The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers has informed the corporation building the Mountain Valley Pipeline (MP) that it was partially suspending an important permit allowing the company to build the pipeline through streams in West Virginia. The action took place after Appalachian Mountain Advocates (Appalmad) notified the Corps that MVP had admitted that it could not complete construction of several major stream crossings in the 72 hours required as a special condition for West Virginia as part of Nationwide Permit 12.

While Appalmad lawyer Derek Teaney argued in a letter to the Corps that this admission required suspension of all NWP 12 permit verifications in West Virginia until a federal court determines whether that permit is unlawful, the Corps only suspended verifications for crossings of four rivers — the Gauley, Greenbrier, Elk and Meadow Rivers—and without a commitment to wait for a court ruling before reinstating those four verifications.

Because the Corps failed to suspend all of the permit verifications covered by West Virginia’s special condition, Appalmad filed a motion on May 22 with the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit seeking such a suspension until the court completes its review of the permit.

Army Corps Suspends Permit for MVP Crossing Some WV Rivers
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