Environmental groups raise concerns over proposed North Carolina pipeline project

Community groups in Virginia and North Carolina are putting pressure on the North Carolina Department of Environmental Quality to deny a permit for the Mountain Valley Pipeline’s Southgate project.

MVP Southgate is a high-pressure methane gas pipeline proposed to run through Pittsylvania County, Virginia, into Rockingham County, North Carolina.

On Tuesday, community leaders, grassroots organizations and members of the public spoke out against the project at a public hearing on MVP’s application for a 401 water quality permit.

In 2020, the North Carolina DEQ denied MVP’s first 401 permit application for the Southgate project. Regulators are now reviewing a new MVP application with a changed route and an increase in the capacity of the project that was announced in 2023.

During the hearing on Tuesday, community members shared concerns about the pipeline’s impacts on the Dan River.

“We’ve learned that with any significant rainfall, our waters are running brown, especially the Dan,” said Steven Pulliam, a Stoneville, N.C., native who works for the nonprofit Good Stewards of Rockingham as the Dan Riverkeeper.

“Today, when you’re going back to where you came from, look at the Dan River when you go over it. It’s going to be brown, it’s going to be nasty. Fish habitats are washing away. We’ve seen [MVP]’s history of the past eight years through our neighbors to the north. They cannot show proof in their many years of existence that they take any consideration for our water quality, people who have to drink the water downstream, the cost it brings us when we have to mitigate the turbidity in our water,” Pulliam said.

Buck Purgason of Good Stewards of Rockingham shared some of the concerns for local wildlife.

“Only eight rivers in the United States naturally spawn striped bass, and the Dan River’s one of them,” Purgason said. “The low water [levels] and sediment, it’s not good for spawning fish. … Deny this permit. Do not let them mess up a fishery that’s been here for ages. … It’s important to look downstream of what’s going to happen, and not just here in Rockingham County.”

The Southgate project is proposed to supply methane gas to new proposed Duke Energy gas-fired power plants in Person County, North Carolina. Studies indicate that methane gas infrastructure may contribute to climate change as much as coal due to leaks from venting, drilling, extraction, transportation through pipelines and equipment malfunctions.

“In the long run, the greatest threat to safe, accessible drinking water is climate change,” said Stephanie Gans, assistant director of the nonprofit Clean Water for North Carolina. “Extreme storms like Tropical Storm Chantal and Hurricane Helene have already deprived communities of clean drinking water for days or even weeks. Approving MVP Southgate would continue the use of methane gas, making that worse and increasing North Carolina’s utility bills overall.”

“Furthermore, there is uncertainty around the need for the Southgate project,” said Juhi Modi, North Carolina Field Coordinator for the nonprofit Appalachian Voices. “Duke Energy’s load projections behind its proposed gas plants are based on speculative future energy demand from data centers and manufacturing facilities that may not even materialize. If Southgate is approved, it could become underutilized but still impose the same harmful impacts on waterways, communities, the environment and even our electric bills.”