On February 8, 2024, twenty-nine organizations wrote Mike Rolband, Director of the Virginia Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ), insisting that he issue a stop work order for the Mountain Valley Pipeline (MVP) due to repeated and widespread violations and damage to waterbodies and private property. The groups joining in this urgent call represent thousands of people in Virginia and beyond, including residents and landowners directly affected by MVP’s pollution and destruction.

Here is the letter.

Severe Damage Being Inflicted on Streams and Landowners Now

The evidence featured in the letter included major discharges of polluted water to Sinking Creek, a trout stream in Giles County, and Bottom Creek in Roanoke County, a stream Virginia has designated an “exceptional resource water,” but which DEQ is now failing to protect. MVP has apparently breached a karst aquifer near Sinking Creek; a torrent of polluted water has flooded nearby properties and is choking Sinking Creek with thick, muddy discharges. These and numerous other streams have suffered repeated discharges of pollution caused by MVP. These incidents accelerated in late 2023 and continue to today, as documented by citizen monitors early this morning. (In response to current catastrophic events in Giles County, Wild Virginia wrote Director Rolband again this morning. That email message and evidence of pollution occurring today is also attached to this release.)

The groups signing yesterday’s letter called out DEQ for public statements and information on its web site that misstate and minimize its authority to take enforcement action and stop work when state waters are being damaged. DEQ claims it can’t respond to actual dirty discharges or pollution in streams, as long as MVP has minimum control measures in place – in other words, even if MVP’s attempts don’t work, DEQ will not act. Further, DEQ’s website omits any mention of strengthened stop work authority the General Assembly gave the agency in 2021 and, again, claims real damage to our waters is not a basis for strong action by DEQ.

As noted in the letter:

“These assertions by DEQ are wrong! It seems that DEQ is either unaware of the provisions of state law and its own permits or is simply unwilling to use the powers it has been granted.”

David Sligh, Wild Virginia’s Conservation Director stated: “It is past time for Director Rolband to step up and reverse the pattern of ineffectual responses DEQ has built over the last six years. The conditions found in 2019, which prompted DEQ’s only stop work order to date, were serious and the order was appropriate. But, those 2019 violations were relatively minor compared to the horrible conditions and continuing threats being exposed by volunteer observers now.”

Wild Virginia and our allies will continue to report MVP violations and insist on real enforcement by all responsible agencies. This includes the Army Corps of Engineers, which has serious obligations under the Clean Water Act. In addition, we call on the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to step in as well.