An environmental stalemate
“The lucky guys.”
That’s what petroleum engineer Michael Arnott calls the employees in his office who avoided layoffs following the shutdown of construction on the Atlantic Coast Pipeline in December 2018. The 600-mile pipeline was halted due to legal disputes over environmental concerns with many conservation groups opposing the project.
Three thousand West Virginia residents were employed on the ACP at the time of the shutdown. Now that number is 75, according to Dominion Energy spokesperson Samantha Norris. In addition to Dominion, there are many other companies working on different phases of the project.
Arnott works for I3 Engineering in Bridgeport, WV, but he is contracted by Dominion Energy, the main partner in constructing and operating the 600-mile pipeline. Last November, many of his colleagues at I3, a small firm with 38 employees, were working overtime to plan and do design work for the Atlantic Coast Pipeline.
According to Dave Mordan, owner of I3, the workload has decreased over the last 10 months and he has had to adjust accordingly.
“We’ve had to go secure other business from other folks and throw resources towards other projects. We didn’t get involved in a lot of layoffs, per se, because we were able to get some other work,” Mordan said. “But I’d say our total number of man hours working is down from what it was last year because of ACP.”
Arnott says many at the Dominion office he reports to have not been as fortunate.
“(December) was when we started to have to cut back on staff,” Arnott said. “We had some really good inspectors — guys that were seasoned, veteran pipe liners — and those guys live a nomadic lifestyle. They’ve moved on, they’ve went to other jobs.”
The Atlantic Coast Pipeline (ACP) originates in Harrison County, WV and travels through Virginia and North Carolina. A decision by the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals in Richmond, VA threw out the permits granted by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Services that allowed the pipeline to cross under the Appalachian Trail, thus halting construction of the project.
However, in October, the Supreme Court agreed to Dominion’s request to hear the case early next year.
If the court rules in favor of the Atlantic Coast Pipeline (ACP), the project will be completed by summer 2021, according to Norris.
While Dominion is the operator of the pipeline, four other companies are partners on the project: Duke Energy, Piedmont Natural Gas, and Southern Company Gas.
Brittany Moody is the lead engineer for the project at Dominion and was one of the first people on the project in 2014. She, like Arnott, says former employees have left the state.
“The local communities are devastated because of the lack of business,” Moody said. “They continually ask when ACP will begin working again. Workers who were released when the project shut down were forced to leave the area to find other jobs. They may be reluctant or unable to return.”
Additionally, she says they had made plans to take up residence in West Virginia at least for the time being.
“Some workers had moved their families to WV and enrolled their kids in local schools,” Moody said. “Losing employment on a project they expected to last at a minimum of two years was very difficult on these folks.”
A tangled legal web
To comply with federal law, Dominion had to obtain permits from multiple agencies, including the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. The FWS initially gave Dominion approval for the pipeline. However, the Fourth Circuit Court later ruled that the FWS did not do an adequate job of evaluating the project’s impacts to five endangered species under the Endangered Species Act. Since the permit from the Fish and Wildlife Service was declared invalid, many other permits were subsequently nullified.
- All photos courtesy of U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service
The second issue contributing to the shutdown of ACP is whether the U.S. Forest Service had the authority to grant the project right of way across the Appalachian Trail. The Court of Appeals ruled that the pipeline needed Congressional approval to take such action. Instead of doing this, Dominion appealed the decision to the Supreme Court.
Two Sides
The opposition to ACP is led by conservation groups in Virginia, represented by the Southern Environmental Law Center in Charlottesville. Greg Buppert, senior attorney for the SELC, says the groups they represent are opposed to the pipeline for two main reasons.
First, they are concerned with the potential land damage from construction of the pipeline. Second, they are worried about the ramifications of long-term investment in fossil fuel infrastructure.
“This project will have the effect of putting an $8 billion thumb on the scale in favor of fossil fuel in the coming decades,” Buppert said.
Judge Stephanie Thacker of the Fourth Circuit quoted Dr. Seuss’ The Lorax in the opinion:
“We trust the United States Forest Service to ‘speak for the trees, for the trees have no tongues.’ Dr. Seuss, The Lorax (1971)….This conclusion is particularly informed by the Forest Service’s serious environmental concerns that were suddenly, and mysteriously, assuaged in time to meet a private pipeline company’s deadlines.”
Mordan, on the other hand, says that the companies involved in ACP take measures to protect the environment and that employees of the company enjoy the environment. He says millions of dollars are spent to ensure that the environment is protected throughout projects like the Atlantic Coast Pipeline.
“When you do all that and then when the project gets stopped on top of all that, it’s hurtful because we are doing everything we can,” Mordan said.
A potential ripple
Arnott has been involved with the Atlantic Coast Pipeline with both I3 and Dominion. He says that smaller companies, such as EQT and CNX, are eager for the project to be completed.
“Most of them are very willing to work with us because they see the pipeline as a good thing for the region as well and, yet another outlet for them to sell their product,” Arnott said. “They’re producing natural gas, they want to sell it, they want to move their product just like any industry.”
Ninety percent of the ACP has already been bought by customers including Duke Energy, and Piedmont Natural Gas, according to Norris. Arnott says workers from these more local companies are looking for answers about the project.
“I get calls from them occasionally (saying), ‘hey, I haven’t heard from you guys in a while, how are you doing?” Arnott said. “They want an update because they’re excited about the project just as much as anyone and they want us to succeed as well. It’s kind of hard to tell those guys we’re still shutdown.”
The day-to-day routine
As for those who are still actively working on ACP, their daily jobs look much different than they did at this time last year, according to Brittany Moody, whose team is responsible for the construction on Section 1 of the pipeline (all of West Virginia and first two counties in Virginia).
Prior to December, she was managing a large team. Now, a small group has shifted their work to planning, maintaining budgets, and evaluating different scenarios. Because of this change in work, Moody says she had to drastically downsize her team.
Arnott still reports to his office at Dominion, but says that only “essential staff” still work there. There is still an open right of way that must be maintained under Federal Energy Regulations Commission guidelines. According to Arnott, a few environmental inspectors were kept on staff to check the area of land daily and ensure that the environment is maintained.
Looking forward
The Southern Environmental Law Center has stated that they will continue to support the Fourth Circuit’s decision and that the permit from the Forest Service is one of seven permits that Dominion does not have to proceed.
If the Supreme Court were to rule in favor of the Atlantic Coast Pipeline, Dominion and its partners would resume construction.
However, Arnott worries that it may be difficult to find a new staff that is qualified.
“The bad thing about that is we could struggle to find staff whenever we get back to work and we’re certainly not guaranteed to get back the same essential staff we had before,” Arnott said. “We had a staff that we were comfortable with — guys that had worked together for years and years and now we may not get them back.”
He says former employees have moved to “traditional oil and gas” states, such as Texas and Louisiana.
