Per the Chas. Gazette, the pipeline is now coming through Mace, Stony Bottom, Dunmore and Frost, but no mention of this issue in the local rag. As usual. the Pokie Times is a day late and a dollar short on getting this important info out to county residents!
http://www.wvgazettemail.com/news/20160212/atlantic-coast-pipeline-alters-route-through-national-forests on 3 Routes Left
http://www.wvgazettemail.com/news/20160212/atlantic-coast-pipeline-alters-route-through-national-forests
Friday, February 12, 2016
Atlantic Coast Pipeline alters route through national forests
by Rick Steelhammer, Staff Writer
Developers of the Atlantic Coast Pipeline plan to re-route more than 10 miles of the proposed 42-inch natural gas line out of the Monongahela and George Washington National Forests, following objections over its initial route through the forests by several federal agencies.
But the planned re-route through the two national forests, which border each other along a section of the West Virginia-Virginia line, would add 30 miles to the total length of the 564-mile pipeline. The new route would also affect 249 landowners in Pocahontas and Randolph counties whose property was not surveyed during the planning stage for the pipeline’s initial route. In November, Monongahela National Forest Superintendent Clyde Thompson refused to sign off on the pipeline’s route through the Mon, citing inadequate soil sampling by Atlantic Coast planners needed to evaluate the effects of the pipeline on the forest ecology.
Two months later, the West Virginia field office of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service advised against routing the pipeline across Cheat Mountain to avoid fragmenting the mountain’s remnant red spruce forest -- prime habitat for eight federally listed species.
In December, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, the agency that will ultimately approve or disapprove the pipeline’s development, asked pipeline planners to consider an alternate route through the national forests that would avoid environmentally sensitive areas that provide habitat for such protected species as the Cheat Mountain salamander, the West Virginia flying squirrel and the Cow Mountain salamander.
FERC also urged Atlantic Coast officials to use existing utility corridors wherever possible for the new pipeline, avoid fragmenting rare plant terrain, and to take into account the Monongahela National Forest’s long-range management plan in evaluating affected resources. FERC announced that it would delay an environmental review for the pipeline if its suggestions weren’t taken into account.
Pipeline planners have “worked with the U.S. Forest Service over the last several months to find an alternative route that avoids sensitive areas” in the two national forests, according to a statement released Friday by Atlantic Coast Pipeline LLC. “As a result of these extensive consultations, next week Atlantic will formally adopt an alternative route that we believe will meet the Forest Service’s requirements and provide a viable path forward for the project. Finding a viable route through the national forests is an importnt milestone for the project and would allow FERC to continue its environmental review.”
The new route would veer south from the initial alignment near Adolph in Randolph County, veer west of Kumbrabow State Forest, cross W.Va. 15 west of Monterville, cross U.S. 219 and enter Pocahontas County near Mace, travel just south of Snowshoe Mountain Resort, cross W.Va. 28 near Dunmore and cross into Virginia and the George Washington National Forest north of Frost.
The proposed route change would reduce pipeline mileage through the Monongahela National Forest from 17 miles to about 7.
“We are contacting landowners along the alternative route to request permission to survey their properties so the route can be thoroughly evaluated,” according to the statement from Atlantic Coast Pipeline LLC. “Atlantic will submit a preliminary analysis of the route to FERC next week, and plans to hold a series of public informational open houses along the route in early March.”
The proposed $5.1 billion, 564-mile pipeline would stretch from Harrison County to southeastern North Carolina, carrying natural gas recovered from wells drilled into the Marcellus Shale formation in north central West Virginia.
Reach Rick Steelhammmer at rsteelhammer@wvgazettemail.com, 304-348-5169, or follow @rsteelhammer on Twitter.
Spesking o11f breaking news are the moronic idiots still searching for your server !
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