Dominion Energy and Duke Energy have cancelled plans to build the Atlantic Coast Pipeline (ACP) project, a natural gas pipeline that would have stretched for hundreds of miles across West Virginia, Virginia and North Carolina.
The Virginia Outdoors Foundation began working in 2014 to ensure that the ACP would avoid VOF easements and were successful in this endeavor when pipeline route changes avoided 33 open space easements. In 2017, VOF learned that the federally approved pipeline route would send it through 10 of its open-space easements in Highland, Bath, Augusta and Nelson counties. VOF required the developers to follow a process under state law known as “conversion of open space,” which kept the easements in place but permitted a highly specific and restrictive underground right-of-way for the pipeline. The process also resulted in VOF’s acquisition of two large, pristine open-space properties—Hayfields Reserve in Highland County and Rockfish Reserve in Nelson County.
Now that the Atlantic Coast Pipeline Project has been cancelled, VOF will continue to own and manage the Hayfields Reserve and Rockfish Reserve for the public’s benefit. Additionally, we are working with our legal team, our landowners and the developers to better understand the impacts of the ACP cancellation on the right-of-way agreements on the 10 easements. We will provide updates as we learn more.