Regulators debut site with wealth of data about five major projects across state

It’s about time the state piped up on these projects.
This week, the Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) launched an internet page on five natural gas pipelines across the state.
Of the five projects, only one is still proposed, while the other four are under construction at different degrees of completion. Altogether, the five projects affect 29 counties, including six in north-central West Virginia — Wetzel, Harrison, Doddridge, Tyler, Ritchie and Lewis counties — and two in the Northern Panhandle, Marshall and Hancock counties.
We would say they miraculously do not touch a single acre in Monongalia or Preston counties, but that might jinx us while others are probably cursing that news.
These five projects do disturb more than 11,500 acres elsewhere in West Virginia and required permits to cover the discharge of stormwater associated with the disturbance of land for such construction.
Anyone who has questions about these pipeline projects should be able to find the answers quickly on the website. We suspect people living near these pipelines t will have questions, and this website should prove helpful.
It includes details on maps of pipeline routes, and a searchable database for information such as inspections and enforcement actions and permit modifications.
Transcripts of public hearings on these pipelines, DEP’s response to comments received at the hearings and scads of news releases are also available.
The pipeline projects are the Atlantic Coast Pipeline, Mountain Valley Pipeline, the Mountaineer Gas Eastern Panhandle Expansion Project, the Mountaineer Xpress Pipeline and the Rover Pipeline.
It appears the developers are hoping that by incorporating “Mountaineer” and “Mountain” into the names of these projects, it will help them fit in.
To these projects’ credit, violations — to date — are marginal and do not rise to the level that any would be considered egregious. However, as we noted here in mid-March, though the construction of these pipelines was inevitable, the degradation of our environment is not.
We live here and we value our environment as much, or more, than we do our state’s wealth of natural resources, including natural gas.
Keeping West Virginia wild and wonderful in the face of vast pipeline construction will not always be easy.
But no corporation and no one has the right to break state and federal rules that protect our environment.
There’s no reason for residents to pipe down, either, about violations.
They can also report infractions through this website.