Federal pipeline safety regulators are refusing to release information about their handling of a safety inspector’s complaint that the Mountain Valley natural gas pipeline was built unsafely.
The operator of the pipeline in Virginia and West Virginia said regulators at the Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration are satisfied with the company’s handling of the inspector’s complaints.
But the agency won’t corroborate that, saying it will “neither confirm nor deny the existence” any complaint or investigation. That has unsettled some people who live along the 3½-foot diameter pipeline.
“If there’s no problem with those welds, why won’t they release the information?” said Maury Johnson, a West Virginia landowner with about 2,000 feet of pipeline crossing his farm.
