The News Leader
by Gabe Cavallaro

FISHERSVILLE, Va.— Over 200 people funneled into Augusta Expo in Fishersville Thursday for the Atlantic Coast Pipeline's information fair for contractors, vendors and laborers interested in getting involved with construction on the project.

They actually decided to open the doors early for the event, as people had lined up outside the building awaiting entry, said Brittany Woodson, who handles community outreach for the pipeline. After the busy start to the event in the late morning, things died down around the lunch hour and by 1 p.m. the crowd thinned to a handful of people.

Charles Dennison, owner of Blue Ridge Fencing in Mount Sidney, said he had no idea what to expect, but came out because he's hoping to expand his business and is looking for opportunities.

He said he's in favor of the project, as is Charles Hupman, an excavating contractor from Highland County, who made the drive down to Fishersville to see what kinds of opportunities he might find.

The pipeline's routed to run straight through Hupman's hometown, but he said he thinks it's economically necessary.

"Somebody has to pay the bills because they're surely mounting up," he said.

Not everyone there agreed on that point though, as Johann Zimmermann, a Harrisonburg engineer who was there out of interest in seeing how the pipeline is being constructed, said he thinks it would be wiser in the long-run to invest in reducing energy consumption through increased efficiency, like better-insulated buildings and more fuel-efficient lighting, machines, equipment and vehicles.

"This investment creates and provides more jobs in the long run than the short term employment that a pipeline construction project provides," Zimmermann said. "This investment has a much higher economic payback for the general population, whereas the payback from a pipeline lines the pockets of the energy companies alone."

He said he understands the job opportunity local construction workers see in the pipeline, but that in the long run he doesn't see it as the answer to meeting the country's energy and labor needs.

The ACP has promised an estimated "17,000 jobs, $2.7 billion in economic activity and $4.2 million in annual local tax revenue" across communities in Virginia, West Virginia and North Carolina, according to official pipeline literature, citing the following examples in a brochure:

• "Approximately 7,200 and 5,600 construction workers will be needed during peak construction in 2018 and 2019, respectively
• Approximately 1,360 mainline inspectors will be needed during peak construction
• 75 construction workers for each of the three proposed compressor stations
• 30 construction workers for each of the seven proposed metering and regulating stations
• Approximately 50 percent of craft and trade workers will be hired through local unions"

Thursday's event was the third of seven construction expos being held along the pipeline route. The first in Bridgeport, West Virginia, Tuesday, saw over 300 people attend and more than 100 local businesses sign up in the vendor registry, and the second in Elkins, West Virginia, Wednesday, had over 200 people present, Dominion spokesperson Aaron Ruby said.

There weren't any pipeline opponents protesting at the expo in Fishersville, though there was a man passing out "No Pipeline: Save Nelson County!" brochures, published by Friends of Nelson, outside in the parking lot.

Though the ACP still faces regulatory approvals before construction can begin, the pipeline group has not shied away from a late 2017 anticipated start date for construction, with plans for it to go into service by late 2019.

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