The State Journal 

The Brushy Fork Construction Yard, located just a few miles outside of Buckhannon, is the base of operations for hundreds of contract workers employed to help Dominion Energy build a section of its Atlantic Coast Pipeline project.

The ambitious pipeline project, which will carry natural gas from West Virginia along a 600 mile route to public utilities in Virginia and North Carolina to generate electricity, heat homes and power local businesses, has faced setbacks in recent months due to legal challenges and regulatory hurdles.

The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission issued an order Monday allowing full construction to resume in all areas of the pipeline, just over month after ordering a work stoppage in the wake of a U.S. Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals ruling that nixed Dominion’s proposed right-of-way crossing of the Blue Ridge Parkway and vacated an Incidental Take Statement issued by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.

By Friday morning the gravel parking lot adjacent to the Brushy Fork Construction Yard was a sea of heavy duty pickup trucks — Fords, Chevys, Dodges and a few Toyotas — belonging to the site’s diverse workforce. While many of the trucks displayed West Virginia license plates, there were also plates mixed in from far away states like Wisconsin, Montana and Alaska.

Mike Cozad, community liaison with the Atlantic Coast Pipeline, said the site is home to roughly 500 contract workers employed by Michaels Corporation.

“We’ve got 422 union guys plus we have probably another 75 or so administration and management folks and inspectors,” he said. “So you’re talking right around 500.”

These workers are responsible for work on what’s known as “Spread 2-1” of the Atlantic Coast Pipeline, Cozad said.

“It’s the second segment of pipe that’s being put in the ground for 2018,” he said. “There is one up in Jane Lew, another one here, another one in Randolph County and another one in Pocahontas County.

Spread 2-1 is the most developed of the state’s sites, Cozad said.

“This is the one that we’ve got the most progress on this year so far,” he said. “We’re trying to put in 17 miles of pipeline this year. We started back in the spring and we hope to get most of that in by December.”

Construction will have to be halted during the winter months due to weather and to allow workers to spend time with their families over the holiday season, Cozad said.

“We probably will down for about three months,” he said. “The winter makes it a little bit too unsafe to be out there so we keep that in mind. Saftey is No. 1. So based on that we shut down.”

A fraction of the workforce will stay on over the winter, Cozad said.

“There will still be a number of support staff and management staff doing the planing for next year who will stay here throughout the winter,” he said. “But the majority of those folks — the laborers and the operators — will be going home for the most part. We do have to keep an environmental stabilization crew here to handle anything that’s occurring out on the right of way. So if something happens — if we get some erosion — we have to handle that throughout the year.”

The Brushy Fork Construction Yard is a sprawling site, occupying about 45 acres, Cozad said.

“It’s like a small city,” he said. “This was all just an open field (before work began).”

Michaels Corporation’s construction contract with the Atlantic Coast Pipeline stipulates that it must hire at least 50 percent of its workforce from the local area, Cozad said.

For workers like Aaron Ware, a laborer and Buckhannon resident, this means an opportunity to stay close to family throughout the project.

“It’s great,” he said. “I’ve never worked this close to home before. I’ve always been out of town and out of the state mostly. To be home every night is nice.”

Mary Workman, a teamster and warehouse worker on the site, said Brushy Fork is just a 30 minute commute from her home in Beverly.

While local workers are able to go home and sleep in their own beds each night, many out of state workers have taken up residence in one of the many RV parking lots near the site.

More than a dozen RV can be seen just across the street from the entrance to the Brushy Fork site on a nearby hillside. The RVs — which range from small campers to large tourbus-sized models — look like a makeshift community. There were cars and motorcycles parked near some, camp chairs and grills outside of others and even a few potted plants next to doorsteps.

Many of these sites have popped up since contraction began at the site, Ware said.

“They’ve put in several camps or RV parks,” he said. “We only had one or two, maybe, before this. Now, they’re all over the place.”

While much of the site’s activity came to a halt during the recently ordered work stoppage, things have picked up significantly over the last week, Workman said.

“It’s kept us very busy,” she said. “I know in the warehouse we’re in full swing. We’ve run out of everything everyday, pretty much. We’re having to restock everything.”

All of the activity in and around the Brushy Fork site have given a needed boost to the surrounding local economy, Ware said.

“I think it’s good for the community,” he said. “As far as local and small businesses go, it’s been really good for them.”

Atlantic Coast Pipeline LLC is comprised of four major U.S. energy companies: Dominion Energy, Duke Energy, Piedmont Natural Gas and Southern Company Gas.

The total cost pipeline project is estimated be “at least $6 billion,” according to the Associated Press.

According to information on the project’s website, the pipeline is estimated to generate 17,240 jobs across West Virginia, Virginia and North Carolina and bring more than $2.7 billion in total economic activity.

The project is expected to be completed in “late-2019,” according to Atlantic Coast Pipeline spokesman Aaron Ruby.

Read the full article and more in The State Journal.