RE: Mountain Valley Pipeline, #PF15-3-000

Dear Ms. Bose,

I am deeply concerned about the Mountain Valley Pipeline.  It will threaten Virginia's drinking waters, fragment our forests as it cuts across the Blue Ridge Parkway and the Appalachian Trail, contribute to climate change, and impact our recreation and tourist economies.  

The Jefferson National Forest contains some of the last and most contiguously forested areas in the East Coast and some of the highest biodiversity in the northeastern US.  The MVP would permanently fragment these special areas. Fragmentation leads to significant, long-term impacts on species and communities both within and adjacent to the proposed pipeline. 

FERC must consider the impacts to our water resources from construction, operation and maintenance of the MVP.  The project will impact not only our drinking water, but also our native brook trout and other protected, sensitive, rare, threatened and endangered species along or near the route due to disturbance, sedimentation and increases in water temperature. 

I would like to see Virginia meet our energy demands in ways that do not degrade our lands, rivers and forests.  We call on FERC to consider the full environmental, socio-economic, cultural and historical and environmental justice impacts of the Mountain Valley Pipeline, and other pipelines planned in our area, and consider alternatives that will avoid or minimize impacts for the entire region.