Atlantic Coast Pipeline on Tuesday estimated that just 10 miles of its 2018 construction areas for the 600-mile natural gas pipeline project will need to be on hold because of the 4th US Circuit Court of Appeals decision striking ACP's permit allowing incidental take of protected species. In total, it plans to avoid 21 miles in West Virginia and 79 miles in Virginia until a revised incidental take statement is issued, Atlantic Coast said in a statement Tuesday.
Lead developer Dominion Energy on Tuesday updated the US Federal Energy Regulatory Commission on the areas by milepost that it will avoid in the wake of the last week's court ruling.
Less than 2% of the total project mileage, or about 10 miles, is in 2018 construction spreads, it said. Dominion did not publicly release the precise areas involved because it said locations of protected species are generally treated as privileged.
The appeals court late May 15 vacated the Fish and Wildlife Service's "incidental take" statement for the project, a document that estimates the likely harm to endangered or threatened species. The court concluded that "limits set by the agency are so indeterminate that they undermine the incidental take statement's enforcement and monitoring function" under the act.
Environmental litigants in the case continue to contend FERC needs to halt all construction on the project in response to the ruling.
In its Tuesday letter to FERC, Dominion said it "confirms the company's commitment to avoid construction in these areas," adding it will not undertake any activity identified in the FWS biological opinion that is likely to affect protected species until the incidental take statement situation is resolved.
FILING FOLLOWED FERC REQUEST TO SUBMIT DETAILS
The Atlantic Coast filing follows a request from FERC last week for the developer to file the details of the areas it will avoid, and to state its commitment to do so.
But in a letter Tuesday, the Southern Environmental Law Center said work cannot proceed because FERC's consultation obligations under Section 7 of the Endangered Species Act are incomplete now that the underlying incidental take statement has been vacated.
The SELC said that without a valid incidental take statement "construction cannot cause take of a single animal, anywhere along the pipeline route without risking serious penalties." "No argument or map from Dominion and Duke Energy can remove the liability of undertaking construction without a valid permit from the Fish and Wildlife Service," SELC Senior Attorney Greg Buppert said in a statement. "This permit is a mandatory condition for three major federal permits held by ACP developers. If FERC looks the other way and grants this request to Dominion and Duke, it is rewriting its own permit on the fly."
Dominion and the environmentalists have also sparred over whether the court ruling could affect the pipeline route.
FULL COURT RULING STILL PENDING
More may be known once the court releases its full opinion. The court issued its several-paragraph order a few days after oral arguments, promising a more detailed explanation in a full decision to follow.
Backed by a mix of regional end-users and power generators, Atlantic Coast is slated to deliver an additional 1.5 Bcf/d of shale gas to the Mid-Atlantic region. Its roughly 600-mile path would run from West Virginia through Virginia and on to eastern North Carolina.
The pipeline should serve to enhance supply optionality, especially during times of peak demand, for power generation in the Mid-Atlantic and should provide some downward pressure on Transcontinental Gas Pipe Line Zone 5 as more supply is able to feed this market. At the same time, Atlantic Coast, in conjunction with Dominion's Supply Header Project, should help alleviate basis pressure at Dominion South by easing up takeaway capacity congestion.
