A judge said Giles County landowners could not exclude natural gas pipeline surveyors if proper notice was given.

Posted: Monday, August 24, 2015 6:30 pm

By Duncan Adams duncan.adams@roanoke.com 981-3324

CHRISTIANSBURG — Foes of the Mountain Valley Pipeline project suffered a setback Monday when a circuit court judge found that a controversial state law that allows natural gas companies to survey private property without an owner’s permission is not unconstitutional.

Judge Robert Turk’s ruling focused on a Giles County case brought against Mountain Valley Pipeline by eight owners of property in the county who had denied access to route surveyors working for the pipeline company, which wants to build a 300-mile natural gas transmission pipeline from Wetzel County, West Virginia, to Pittsylvania County.

He shared his ruling Monday during a conference call with Wade Massie, a lawyer in Abingdon who represented Mountain Valley Pipeline, and Isak Howell, a lawyer for the plaintiffs who works with Appalachian Mountain Advocates, a West Virginia-based nonprofit organization.

Turk said that Virginia statute 56-49.01 allows a natural gas company to enter private property for surveying even if its owner has denied permission as long as the company has followed the statute’s notification requirements.