CHARLESTON, W.Va. (WV News) — The West Virginia Department of Environmental Protection has issued the final state-level permit needed for the Mountain Valley Pipeline to resume construction, according to Gov. Jim Justice.
The WVDEP issued the project’s Section 401 Water Quality Certification last Thursday and submitted it to the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Justice said during his administration briefing Wednesday.
“To the best of my ability, I’m not aware of anything else that is another step that people are waiting on,” he said. “If there be another step, we’ll be on it. I believe that construction has the possibility of starting real, real, real soon.”
Provisions in a debt ceiling deal passed by Congress earlier this month mandated that federal permits needed for the project’s completion be issued by June 24, Justice said.
“I’m glad that we’re doing our part in state permitting to try and move this permit along,” he said. “It’ll be good stuff for West Virginia for a long time if we can get that back moving.”
The project is a natural gas transmission pipeline planned to span approximately 303 miles from northwestern West Virginia to southern Virginia.
It will transport natural gas from the Mountain State to markets in the Mid-Atlantic and South Atlantic regions.
In West Virginia, the MVP’s route is planned to include Braxton, Doddridge, Fayette, Greenbrier, Harrison, Lewis, Monroe, Nicholas, Summers, Webster and Wetzel counties.
The project has faced repeated delays, setbacks and halts due to regulatory challenges brought by environmental activists and other stakeholders opposed to the pipeline.
Sen. Joe Manchin, D-W.Va., and Sen. Shelley Moore Capito, R-W.Va. have said including the pipeline in the debt ceiling deal, also called the Fiscal Responsibility Act of 2023, all but assures its completion.
“Despite delay after delay, we continued to fight to get this critical natural gas pipeline up and running, and its inclusion in this deal is a significant victory for the future of West Virginia,” Capito said in a statement.
Equitrans Midstream, the developers of the MVP, have said they intend to work with project partners to “complete construction of the MVP project by year-end 2023, at an estimated total project cost of approximately $6.6 billion.”
“We are grateful for the full support of the White House, the strong bipartisan leadership of Democratic and Republican legislators, the resolute dedication of Sen. Capito, and the unwavering commitment of Chairman Manchin for recognizing and declaring MVP as a critical energy infrastructure project,” said Thomas Karam, chairman and CEO of Equitrans Midstream.
When the project was initially announced in 2014, developers said it was expected to cost around $3.5 billion and would be completed by the end of 2018.