UNITED STATES
SECURITIES AND EXCHANGE COMMISSION
Washington, D.C. 20549
FORM
CURRENT REPORT
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Item 7.01. Regulation FD Disclosure.
Mountain Valley Pipeline
Following a comprehensive review of all outstanding stream and wetland crossings across the approximately 300-mile project route for the Mountain Valley Pipeline (MVP), on January 26, 2021, Mountain Valley Pipeline, LLC (the MVP Joint Venture) announced its intention to submit (i) a joint application package to each of the Huntington, Pittsburgh and Norfolk Districts of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (Army Corps) that will request an individual permit from the Army Corps to cross certain streams and wetlands utilizing open cut techniques (the Army Corps Individual Permit) and (ii) an application to amend the project’s Certificate of Public Convenience and Necessity (the Certificate) that will seek Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) authority to cross certain streams and wetlands utilizing alternative trenchless construction methods (collectively, the Announcement).
Equitrans Midstream Corporation (the Company), which will operate the MVP and owned an approximately 46.2% interest in the MVP project as of December 31, 2020, believes this modified approach to seeking authorization to cross all remaining streams and wetlands on the project route, in lieu of continuing to pursue authority under Nationwide Permit 12 and the pending FERC request to amend the Certificate to utilize trenchless construction methods to cross all streams and wetlands for the first 77 miles of the project route, presents the most efficient and effective path to project completion. The Company continues to target a full in-service date for the MVP project in late 2021 at a total project cost of $5.8 billion to $6.0 billion (excluding allowance for funds used during construction).
There are pending legal and regulatory challenges to or otherwise affecting certain aspects of the MVP project that must be resolved before the project can be completed, and the MVP Joint Venture is working to resolve these challenges. In order to complete the project in accordance with the targeted full in-service date and cost, the MVP Joint Venture must, among other things: (i) timely receive the Army Corps Individual Permit, which will require Section 401 water quality certification approvals or waivers from each of the West Virginia Department of Environmental Protection and the Virginia Department of Environmental Quality and certain other state-level approvals; (ii) maintain and, as applicable, timely receive required authorizations, including authorization to proceed with construction, related to the Jefferson National Forest from the Bureau of Land Management, the U.S. Forest Service and the FERC; (iii) timely receive authorization from the FERC to utilize alternative trenchless construction methods for certain stream and wetland crossings; (iv) continue to have available the orders previously issued by the FERC modifying its prior stop work orders and extending the MVP Joint Venture’s prescribed time to complete the MVP project; (v) timely receive authorization from the FERC to complete construction work in the portion of the project route currently remaining subject to the FERC’s previous stop work order; and (vi) continue to be authorized to work under the Biological Opinion and Incidental Take Statement issued by the United States Department of the Interior’s Fish and Wildlife Service for the MVP project, in each case including the continued effectiveness of any such foregoing or other authorizations notwithstanding any pending or future challenge thereto.
The foregoing description of the Announcement is not complete and is qualified in its entirety by reference to the full text of the letter from Mountain Valley Pipeline, LLC to the Army Corps, FERC et al., dated January 26, 2021, which is furnished as Exhibit 99.1 to this Current Report on Form 8-K (Current Report).
The information in this Item 7.01 of this Current Report shall not be deemed to be “filed” for the purposes of Section 18 of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended (Exchange Act), or otherwise subject to the liability of such section, nor shall such information be deemed incorporated by reference in any filing under the Securities Act of 1933, as amended (Securities Act), or the Exchange Act, regardless of the general incorporation language of such filing, except as shall be expressly set forth by specific reference in such filing.
CAUTIONARY STATEMENTS
Disclosures in this Current Report contain certain forward-looking statements within the meaning of Section 21E of the Exchange Act and Section 27A of the Securities Act. Statements that do not relate strictly to historical or current facts are forward-looking. Without limiting the generality of the foregoing, forward-looking statements contained in this Current Report specifically include the expectations of plans, strategies, objectives, and growth and anticipated financial and operational performance of the Company and its affiliates, including guidance regarding the targeted cost, nature and timing of regulatory approvals and authorizations; and final design and targeted in-service date of the MVP project. These statements involve risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from projected results. Accordingly, investors should not place undue reliance on forward-looking statements as a prediction of actual results. The Company has based these forward-looking statements on current expectations and assumptions about future events. While the Company considers these expectations and assumptions to be reasonable, they are inherently subject to significant business, economic, competitive, regulatory and other risks and uncertainties, many of which are difficult to predict and beyond the Company’s control. The risks and uncertainties that may affect the operations, performance and results of the Company’s businesses and forward-looking statements include, but are not limited to, those set forth under Item 1A, “Risk Factors” in the Company’s Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2019, as updated by Part II, Item 1A, “Risk Factors,” of the Company’s Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q for the quarter ended September 30, 2020.
All forward-looking statements speak only as of the date they are made and are based on information available at that time. The Company assumes no obligation to update forward-looking statements to reflect circumstances or events that occur after the date the forward-looking statements were made or to reflect the occurrence of unanticipated events except as required by federal securities laws. As forward-looking statements involve significant risks and uncertainties, caution should be exercised against placing undue reliance on such statements.
Item 9.01. Financial Statements and Exhibits.
(d) Exhibits.
Exhibit No. | Description |
99.1 | Letter from Mountain Valley Pipeline, LLC to the Army Corps, FERC et al., dated January 26, 2021. |
104 | Cover Page Interactive Data File-the cover page XBRL tags are embedded within the Inline XBRL document |
SIGNATURE
Pursuant to the requirements of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, the registrant has duly caused this report to be signed on its behalf by the undersigned hereunto duly authorized.
EQUITRANS MIDSTREAM CORPORATION | ||
Date: January 26, 2021 | By: | /s/ Kirk R. Oliver |
Name: | Kirk R. Oliver | |
Title: | Senior Vice President and Chief Financial Officer |
Exhibit 99.1
January 26, 2021
Attached Service List
(Via Email Only)
Re: Mountain Valley Pipeline Project
LRH-2015-00592-GBR; LPR-2015-798; NAO-2017-0898
FERC Dockets Nos. CP16-10 and CP21-12
To Service List:
Mountain Valley Pipeline, LLC (“Mountain Valley”) submits this letter to provide an update on the status of the Mountain Valley Pipeline Project (“Project”) and outline several actions Mountain Valley intends to take to expedite the orderly completion of the Project.
There remains a critical need to complete the Project promptly to meet the natural gas needs of industrial, utility, and other consumers that are relying on Mountain Valley for natural gas. Mountain Valley has worked diligently to resolve the legal, regulatory, and permitting challenges necessary to achieve the completion of construction and minimize its overall impact on the environment.
Although the Project has been largely constructed, substantial segments of the right-of-way remain disturbed but temporarily stabilized. Mountain Valley cannot permanently restore the soils and vegetation on these segments of the right-of-way until construction is complete. We have also heard from many landowners along the route who have suffered from the delays caused by ongoing legal challenges that they want Mountain Valley to complete the construction, achieve final restoration and return their lands for their private use. Therefore, the best environmental outcome for water quality, aquatic and terrestrial habitat, and the interests of landowners in the vicinity of the Project is for construction to be completed as soon as possible. We believe that the recent issuance of the Biological Opinion and the authorizations for completing work in the Jefferson National Forest support the timely resolution of remaining regulatory proceedings.
Approvals to cross streams and wetlands are the only major regulatory authorizations outstanding. Mountain Valley firmly believes that the respective Nationwide Permit 12 verifications issued by the United States Army Corps of Engineers’ Huntington, Pittsburgh, and Norfolk Districts (“Corps”) in September 2020, were lawful and that the pending legal challenges to those verifications are unfounded. In November 2020, Mountain Valley submitted a request to the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (“FERC”) in Docket No. CP21-12 to authorize trenchless crossings in the first 77 miles of the project, which remains pending.
Mountain Valley Letter to USACOE, FERC, WVDEP and VDEQ
January 26, 2021
Page 2
Regardless of the legal efficacy of the above-pending actions, Mountain Valley has evaluated the timing, resources and Project-related impacts required to rely on or further pursue these authorizations and has concluded that the most efficient and effective path to Project completion is to seek a comprehensive review of all outstanding water body and wetland crossings by contemporaneously submitting new permit and certificate amendment applications to the Corps and FERC, respectively.
Mountain Valley intends to submit a joint application package to the Corps’ Huntington, Pittsburgh, and Norfolk Districts requesting an individual permit to implement open cut techniques for certain water bodies and wetlands under Section 404 of the Clean Water Act and will address streams regulated by Section 10 of the Rivers and Harbors Act. Throughout the process of permitting and building the Project, Mountain Valley has continually sought to minimize its environmental footprint and implement best practices. Those efforts will be reflected in the forthcoming application, which will include a detailed evaluation of the practicable methods to avoid and minimize aquatic and terrestrial impacts through thoughtful, objective, and consistent environmentally based decisions, and sound construction practices.
Concurrent with the submission of the individual permit application to the Corps, Mountain Valley intends to submit a new certificate amendment application to FERC. This application will encompass all remaining crossings for the full project route not included in the individual permit application and seek authorization to change the crossing method for certain water bodies and wetlands from previously approved open cut techniques to trenchless methods as well as any other FERC approvals necessary to complete the Project. Mountain Valley intends to withdraw its existing application in Docket No. CP21-12.
Mountain Valley believes these concurrent and comprehensive submissions will allow the Corps and FERC to coordinate their respective technical and environmental reviews of the proposed Project changes efficiently and avoid unnecessary duplication of effort. Mountain Valley also believes the time and resource necessary to complete these reviews should be minimized by the fact that the forthcoming submissions will consist primarily of minor changes to construction practices that address the environmental impacts the Corps and FERC have already considered.
In preparation for the application to the Districts, Mountain Valley will notify the West Virginia Department of Environmental Protection (“WVDEP”) and the Virginia Department of Environmental Quality (“VDEQ”) of its intent to request water quality certifications under Section 401 of the Clean Water Act. No sooner than thirty (30) days from the date of those notices, Mountain Valley will submit water quality certification requests to WVDEP and VDEQ, with copies to the Districts. Mountain Valley will work closely with WVDEP and VDEQ to provide any information needed to make certification decisions within a reasonable period as determined by the Corps. Similar to the federal agencies, the amount of state resources necessary complete these reviews should be minimized by the fact that the forthcoming submissions will build upon the applications previously considered by the respective state agencies.
Mountain Valley Letter to USACOE, FERC, WVDEP and VDEQ
January 26, 2021
Page 3
To facilitate the Districts’ review of the forthcoming application Mountain Valley will request that the Corps’ Huntington, Pittsburgh, and Norfolk Districts administratively revoke the previously issued Nationwide Permit 12 verifications for the Project when appropriate. At that point, we expect to seek dismissal of the existing litigation challenging those verifications as moot.
Mountain Valley acknowledges that Project opponents will likely challenge any regulatory action that achieves Project completion. While we may differ on certain issues, we believe that there is common ground for all stakeholders to agree that at this juncture, the best path forward for environmental protection and affected landowners is for the Project to be completed and for the remainder of the right-of-way to be restored as soon as possible. To that end, Mountain Valley welcomes the opportunity to work with any stakeholder in a productive manner to address environmental protection concerns and ensure that best practices are implemented to complete the Project. We repeat our invitation to engage in a constructive dialogue and remain committed to resolving stakeholder concerns.
If you have any questions, please contact me at tnormane@equitransmidstream.com.
Respectfully submitted, | |
MOUNTAIN VALLEY PIPELINE, LLC | |
by and through its operator, | |
EQM Gathering Opco, LLC | |
By: | |
/s/ Todd Normane | |
Todd Normane | |
Deputy General Counsel |
cc: FERC Dockets CP16-10 and CP21-12
Mountain Valley Letter to USACOE, FERC, WVDEP and VDEQ
January 26, 2021
Page 4
Service List
Via Email Only
Michael E. Hatten, USACOE
Scott A. Hans, USACOE
William T. Walker, USACOE
Terry L. Turpin, FERC
Harold Ward, WVDEP
Kathy Emery, WVDEP
Scott Mandirola, WVDEP
Brian Bridgewater, WVDEP
David Paylor, VDEQ
Melanie Davenport, DEQ
David Davis, DEQ
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Cover |
Jan. 26, 2021 |
---|---|
Cover [Abstract] | |
Document Type | 8-K |
Amendment Flag | false |
Document Period End Date | Jan. 26, 2021 |
Entity File Number | 001-38629 |
Entity Registrant Name | Equitrans Midstream Corporation |
Entity Central Index Key | 0001747009 |
Entity Tax Identification Number | 83-0516635 |
Entity Incorporation, State or Country Code | PA |
Entity Address, Address Line One | 2200 Energy Drive |
Entity Address, City or Town | Canonsburg |
Entity Address, State or Province | PA |
Entity Address, Postal Zip Code | 15317 |
City Area Code | 724 |
Local Phone Number | 271-7600 |
Written Communications | false |
Soliciting Material | false |
Pre-commencement Tender Offer | false |
Pre-commencement Issuer Tender Offer | false |
Title of 12(b) Security | Common Stock, no par value |
Trading Symbol | ETRN |
Security Exchange Name | NYSE |
Entity Emerging Growth Company | false |
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