A study of the potential for slope failures and landslides in Nelson County from the proposed Atlantic Coast Pipeline (ACP), coupled with a review of Dominion’s in-house analysis, has concluded that “Dominion has not adequately identified those soils and landforms that are prone to debris flows (and) landslides.” The report also states that “the potential for debris flows in the very steep mountainous portions of Nelson County is underestimated by the reports submitted to the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) by Dominion.”
The author of the report, Blackburn Consulting Services, LLC, was contracted to review, assess, and comment on information submitted by Dominion to FERC, as related to the construction and operation of the ACP through Nelson County. The review was limited to information pertaining to soils/soil structure and slope stability, as well as the associated geohazards and erosion/water quality concerns that the ACP project raises for Nelson County.
Blackburn states that due to Dominion’s reliance on “regional-based and publicly available information, many of the statements made in Dominion’s FERC filings represent gross generalities. Dominion has not adequately identified those soils and landforms that are prone to debris flows/landslides, nor have they adequately addressed how they plan to mitigate those site-specific hazards that can put people, property and water quality at extreme risk.”
The report, released on March 14, was a joint project of Friends of Nelson, Friends of Wintergreen and Wintergreen Property Owners, Inc.