On April 3, 2024, the Government Accountability Office released a report to congressional committees on gas pipeline safety, which included multiple concerns with current data collection and reporting from the Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration.
Along the route of the Mountain Valley Pipeline, citizen monitors have watched a frenzy of workers hurriedly lower sun-bleached and degraded pipe into trenches, burying as much material as possible. Although safety concerns led the agency tasked with pipe safety, the Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration, to issue a consent agreement, the agreement has not brought peace of mind.
On October 3, 2023, the Pipeline and Hazardous Safety Materials Administration reached a consent agreement with the developers of the long-beleaguered Mountain Valley Pipeline.
Now as MVP construction is resuming, communities along the pipeline’s route are alarmed at the danger of using the deteriorated components, fearing that the risk for cracks, weld failures, leaks and explosions has increased.
Federal regulators announced new pipeline safety rules in September, but pipeline opponents argue the updated rules are not strong enough.
