Mountain Valley Pipeline’s controversial quest to bury a 42-inch diameter natural gas pipeline through the region requires the company to acquire easements across private property — a process that itself rouses strong reactions.
Mountain Valley reported last week that as of Jan. 27 it had negotiated about 1,250 easement agreements with landowners along the 303-mile pipeline’s proposed route through six counties in Virginia and 11 in West Virginia.
Court records show numerous deed easements purchased in Giles, Montgomery and Franklin counties. Only a few have been filed in Craig County, which would host a comparatively short stretch of the pipeline. And, as of late January, only one easement had been acquired in Roanoke County — where opposition has been fierce to surveying by crews seeking to define the pipeline route.
