The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency wants the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to deny a key construction permit for water crossings to the $6.2-billion Mountain Valley Pipeline unless modifications and special conditions are incorporated into the project.

在5月27日的信中仅在本月公开发布的信中，费城EPA湿地分公司负责人杰弗里·拉普（Jeffrey Lapp）表示，该机构已经确定了从西弗吉尼亚州到弗吉尼亚州的303英里天然气管道，现在已经近92个“实质性问题”。百分比完成，包括是否采取了“所有可行的回避和最小化措施”。

The letter was released in response to a Freedom of Information Act request by environmental law firm Appalachian Mountain Advocates.

该项目以前在全国范围内持有了Corps-12许可证，该许可证允许项目范围内的水交叉，而无需个人影响审查，但在联邦法院撤销了毯子许可证后，去年被撤回。

Mountain Valley developers are instead pursuing an “individual permit" that incorporates review of hundreds of water body crossings.

EPA说，该项目将永久影响1,198个线性ft的流，并暂时影响38,312个线性FT。该机构说，它将永久影响0.5英亩的湿地，暂时影响13.92英亩，并将3.7英亩的森林和灌木丛湿地转换为新兴的湿地。

“While EPA recognizes the proposed project’s purpose and need for providing transmission of natural gas, the extent of anticipated impacts, notably the large amount of temporary discharges from the proposal to the aquatic resources, warrants careful review,” Lapp said. The proposed discharges have implications to downstream waters, he said.

Mountain Valley目前正在审查EPA的评论，并计划对将解决机构建议的军团做出回应。“We are confident that the current application with our additional responses will satisfy EPA’s recommendations,” Todd Normane, deputy general counsel for the project and its operator EMQ Gathering Opco, said in a July 12 letter to the Corps district office in Huntington, W. Va.

Normane said EPA’s comment was in response to the Corps process for reviewing permit applications, which Mountain Valley submitted in February.

该管道还获得了其他许可，包括联邦能源监管委员会在某些溪流下隧道的批准。

Overland crossings were approved in 2017, but EMQ Gathering Opco's decision to bore under certain streams required a new authorization. FERC’s public comment period is open until early August.

弗吉尼亚州和西弗吉尼亚州必须在今年晚些时候根据《清洁水法》第401条对该项目进行认证。西弗吉尼亚州必须直到11月29日，而弗吉尼亚州必须直到12月31日才能获得赠款或放弃认证。如果任何一个州都拒绝认证，则军团将拒绝申请。

如果放弃认证,t队将问题he permit, Melanie Davenport, a Corps official in Norfolk district said in a June 28 letter to Virginia regulators.

Velley最初原定于2018年底完成，仅需35亿美元。该项目的针对性2022年夏季在职日期是基于获得所有水交叉批准的基础，并在2021年底之前取消了杰斐逊国家森林周围的剩余排除区。

Mountain Valley released on July 12 its plan to acquire an estimated $150 million in carbon offsets for greenhouse gas emissions for 10 years of the project’s operation. Emissions include carbon dioxide from engines used to drive compressor stations, methane released during operation and maintenance and carbon dioxide resulting from generation of power it purchases for O&M.

该计划的基石是一个煤矿甲烷abatement project in Virginia that would capture methane from the mine and convert it to carbon dioxide and water vapor, the pipeline operators said. Critics wondered, however, how it is “greener” to convert methane to CO2, another greenhouse gas.

Mountain Valley also is pursuing greenhouse gas abatement projects in West Virginia including addressing abandoned and orphaned gas wells, the company said.

Owners expect Mountain Valley to be one of the first large scale natural gas pipelines to be carbon neutral for its operation emissions.

Environmentalists are concerned that the plan does not address greenhouse gas emissions from the natural gas as fuel that the pipeline transports.