Greenbrier Pipeline

Darlene Fife

West Virginia has many times been compared to third world countries where multi-national corporations and their representatives in government exploit mineral and forest resources with little or no benefit and often to the detriment of local residents. A current example is the Greenbrier Pipeline, a proposed gas line which will pass through West Virginia and offer nothing to the residents.

The Greenbrier Pipeline is a joint proposed project of Dominion Resources (67%) and Piedmont Natural Gas (33%). The cost is estimated to be $475 million and would go a distance of over 200 miles from Charleston WV to Granville County, North Carolina. In West Virginia the pipeline would go through Nicholas, Fayette, Raleigh, Summers and Mercer counties, and go under the Gauley, New, and Bluestone rivers as well as many streams. In Virginia it would go through Giles, Bland, Pulaski, Floyd, Patrick and Henry counties.

A few years ago Dominion was an electric utility, it’s main subsidiary being Virginia Electric & Power. Consolidated Natural Gas was acquired in 2000 and Louis Dreyfus Natural Gas in 2001 making Dominion one of the largest utilities in the US and number one in the US in gas storage capacity much of which is in West Virginia.

Dominon plans to use 1/3 of the gas that would flow through the Greenbrier Pipeline in a gas fired electric power plant that it intends to build in northern North Carolina. The rest would be sold primarily in NC to industrial and commercial customers. Dominion’s plans to build this new plant might be considered premature since there has as yet been no approval of the pipeline. Maybe Dominion officials feel certain of the decision.

Opposition to the pipeline

A group in West Virginia, Groundkeepers, which is based primarily in Raleigh County lists the damages that would be caused by the pipeline:

1) Bulldozing and drilling which would damage streams causing pollution to the streams and to ground water.

2) Destruction of wildlife and human habitat.

3) Scar along the route would destroy the natural beauty of West Virginia.

4) Decline of property values.

5) Danger of pipeline accidents.

6) Danger of contaminants used by pipeline industry.

Air quality would also deteriorate. Dominion proposes two compressors along the route. (The planned exact sites not yet revealed). Compressor stations emit constant noise and periodically release toxins into the air. The smell resembling rotten eggs is from release of hydrogen sulfide which occurs in natural gas. Compressors filter out and release hydrogen sulfide so the end user will not have to smell it. Hydrogen sulfide is flammable and poisonous.

In the summer of 2000 Dominion held open meetings along the proposed route of the pipeline. When Dominion surveyors were denied permission to go on several property owner’s land in West Virginia, Dominion filed suit to force the landowners to allow surveyors. In October, 01, Raleigh County Circuit Judge Robert Burnside granted Dominion the authority to enter private property for the purpose of surveying without the landowner’s consent.

The final official decision on the pipeline route rests neither with individuals affected or with their county or state representative but with the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC), which can under the concept of eminent domain force an unwanted pipeline through the states.

FERC is composed of 5 members appointed for five year terms by the president with the advice and consent of the Senate. President Bush recently appointed two members.

Pipeline Safety

The federal Office of Pipeline Safety states that from 1986 to 2000 there were a total of 3,240 ‘transmission and distribution incidents;’ 334 fatalities, 1,434 injuries and $505,389,152 in property damage. This is an average of 23 fatalities each year.

In the year 2000 there were 37 fatalities. A thirty-inch pipeline blew up last year in New Mexico and caused a firestorm of such intensity that the paint began to melt off the trucks of firefighters who had only gotten to a half mile away from the blast center. That pipe had been inspected less than a month before and given a clean bill of health.

A 2000 GAO (General Accounting Office) study showed accidents increasing as the federal government has slacked off on enforcing safety regulations. The GAO study found that the Office of Pipeline Safety has not enforced 22 of 49 safety regulations passed by Congress since 1998.

The Gas Research Institute has found evidence of external contamination of polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs), a lubricant used in natural gas transmission. PCBs do not break down in the environment and bioaccumulate in the food chain. PCBs are cancer causing. The Gas Research Institute has also found evidence of mercury.

There is no indication that safety considerations are making corporate or federal officials think about decentralized energy delivery and energy conservation.

Why Another Pipeline?

Alternate routes have been proposed but to even suggest an alternative presumes a need for a route and buys into Dominion’s stance. Dominion, for instance, has proposed a route that will blast its way across the New River around Hawk’s Nest State Park. It has been pointed out that this will ruin a view and Dominion is now considering a different place to blast its way under and across the New River. This makes Dominion seem reasonable and willing to compromise and ignores the real question of why a pipeline at all.

"Simple and cost effective way to increase the reliability, resilience and stability of the (energy producing) systems, such as using small-scale, distributed generation technologies and end use efficiency are well known within the industry but have not been pursued....the utilities are used to doing business the old way, delivering electricity created by central power plants - a system that is easily controlled and monopolized but vulnerable to large scale disruption." (RMI Solutions, Fall/Winter 2000. RMI is the Rocky Mountain Institute founded by Hunter and Amory Lovins in 1982. www.rmi.org)

West Virginia, for example, produces more natural gas than it consumes. With energy conservation the amount of gas available in WV would serve its people for years to come.

A government study says 50% of energy generated is wasted. Let Dominion consider how to regain this 50%, use less energy and Dominion, like the people of West Virginia and Virginia will not need this pipeline.

Addresses:

Dominion, 120 Tredegar St., Richmond, VA 23219. www.dom.com

Groundkeepers c/o Solar Age Press, PO Box 610, Peterstown, WV 24963

Blue Ridge Coaliton, PO Box 391, Stuart, VA 24171. www.blueridgecoalition.org

Darlene Fife can be e-mailed: dfife@citynet.net. Her book PORTRAITS FROM MEMORY: NEW ORLEANS IS THE SIXTIES is available for $10 from Bookstore, 104 S Jefferson, Lewisburg, WV 24901.