About
Dominion Resources Inc., along with Duke Energy, Piedmont Natural Gas, and AGL Resources created a joint venture to construct, own, and operate the Atlantic Coast Pipeline. This pipeline will pump natural gas through 550 miles of 42 inch pipe starting in West Virginia and ending in North Carolina. These power companies are planning to use eminent domain, a right reserved strictly for public good, to take and use individual property owners’ land for the construction of their five billion dollar pipeline. Dominion has been looking for a path of least resistance, and has targeted rural communities across the three states. But residents of Nelson County refused to go down without a fight, hoping to protect their beloved land in the heart of the Blue Ridge.
The Pipeline
- The pipeline would cross the Blue Ridge Parkway as it enters Nelson County
- Route 151, designated a Virginia Scenic Byway, would be bisected by the pipeline
- Trenching, clear cutting and blasting the 125 foot construction right of way through the steep slopes, wetlands, and forests on the route would pose considerable risk to groundwater supplies due to sedimentation and fractured bedrock
- Visitors would be discouraged from shopping and visiting due to increased traffic, road closures, and detours, and from the noise and ugliness of blasting and clear cutting on the mountains and in the valleys
- Pipelines are much more likely to negatively affect property values in communities like Nelson County, that are cherished for their rural, scenic, and mountainous environment than in locales with different values and economies
