Dominion submitted a pre-filing request to FERC on Tuesday, asking regulators to begin an environmental review of its proposed $500 million Supply Header project in Pennsylvania and West Virginia.

The Supply Header project calls for construction of about 34 miles of natural gas pipeline loop along existing rights-of-way. About four miles of 30-inch diameter pipeline would be built in Westmoreland County, PA, along with 30 miles of 36-inch diameter pipeline in West Virginia’s Doddridge, Harrison, Tyler and Wetzel counties.

The project also calls for modifications and upgrades at two existing Dominion compressor stations in Pennsylvania (JB Tonkin Station in Westmoreland County and Crayne Station in Greene County), and two in West Virginia (Mockingbird Hill Station in Wetzel County and Burch Ridge Station in Marshall County). The modifications will result in approximately 75,000 hp of additional compression.

A Dominion subsidiary, Dominion Transmission Inc., would build and operate the Supply Header project, which would provide an additional 1.5 Bcf/d of firm transportation. One of the project’s main customers would be Atlantic Coast Pipeline LLC, a joint venture of Dominion, Duke Energy, Piedmont Natural Gas and AGL Resources (see Daily GPI, Oct. 31).

“The Supply Header project is another example of the many opportunities Dominion has to help fill the significant need for new infrastructure to bring prolific supplies throughout the Marcellus and Utica basins to market,” said Diane Leopold, president of Dominion’s energy unit.

According to Dominion, the review process that will be conducted by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) will include soliciting input “from numerous local, state and federal entities, and private citizens. Public safety, air quality, water resources, geology, soils, wildlife and vegetation, threatened and endangered species, land and visual resources, cultural and historic resources, noise, cumulative impacts and reasonable alternatives are fully examined. The project will need the approvals of federal, state and local environmental regulatory agencies before construction can begin.”

Dominion said it expects to file an application to FERC for the project in September 2015 and receive a certificate of public convenience and necessity in summer 2016. Construction would begin shortly thereafter.