The Mountain Valley Pipeline (MVP) is a 303 mile pipeline being constructed to carry fracked gas from West Virginia into Virginia. MVP is working to get approval for an extension of that pipeline that will take it an additional 70 miles from southern Virginia into central North Carolina. The addition, the MVP Southgate project, will cut through Rockingham and Alamance counties, ending at a point just south and east of Graham, below 1-85-40.

MVP maps show that it will run adjacent to the Haw through Rockingham and Alamance counties. The pipeline will cross many streams in the Haw River watershed, and alternative maps have shown crossing the Haw River twice. Not only is the destruction of the land and forest a threat to our watershed, but the processes used in stream crossings leave streams devastated. The pipes themselves have a high potential of leaking and natural gas pipeline explosions are not uncommon in the United States. There have been 4 since June, including 1 fatality. MVP has a legacy of abusing community members and landowners by providing minimal compensation for land, or using eminent domain to take the land if landowners refuse.

Duke’s Integrated Resource Plan includes details for 50/50 conversions of unused coal plants to natural gas plants. If this proposed addition is allowed, we can expect more pipelines to connect to converted natural gas plants. This could mean a new pipeline through Guilford County to the Belews Creek station.