In response to a recently adopted route variation in northwestern Buckingham, Satchidananda Ashram-–Yogaville said the Atlantic Coast Pipeline, (ACP) LLC is proceeding with plans for the proposed natural gas pipeline without proper understanding of its harm.

Ernie Moore, Yogaville’s executive director, said in a press release that the ACP would cause harm to “our communities and to the beautiful, peaceful areas we treasure.”

“Yogaville is a retreat center devoted to a quiet, contemplative lifestyle where meditation is one of our daily spiritual practices. The disruption that this pipeline would bring is unacceptable,” he said.

ACP, LLC recently announced its adoption of a route variation that would avoid impacts within a wetland mitigation site and potential impacts on the proposed Warminster Rural Historic District along the James River.

The route variation, which would place the proposed 550-mile natural gas pipeline closer to the Yogaville community according to the ACP maps, was noted in additional information submitted Oct. 30 to the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) — the body that could approve the joint venture being led by Dominion.

Moore said that Yogaville decided to become an intervenor in the FERC application process that ACP, LLC is involved in.

“Being an intervenor gives us the means to file relevant information that the [FERC] must consider in the decision-making process regarding the pipeline,” he said.

“Yogaville is also requesting that FERC conduct a Programmatic Environmental Impact Statement (PEIS). A PEIS would require FERC to review the collective environmental impact of all four pipelines that are now being proposed for our region: the Mountain Valley Pipeline, the Appalachian Connector and the WB Express,” he said.