In a significant victory for environmental groups and other opponents of the Mountain Valley Pipeline, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 4th Circuit in Richmond has vacated approvals that allowed the 300-mile natural gas pipeline, which is currently under construction, to cross the Jefferson National Forest near the Virginia-West Virginia border. “MVP’s proposed project would be the largest pipeline of its kind to cross the Jefferson National Forest,” the opinion says. In the case of the Forest Service, the court ruled that agency failed to make an independent review of the risk of increased sedimentation in the Jefferson National Forest as a result of pipeline construction. “We discern no evidence that the Forest Service undertook the required independent review of the EIS’s sedimentation analysis. Nor can we ascertain how the Forest Service concluded that its comments had been satisfied, especially after havingexpressed such grave concerns about the sedimentation,” Judge Stephanie Thacker wrote.