The USFS, with the BLM as a cooperating agency, prepared a Supplemental Environmental Impact Statement (SEIS) pursuant to the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) analyzing the environmental effects of Mountain Valley Pipeline (MVP) project. On January 14, 2021, the BLM issued a Record of Decision (ROD) for the Mountain Valley Pipeline (MVP) project. The ROD documents the Department of the Interior’s (DOI or Department) decision and rationale for approving a right-of-way (ROW) and temporary use permit (TUP) for the MVP project on federal lands under the jurisdiction of the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) Forest Service (FS) in Virginia and West Virginia. 

A copy of the ROD can be found in the "Documents" portion of this webpage. More information about this project and the availability of SEIS documents can be found on the USFS Jefferson National Forest's project page at: https://www.fs.usda.gov/detail/gwj/landmanagement/projects/?cid=stelprd3827827 

Project History: 

The original application was received by the BLM in January 2016 and a Congressional Notification letter was sent on July 6, 2016. The BLM participated as a cooperating agency, along with the FS and U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE), in the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission's (FERC) preparation of the MVP and Equitrans Expansion Project (EEP) Final Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) (82 FR 29539 (June 29, 2017)). The USFS signed a record of decision (ROD) to amend the Jefferson National Forest Land and Resource Management Plan (LRMP) on December 1, 2017. The BLM signed a ROD approving an MLA right-of-way to cross USFS and US Army Corps of Engineers lands for the MVP project on December 20, 2017, and issued the ROW grant to Mountain Valley on December 28, 2017 (see the ePlanning page for details regarding this past project here: https://eplanning.blm.gov/eplanning-ui/project/75521/510). Both the USFS ROD and BLM ROD were subsequently challenged. On July 27, 2018, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit (Fourth Circuit) vacated and remanded the BLM's ROD and ROW grant, as well as the USFS' ROD. On October 10, 2018, the Fourth Circuit issued a judgment clarifying that the BLM ROD and ROW grant were vacated only as to the lands within the Jefferson National Forest, and that the BLM's ROW grant for 60 feet along USACE lands along the Weston and Gauley Bridge Turnpike Trail in West Virginia remained valid.