1999 USGS image of debris flows associated with Roberts Mt. and vicinity; ACP route marked in blue.

At the Friends of Nelson public meeting on June 30, 2019, Anne Witt, a Geohazards Geologist from the Virginia Department of Mines, Minerals and Energy, presented her preliminary work on a VDEM-FEMA Pre-Disaster Mitigation Grant Project. This project is to develop a risk assessment of landslides in western Albemarle and Nelson counties based on previous landslide events that occurred largely during Hurricane Camille, and utilizes remote sensing of landslides in the study area using LIDAR (Light Detection and Ranging) scanning technology.

Friends of Nelson Board Member Jim Bolton has used some of Witt’s findings, including maps and LIDAR images, in his August 2, 2019, letter to FERC, filed as a Motion to Intervene. He says, “Clearly, these new data render the claim made in the FEIS, that ‘Atlantic incorporated a route alternative (the East of Lovingston Major Route Alternative) to avoid the debris flows and other features identified by the USGS,’ substantially less accurate (and potentially more misleading) than previously thought, and in fact, function to reinforce the already convincing evidence summarized above that the conclusions of the EIS are flawed, and that rather than avoiding them, the current route cuts directly through some of the areas of highest density of debris slides and flows.”

Bolton states in his conclusion that “the risk to public safety is significantly exacerbated when pipeline projects are constructed through areas of steep slopes, especially those that have historically experienced major soil slippage, and it is increasingly apparent that the analysis of the evidence in the EIS regarding the threat for increased debris flow activity along the ACP’s route through Nelson County, and other areas of similar terrain, is both incomplete and seriously flawed. Furthermore, the appearance of new data showing that the pre-existing disturbance of soils covering the steep terrain of Nelson County may actually be even more prevalent than thought previously, must amount to additional grounds for reconsideration of the ACP’s permit of public necessity and convenience. The Commission is therefore called upon not only to take any time that may be required to thoroughly revisit this situation, but also to review, on an ongoing basis, any emerging data that are relevant, and to take them, and their implications for public safety, into account in any subsequent decisions that may become appropriate and/or necessary in the future, and especially in any consideration of alternate routing that may be made necessary by subsequent court decisions.”

Read the full Motion to Intervene here.