Atlantic Coast Pipeline delay having negative economic impact

In Upshur County, employment went from approximately 700 at peak construction down to a little over 100 employees, according to Dominion Energy communications specialist Samantha Norris. Those 100 employees include environmental control workers, safety supervisors and some administrative support staff, but the laborers who were constructing the pipeline have not been able to proceed.

“The most recent stop work order was a complete shut down, including West Virginia and Upshur County, specifically which was seeing a lot of progress in the 2018 season,”she said. “The impacts were immediate. Right before Christmas, it resulted in layoffs and the delay of hiring more than 4,500 construction laborers across West Virginia, North Carolina, Pennsylvania and Virginia and the supply header project.