Amid a flurry of activity surrounding the project during the past couple of weeks, the Atlantic Coast Pipeline recently received a set of important federal authorizations.
Last week, four districts of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers covering the footprint of the 600-mile natural gas project each issued federal water quality permits, known individually as a Nationwide Permit 12. The federal permits govern water quality under Section 404 of the Clean Water Act — which regulates the discharge of water into U.S. waterbodies — and provide guidelines for ACP to abide by when crossing waterbodies.
In Virginia, the project would cross nearly 900 waterbodies and would affect about 80 acres of wetlands and 2,000 linear feet of streams permanently.
