Challenge filed to WVa permit for Mountain Valley Pipeline

CHARLESTON, W.Va. (AP) — Opponents of the Mountain Valley Pipeline filed a legal challenge Monday to a West Virginia water permit for the natural gas project.

The petition filed by environmental and community groups argues that the state Department of Environmental Protection violated the Clean Water Act in granting the permit. The Sierra Club was among the groups that filed the petition with the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.

A challenge was filed last month involving a similar permit in Virginia. The 303-mile pipeline would take natural gas drilled from the Marcellus and Utica shale formations and transport it through West Virginia and Virginia.

Attempts to kill the $6.2 billion project have so far failed. Five energy companies constructing the pipeline say it’s necessary to provide natural gas along the East Coast.