Mountain Valley Pipeline To Give Up Southgate Extension

Raleigh, NC – Yesterday, Mountain Valley Pipeline withdrew the pipeline’s proposed Southgate extension’s eminent domain proceedings in North Carolina – abandoning their efforts to secure the land necessary to build that section of the pipeline. Without this land, the Mountain Valley Southgate extension is unlikely to ever be built. The MVP mainline project is in trouble as well because it lacks necessary federal authorizations, has racked up more than $2 million in fines for more than 350 water quality-related violations in Virginia and West Virginia, is years behind schedule and continues to face stiff grassroots opposition.

If it were to be completed, the Southgate project would have added an additional 75 miles of pipeline from Southern Virginia into central North Carolina, ending in a county that has unanimously and publicly opposed it. However, no construction has been completed since the project was first announced in 2018 because the North Carolina Department of Environmental Quality (NCDEQ) has twice denied MVP Southgate a crucial water quality permit needed to construct this pipeline. Additionally, MVP has also been denied a key air quality permit for the proposed Lambert Compressor station near Chatham, Virginia. The NCDEQ and Air Quality Control board listened to nearby communities who would have been subjected to additional air emissions of carbon monoxide, particulate matter 2.5, and formaldehyde — substances known to contribute to respiratory problems, heart disease and cancer — if this were to be built.

The project and its regulatory review process have also been subject to intense scrutiny owing to insufficient environmental justice review procedures and the lack of overall need for this boondoggle of a project. Abandoning their efforts is a clear victory for communities working tirelessly to protect their health and homes from corporate polluters — and a major setback for the Mountain Valley Pipeline. Furthermore, the MVP is years behind schedule, with the latest completion date being projected as late 2025 by Bank of America after the Polluter Side Deal was defeated in September which would have fast tracked this climate disaster.

Haw Riverkeeper Emily Sutton said: “The impacted communities along this proposed route have made their voices heard. This project is unnecessary and would cause irreparable damage to our streams and rivers. MVP’s decision to dismiss these properties is a result of the resilience and the tireless commitment of our communities to protect the people and places they love. We will continue to keep fighting alongside them until the project is canceled.”

Mountain Valley Watch Coordinator Russell Chisholm said: “The Mountain Valley Pipeline’s Southgate extension has long been one of the most egregious examples of the MVP’s environmental injustice violations. Thanks to the leadership of Indigenous and Black communities that it impacts, the extension has received blow and blow. This decision by MVP is yet another example of how expensive, arduous, and unnecessary this project is. The MVP should give up now and stop dragging our communities onto this near-decade long rollercoaster that is sure to end in cancellation.”

“Without outright declaring it, Mountain Valley Pipeline has said the extension project is all but dead, hammering in another nail into the coffin for MVP,” Patrick Grenter, Director of Sierra Club’s Beyond Dirty Fuels Campaign said. “If there is no land to build on, there is not one way that a pipeline can be built on top of it. Abandoning these efforts continues to prove that MVP has and would continue to inflict irreparable damage to vulnerable communities and our environment. MVP should stand by their decisions, see the writing on the wall and abandon this boondoggle once and for all.”