Environmental groups are challenging Virginia’s water permit for a natural gas pipeline, asserting in a new lawsuit that the decision puts the state’s waterways at risk.
The Virginia Department of Environmental Quality approved the permit last month for Mountain Valley’s Southgate project. The lawsuit — from groups represented by the Southern Environmental Law Center and Appalachian Mountain Advocates — could become a headache for the project, which is a 31-mile extension of the main Mountain Valley pipeline.
The groups filed their legal challenge in the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.
“The Virginia DEQ has again abdicated its responsibility to protect Virginia’s waters and people,” David Sligh, director of Wild Virginia’s water quality program, said in a news release Monday.
