State’s Supreme Court upholds right to survey
RICHMOND—In a landmark ruling handed down in mid-July, the Virginia Supreme Court upheld the constitutionality of a state law allowing pipeline companies to survey private properties without landowner permission.
While laws in all 50 states allow pipeline companies and other utilities to survey without landowner permission, some landowners have objected and challenged the laws in the courts. The case in Virginia involved a landowner whose property is located on the route of Dominion Energy’s proposed Atlantic Coast Pipeline.
Dominion Energy welcomed the decision, noting that it is consistent with the rulings of every other state and federal court that has examined the issue.
“We’re hopeful this settles the issue once and for all, so we can continue working cooperatively with landowners to develop infrastructure with minimal impacts on their properties and the environment,” said Dominion spokesman Aaron Ruby.
Ruby explained that more than 90 percent of landowners have given permission to survey their properties and that the surveys play an important role in choosing a route with the least possible impact on landowners and the environment.
Ruby said the surveys have allowed Dominion to make more than 300 route adjustments to avoid environmentally sensitive areas and address individual landowners’ concerns.
“We’ve adjusted the route hundreds of times to avoid sensitive resources like wetlands, wildlife habitats and drinking water sources, and in hundreds of other cases to avoid important features of landowners’ properties,” he said. “We value the important contribution every landowner makes, and we think it’s very important to treat them with fairness and respect. Perhaps the best way to do that is to carefully survey their property so we can choose a route that will have the least impact on their land.”
The Atlantic Coast Pipeline, a joint venture by Dominion Energy, Duke Energy, Piedmont Natural Gas and Southern Co. Gas, will carry natural gas from West Virginia through Virginia and to North Carolina. Ruby called it “a vitally important project” that will generate thousands of jobs and billions in economic activity and help rebuild the region’s manufacturing economy. It is also crucial for electric utilities in Virginia and North Carolina that are in the process of replacing many older coal-fired power plants with a newer fleet of natural gas plants.
Dominion expects final approval from the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission in the fall, with construction to begin as soon as the approval is received. The pipeline should be completed by late 2019.