The Mountain Valley Pipeline began operating Friday, three days after it received federal authorization.
The 303-mile, 42-inch-diameter pipeline is designed to transport up to 2 billion cubic feet of natural gas daily from West Virginia through six Virginia counties, ending at a compressor station in Pittsylvania County.
Equitrans Midstream Corp., the largest stakeholder in the $7.85 billion pipeline’s joint venture company, said in a news release that the pipeline is available for short-term gas transportation service and will commence long-term operations on July 1. 
“This is an important and long-awaited day for our Nation and the millions of Americans who now have greater access to an abundant supply of domestic natural gas for use as an affordable, reliable, and cleaner energy resource,” Diana Charletta, president and CEO of Equitrans Midstream, said in the release.
Friday’s news comes 10 years after the project was first announced in 2014 with an anticipated completion date of 2018 and a price estimate of $3.5 billion, less than half of its current price tag.
Equitrans Midstream said Friday that the pipeline has satisfied all applicable legal and regulatory requirements, including a consent agreement from the U.S. Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration that arose out of concerns over the pipeline’s durability after years of exposure to sun and weather. The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, which regulates the construction of interstate pipelines, gave its authorization on Tuesday for the pipeline to begin operating.
Supporters have said the pipeline will meet demand by delivering natural gas from the Marcellus and Utica shale regions to Mid-Atlantic and Southeast markets. Last summer, Congress passed a law fast-tracking necessary permits and shielding the pipeline from most legal challenges, which led to the dismissal of cases centered on its impact on endangered species and national forests.
Opponents have maintained that the pipeline is unnecessary, dangerous and harmful to the environment, and that Congress improperly gave developers eminent domain authority via FERC to seize private land for the project. They have continually opposed it and its proposed $370 million MVP Southgate extension into North Carolina, taking their battle to state and federal agencies, federal courts and even the U.S. Supreme Court. On multiple occasions, protesters have locked themselves to construction equipment to slow the pipeline’s progress.
In a press conference Wednesday, two days before the pipeline began operations, a group of opponents said they still have concerns about the pipeline’s safety and environmental impacts and aren’t letting down their guard. They have pointed to events such as the rupture of a pipe segment in Roanoke County last month during hydrotesting — in which highly pressurized water is pushed through pipes to verify their strength — as evidence that the project is unsafe and not ready to operate.
“We wouldn’t know about that if not for the landowners monitoring the creeks around there that noticed something was wrong. … MVP has numerous instances of landslides and slips that they self-report to FERC over all the course of construction on this project and so that’ll be something we’ll have to keep a close eye on for sure,” said Russell Chisholm, a Giles County resident and co-director of the Protect Our Water, Heritage, Rights (POWHR) coalition.
On Tuesday, a PHMSA official said the safety agency had no objection to the pipeline beginning operations, according to notes of a phone call with FERC posted on FERC’s website.
Canonsburg, Pennsylvania-based Equitrans Midstream — which in March announced it plans to rejoin its former owner, Pittsburgh-based EQT Corp., in an all-stock transaction — owns just under 50% of the Mountain Valley Pipeline joint venture company.
Among the other four partners is Roanoke Gas’ parent company, RGC Resources Inc. Roanoke Gas, which has more than 63,000 customers, said it began receiving gas Friday at two connections with the pipeline.
“The MVP and its natural gas supply are essential to meeting the needs of residents and businesses across the Roanoke Valley, now and for many years to come,” Roanoke Gas President and CEO Paul Nester said in Friday’s news release. “Further, MVP’s delivery points to Roanoke Gas in Franklin and Montgomery Counties are certain to provide direct, long-term economic benefits to our community and this region.”
