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Sep 01, 2023

Mountain Valley Pipeline needs more inspections, agency says

Since construction of the Mountain Valley Pipeline resumed earlier this summer, the company has been inspecting sections of pipe that have been exposed to the elements and, where necessary, reapplying

Since construction of the Mountain Valley Pipeline resumed earlier this summer, the company has been inspecting sections of pipe that have been exposed to the elements and, where necessary, reapplying a coating designed to protect the pipe from corrosion once it’s buried. Pictured here last week are sections of pipe that have been stored above ground along the pipeline’s right-of-way near Elliston.

A federal safety agency is calling for additional inspections of pipes that may have been compromised by exposure to the elements along the route of the Mountain Valley Pipeline.

The U.S. Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration may also require an independent, third-party review of a process to inspect the steel pipes and, where needed, reapply a protective coating designed to protect them from corrosion once they are buried.

As legal challenges have delayed construction of the natural gas pipeline, prolonged exposure to sunlight — which can break down the fusion bonded epoxy coating applied to sections of the pipe — has taken its toll.

PHMSA says a weakened pipe could be vulnerable to landslides or earth movement in the rugged mountain terrain and karst topography though which the 303-mile pipeline passes.

Conditions may exist that “pose a pipeline integrity risk to public safety, property or the environment,” the agency said late Friday in its proposed safety order, which mentions explosions of other pipelines in similar landscapes.

Mountain Valley, which says it has been doing “rigorous inspections” of the pipe since work resumed earlier this summer, welcomed additional oversight by state and federal agencies.

“Safety has always been MVP’s top priority, and we are committed to meeting or exceeding all applicable regulations to ensure the safety of our employees, contractors, assets, and communities,” company spokeswoman Natalie Cox wrote in an email.

Actions like the one taken by PHMSA are rare, said Richard Kuprewicz, an independent pipeline safety expert who is president of Accufacts Inc., a consulting firm in Redmond, Washington.

“It’s a good thing what PHMSA has done,” Kuprewicz said Monday. ““In this case, they probably had a lot of good reasons.”

In some places, including Bent Mountain in Roanoke County, pipes with coating that was applied in 2017 remain laid out along the project’s 125-foot-wide right of way.

Industry standards call for such pipes to be above-ground for no longer than six months, unless additional coating is applied.

Mountain Valley says more than 270 miles of pipe along the project’s 303-mile path through West Virginia and Southwest Virginia have already been buried, and that the coating met specifications at the time.

The remaining pipe is inspected and, where necessary, scrubbed and sandblasted before an additional layer of coating is added. The company has declined to say how many times that has happened.

Under PHMSA’s proposed order, Mountain Valley would be required to submit quarterly reports to the regulatory agency that include data and results of its testing and a description of the repairs.

Already, inspections by PHMSA have identified questions about the project’s cathodic protection system — which entails sending low-voltage electricity to the buried pipe to limit corrosion — and several locations in West Virginia where the pipe was placed in rock-laden trenches without adequate support needed to prevent damage.

A warning letter was issued in 2020 and corrective action was taken.

“To date, Mountain Valley has not been notified of any outstanding compliance concerns, and the proposed order includes no new allegations of non-compliance,” Cox wrote.

Under federal rules, Mountain Valley has 30 days to respond to the proposed safety order. Its options include asking for an administrative hearing or requesting an informal consultation in which it would explain the current conditions and present a plan for remediation.

Approval of the plan rests with the director of PHMSA’s eastern regional office of pipeline safety.

Mountain Valley has requested an informal consultation and looks forward to an “expeditious resolution,” according to Cox.

Day-to-day construction operations will not change as a result of the proposed safety order, and the company said it still plans to have the pipeline completed by year’s end.

Laurence Hammack

(540) 981-3239

[email protected]

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Sections of the pipe are being examined to make sure a protective coating has not been damaged by years of exposure to the elements.