The U.S. Forest Service said Monday that it is seeking comments on whether to allow surveys of a 14.3-mile portion of the George Washington National Forest for the Atlantic Coast Pipeline. The Forest Service said the environmental surveys would include wetlands, water, soil and suitable habitat for several species, including federally-listed threatened and endangered plants and animals. The surveys would also include and document cultural resources and invasive species.
The Richmond-based company proposing the controversial Atlantic Coast Pipeline appeared at last week’s Nelson County Board of Supervisors meeting to present updated information on the 564-mile natural gas project slated to come through Nelson.
Friends of Wintergreen, a Nelson County nonprofit, recently submitted alternate routes for the proposed Atlantic Coast Pipeline to the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission....Since Richmond-based Dominion announced plans for the natural gas pipeline in 2014, public opposition among many in Nelson has been fierce. Friends of Wintergreen formed in late August and hired “the best” pipeline engineers, environmental consultants and lawyers it could find, Ansell said.
A Charlottesville company presented the potential economic effects of the proposed Atlantic Coast Pipeline to the Nelson County Board of Supervisors at its Dec. 8 meeting. Key-Log Economics, LLC was hired by Friends of Nelson, a group strongly opposed to the 564-mile ACP project, to analyze the economic effects of the pipeline.
William Everette “Billy” Mays, the Nelson sheriff’s office investigator who led the Alexis Murphy missing teen case, was indicted on two counts of election fraud November 24. Mays ran for sheriff and lost to David Hill in the November election. Both men were the subjects of Virginia State Police investigations after a private citizen complained that neither lived in Nelson County.
Butch Church praised staff and members of a volunteer committee for conscientious bird-dogging of a proposed and deeply controversial interstate natural gas pipeline. Church, a lame duck member of the Roanoke County Board of Supervisors, characterized those efforts as “above and beyond.”
David Hill won the Nelson County’s Sheriff’s race on Tuesday after months of campaigning against three others. Most everyone in Nelson was watching the sheriff’s race this year, which brought in four new candidates after David Brooks announced his retirement back in January.
Some motorists on Virginia 151 in Nelson County were greeted with a large white “wall” made up of white gauzy fabric wrapped around trees Sunday, a visual image tied to an event called “Prayers Not Pipelines.” The wall is not a form of protest but rather was intended to send out a peaceful message in hopes that Dominion Resources will change the path of the proposed Atlantic Coast Pipeline that is planned to run through Nelson.
Organizers in Nelson County demonstrated peacefully Sunday with small prayer flags, calling for an end to plans for the Atlantic Coast Pipeline. Jill Averitt and her husband, Richard, spoke of the danger they felt this pipeline would do to their property and their homes in Nellysford.
Richard Averitt envisions Nelson County to be one day much like the Napa and Sonoma valleys in California — a bucolic atmosphere with a culture that includes wineries, breweries and distilleries.