Completion of the Mountain Valley Pipeline has been delayed again, its builder says

The Mountain Valley Pipeline won’t be operational until early June, the project’s builder told federal regulators.

Equitrans Midstream had asked the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) to approve its application to begin service on May 23.

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In a letter to FERC on May 21, Equitrans said it must complete fewer than 10 welds and test them under pressure with water. It says hydrostatic testing has been completed on 99 percent of the pipeline.

“Due to the extended construction time to complete welding activities, which are associated with weather and environmental protection, Mountain Valley is adjusting the target in-service date to early June,” the company wrote to FERC.

Equitrans said it was not “premature,” as some critics had described, to approve the pipeline for use.

The project has received a lot of opposition since its inception in 2018. The failure of a water pressure test on May 1 in Bent Mountain, Virginia, reinforced the concerns of local residents.

State and federal regulators are coy about how closely they looked at the rupture, which released an unknown amount of water and sediment on adjacent land.

The company has a consent agreement with the Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration to correct any safety defects in the pipeline.

Construction of the 303-mile, 42-inch natural gas pipeline underwent long pauses as opponents challenged the project in federal court. A spending deal that Congress approved last summer granted all remaining permits the pipeline needed.

Bent Mountain residents say the section of pipe that failed, near the entrance to the Blue Ridge Parkway, was installed six years ago.

It is currently undergoing a metallurgical analysis, but regulators have not said whether they will make the results of that study public.

The latest cost estimate to complete the MVP is almost $8 billion, more than double the original forecast. The legal challenges, as well as the higher costs of construction and materials, have driven up costs.

When completed, the pipeline will move as much as 2 billion cubic feet of gas per day from north-central West Virginia to southern Virginia. The company plans an eventual expansion into North Carolina to supply utilities.

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