Sediment pollution washes into a river along the Mountain Valley Pipeline’s route in Virginia. The developer has 350 water quality violations & $2.5 million in fines from building the MVP. Now this developer wants to build MVP Southgate into NC.

Impacts on water bodies

• MVP Southgate would affect fifty water bodies in North Carolina. This includes: the Dan River, Cascade Creek, & 36 wetlands.1
• Pipeline construction would increase sediment and turbidity (cloudiness) in these waterways. This hurts water quality, fish, and other aquatic species. 
• Construction would pollute wetlands. Wetlands protect communities from flooding & are important habitat for aquatic species.
• The Dan River is a drinking water source. Southgate would cross several of its tributaries. This can harm the river’s quality & threaten access to clean drinking water upstream in Virginia.
• Even after pipeline construction, higher amounts of sediment in water are shown to continue.
• The developers plan to cross many water bodies using a method called dry-ditch, open-cut crossing. This is more likely to cause sediment pollution compared to some other methods.

Endangered aquatic species 

• The Dan River is critical habitat for several federally protected mussels:
  • Endangered: James spinymussel & Roanoke logperch. (Cascade Creek also provides suitable habitat to the Roanoke logperch)
  • Threatened: Atlantic Pigtoe
• Sediment pollution from constructing MVP Southgate would harm these protected species & their homes.
• Within one mile of MVP Southgate’s route, there are five different plant species with state-level protections.

MVP’s history of violations

• Mountain Valley’s record of water impacts is alarming. 94% of waterbody crossing sites for the MVP mainline suffered documented negative impacts. 
• DEQ cannot trust MVP to follow water quality laws. The company has repeatedly violated these laws during pipeline construction in other states. 
• Sediment pollution & runoff issues continue since the completion of MVP Mainline. The harm continues for nearby water bodies and downstream aquatic ecosystems.

Natural disasters and climate change

• MVP Southgate would supply methane gas to Duke Energy for new gas-fired power plants. This would release greenhouse gases, making the climate crisis worse. Methane can also leak from pipelines.
• The region of the proposed Southgate project has been experiencing increasingly extreme storms. These storms cause flooding, harming regional water bodies and local ecosystems
  • During Hurricane Helene, high winds damaged buildings and downed trees and powerlines in Rockingham County.
• Our state resources should go toward repairing the ongoing damage to these communities. NC needs to strengthen our resilience to climate change rather than investing in another risky methane project.

Close to the route of another high-pressure pipeline

• Nearly the entire proposed route for MVP Southgate is within ½ mile of another proposed methane pipeline: Transco’s Southeast Supply Enhancement Project.
  • The construction of two new pipelines near one another will worsen negative impacts to water quality in rivers and wetlands.