, and it’s very frustrating, it’s very
aggravating.”
On October 26, the Blue Ridge Soil and Water Conservation District
unanimously passed a resolution requesting that DEQ “consider the concerns raised
by BREDL and determine whether revisions or project specific erosion and
sediment control and stormwater management plans for environmentally sensitive
areas of the proposed Mountain Valley Pipeline project that meet all Virginia
standards, should be required to ensure that the continued pipeline
construction will not have detrimental impacts to the tributaries of the
Roanoke River, Blackwater River, Smith Mountain Lake and our aquatic life
including the endangered Roanoke logperch.”
BREDL presented a request for revision of the MVP erosion and sediment control and stormwater management plans directly to DEQ and the State Water Control Board on December 9.
Thank you to our chapter members and allies in Roanoke and Franklin Counties who signed our requests to their county governments, and thanks to the governments of Roanoke County and Franklin County for taking significant action at the request of their constituents.
We in BREDL look forward to next steps.
We will be blogging individual articles from The League Line, our quarterly newsletter
Link to Winter 2021 League Line: https://www.bredl.org/theleagueline/Winter2021.pdf
#NoMVP #pipelines
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