The lack of an alternate entrance to Wintergreen could spell disaster during an emergency, say fire officials. Congressman Dennis Riggleman has met with the National Park Service about securing a route through the Blue Ridge Parkway. (File Photo)
There’s only one way in and one way out of Wintergreen, where residents and the local fire department have called for a second emergency exit for more than a decade, and where the topography is strikingly similar to that of Gatlinburg, Tennessee—the site of the November 2016 inferno that killed 14 people and injured nearly 200 more.
“Looking at the history of fires in other resort areas with one egress route, I found it striking that it wasn’t done yet,” says Congressman Denver Riggleman, who thought approving a 450-foot second route would be fairly simple. But because the emergency exit would lead to the federally protected Blue Ridge Parkway, approving it has been a challenge.
In March, Riggleman met with the National Park Service, which will need to sign off on an easement before anyone can enter or exit from the desired point.
“The national park is very heavily regulated, as it should be,” says Wintergreen Fire and Rescue Chief Curtis Sheets. “They’re trying to preserve it in its natural state for perpetuity. We get that.”
But, says Sheets, “We want to do this in a way that has the absolute least impact to the environment as possible,” and the best place to put it would be the relatively level corridor between the northwestern corner of the Wintergreen property and the parkway.
It’s crucial to have an emergency way out of the community, which can host as many as 10,000 people on a holiday weekend, because “if something were to happen, then we could get people out of harm’s way. We just want to do all we can,” the chief says.
The best time to have dealt with it would have been in the ’70s, when Wintergreen was built, he adds.
“We admit that it was a mistake,” says Sheets. “Nobody should have ever built a community as large as Wintergreen with only one entry and exit point, but now we’re trying to fix that.”
While some folks who live at the resort worry that a second exit would be abused as a shortcut, Sheets says the fire department could drive two steel beams into the ground with a cable stretched across them, “and we could just cut the cable if we have a catastrophe.”
Another thing worrying some Wintergreen residents is the Atlantic Coast Pipeline, which is drafted to cross the sole entrance to the community.
“If the pipeline crosses that entrance and explodes, it could be a catastrophe with up to 10,000 people trapped on the mountain and no way to get out,” says resident David Schwiesow, who notes that the 42-inch high pressure natural gas pipe would be difficult to control if it blows, because the cut-off valves will be between 12 and 15 miles apart.
If the emergency route is approved, the issue then becomes figuring out what to do with the folks who are ushered to the Blue Ridge Parkway, which is closed by the park service during big storms, instances of downed trees, and ice or snow, says Schwiesow.
There’s been some discussion of having Nelson County school buses come to the rescue, he says.
“But they don’t have to, and there aren’t enough of them to transport 10,000 people,” Schwiesow says. “Not to be negative, but there are a whole lot of practical issues to be resolved.”
Locals call the swath of clear-cutting near Wintergreen the “Tuesday Chainsaw Massacre.”
Photo Ben Cunningham
A “jumbled mess” of hundreds of clear-cut trees still lie at the entrance to Wintergreen, across Route 664 and up the side of Piney Mountain.
Dominion Energy started knocking them down to make way for its Atlantic Coast Pipeline in Nelson County on March 6, a day the locals now refer to as the “Tuesday Chainsaw Massacre.”
Because the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission ordered the company to quell its tree felling until the fall to respect the flight patterns of migratory birds and the state’s population of endangered Indiana bats, it’s been awful quiet in Nelson County—but probably not for long.
Wintergreen resident David Schwiesow estimates that the company building the pipeline has only completed 10 percent of its total destruction in his area.
“Dominion will be coming back to continue the rape of Piney Mountain,” he says, estimating that 7,000 trees, plus rhododendrons, mountain laurel and other ground cover will be cut before it’s all said and done. “So the worst is yet to come at Wintergreen.”
When FERC approved construction of the ACP in October and prohibited Dominion from clearing trees from mid-March to September in Virginia, Dominion agreed. But as the time to stop cutting came closer, the company asked for permission to extend its clearing period by two months—a request that FERC denied on March 28.
“We are cautiously optimistic that FERC will stick to this decision,” says Schwiesow. “In the past, FERC has rubber stamped everything Dominion has requested.”
The clear-cutting has devastated those living near it, he says.
“Wintergreen residents are horrified by the destruction, including many who hadn’t really paid attention to the issue,” he continues. “One neighbor of ours on Fortune’s Ridge told us that she pulled off [Route] 664, got out of her car, looked at the destruction and just started to cry.”
The Department of Environmental Equality has cited Dominion for at least 15 clear-cutting violations, and the Wintergreen resident says he and other pipeline opponents are reporting a couple more from the alleged damage done in their neck of the woods. They’ve measured trees cut within 50 feet of a stream across the entrance to the resort, and also within 50 feet of the south fork of the Rockfish River on the other side of Route 664, aka Beech Grove Road.
“Dominion is arrogant and seems to believe that they’re above the law,” says Schwiesow.
Dominion spokesperson Aaron Ruby says his company wasn’t able to clear all the trees they’d hoped to this year, so that work will be pushed into the fall and the beginning of next year.
In the meantime, contractors are clearing and grading at ACP compressor station sites, and after they get a few remaining approvals this spring, they’ll start constructing the pipeline along the 200 miles of the route that have already been cleared from West Virginia, through Virginia and into North Carolina. They’re still on track to wrap up construction by the end of next year, he says.
That doesn’t bode well for the heavy opposition that has amassed since the project was proposed in September 2014.
On St. Patrick’s Day weekend, Schwiesow attended a protest at the resort’s entrance with about 100 other pipeline opponents, including his wife, Nancy, who gave a short speech.
“To some, it feels like the end of the fight,” she said to the crowd. “Dominion has won. But that is wrong.
I am more angry, upset and determined to fight Dominion and its despicable pipeline than I ever have been.”
Skiing, snowboarding, skating or tubing: on your feet or on your rear, straight or in circles,
down the hill or up and over the obstacles—however you like to slide and however you like your winter sports, Wintergreen Resort in Nelson County’s Rockfish Valley has a hill, a park, a rink, and a great white way for it. The four-season resort boasts 130 slide-able acres with 24 ski and snowboard slopes and trails, two terrain parks, the state’s largest tubing park, and a snow park for young kids. If it’s cold, there is joyful motion on Wintergreen’s 11,000 acres, situated on the eastern slopes of the Blue Ridge Mountains.
“The breadth of recreational opportunities at Wintergreen makes it one of the most varied and complete resorts in the country,” says Rod Kessler, the new General Manager of Wintergreen Resort. “The possibilities for what can be done to maximize the guest experience here were too intriguing to pass up.”
Makin’ Snow Wintergreen’s state-of-the-art computerized snow system, dubbed Snowpower, was installed during the winter of 2002 and 2003 and has been upgraded frequently since. The super system uses some 40,000 linear feet of pipeline, more than 400 snow guns, and 45 weather stations.
Capable of converting 8,000 gallons of water per minute into snow, this complex system makes twice as much snow twice as fast as the previous system, giving Wintergreen’s snow sports surfaces a uniform depth and consistency of snow quality from the top of the slopes to the bottom. The system also allows the resort to recover more quickly from rain or unseasonably warm periods, making possible its extended snow sports season. It also makes Wintergreen the East Coast’s only resort with an automated snow making system that covers all its slopes.
As is typical for this part of Virginia, this year’s long term weather forecast calls for a prolonged cold wave beginning right around mid-December. Wintergreen’s snow season begins then and runs through mid-March. But how often can snow fans really expect to find the stuff?
“The science of snowmaking depends on temperature, humidity, wind speed and direction, adiabatic lapse rate, and more,” notes Wintergreen spokesman Mark Fischer. (The adiabatic lapse rate—for those of us who were liberal arts majors—is the rate at which atmospheric temperature decreases with increasing altitude in conditions of thermal equilibrium). “But as a rule of thumb, if it’s 27 degrees Fahrenheit outside, Wintergreen slopes will be white.”
Snow Play Wintergreen hosts about 200,000 total visitors a year, and skiing is by far its most popular winter sport. About 75,000 visitors come to ski. Another 25,000 come to snowboard. Twenty-eight percent of Wintergreen’s snowy terrain is considered suitable for beginners, while 16 percent is more difficult; 44 percent is more challenging yet, and 12 percent is for experts only.Ski slopes include the Cliffhanger, a double-black-diamond expert hill, and Outer Limits, a 2,000-foot single-black-diamond. Eagles Swoop and Tyro are for intermediate skiers. Upper & Lower Dobie are for beginners.
Wintergreen’s Terrain Park is the place to hone freestyle ski skills. It’s progression of more than 40 features is designed to accommodate a variety of skill levels. Frequent changes to the layout of those features keep it challenging even for daredevils. On any given day the park might feature tabletops and fun boxes, spines and hips, straight, rainbow, and s-rails, battleships and down-kinks. A dedicated lift takes users back up the slope fast—but not as fast as they go down!
Virginia’s largest tubing park, the Plunge, is built on a hill longer than three football fields. Tubing fans (ages 6 and up, and at least 42 inches tall) zoom down this “Scream Machine” at speeds up to 30 mph, then take a conveyor lift back up and do it again.Slide, glide and spin fans can enjoy the 45×90 foot Shamokin Ice Rink located in the heart of the mountain village, just off the Blue Ridge Terrace. Refrigerated by a 125-ton chiller, it accommodates up to 60 people at a time.
Fun While Learning Wintergreen Resort offers ski and snowboard instruction for all ages and ability levels based on the American Teaching System. The five-week Mountain Mornings ski program for kids ages 3-6 includes approximately two hours of on-snow time per lesson, a four-hour lift ticket, and rental equipment. Parents are encouraged to ski for free, or relax in the Terrace Café while their kids learn. The Treehouse offers half and full-day programs for kids 4-14, plus childcare for kids 2 and a half to 12. The Childcare + Snowplay for ages 3 and up is a full-day program offering an hour of introductory ski instruction, plus arts, crafts and group games.
Ridgely’s Rippers offers a full-day program for ages 4-12with approximately four hours of ski lesson instruction, lunch, snacks and hot chocolate. The Ridgeley’s half-day program includes approximately two hours and fifteen minutes of instruction and one snack break. Children who are four will take longer breaks throughout the day, so their time on skis may vary depending on participation levels.
Mountain Explorers is for kids ages 7-14, skiing at intermediate level 4 and above. Each participant must be able to ski on their own proficiently and be able to ride Blue Ridge Express and Big Acorn chairlifts without assistance. The full-day program includes approximately four hours of advanced ski lessons, lunch, snacks and hot chocolate. The half-day program includes approximately two hours and fifteen minutes of instruction and one snack break. Children must have completed all levels of Ridgley Rippers, or have one of our instructors evaluate their skiing prior to being enrolled in Mountain Explorers.
Mountain Explorers Pro is a five-day program for intermediate-advanced skiers ages 7-14, which offers the same level of instruction as is found in the Mountain Explorers single-day program. A Mountain Explorers pass may be used on five consecutive days or any five days throughout the season. This program is designed to help young skiers develop skills that are compatible with joining the Wintergreen Freeride and Race Teams, while offering a fun, supportive, social atmosphere.
Kids, in Action Childcare for ages 2½-12, have an exciting day in the Treehouse enjoying arts and crafts, group games, music and stories. Childcare + Snowplay is a full-day program for ages 3 and up; kids get one hour of introductory ski instruction at a designated time slot and enjoy arts, crafts and group games the rest of the day. Rental equipment and a slope-access pass for the duration of lessons are included.
Kids Night Out lets parents have a night out from 6:00 to 10:00 p.m. while their children, ages 4-12, are provided for. Limited snacks are included; dinner is available for an extra charge.
Competition More experienced and intrepid snow sporters can try a variety of seasonal competitions, including the Freestyle Double Cross and the Winter Terrain Park Series (three rail jams and two slope styles), and NASTAR (National Standard Race), the largest public grassroots ski race program in the world. Wintergreen’s NASTAR race course is open to skiers Saturday and Sunday afternoons from noon to 2:00 pm, weather permitting.
Improvements Kessler arrives as Wintergreen is undertaking major improvements. The Stoney Creek Fitness Center has been completely renovated from “wall to wall and floor to ceiling,” Fischer says. “This included adding lots of new natural light from a full wall of windows and completely refurbishing the locker rooms.”
The Wintergarden Fitness Center has been greatly expanded in both size and scope of equipment. “The addition extends into a lush wooded environment,” says Fischer, “with treadmills, elliptical machines, and stationary bikes facing the windows so users can feel like they are outside while working out in a fully climate-controlled environment.”
Projects currently under construction include the first floor of the resort’s Mountain Inn—the gateway building at the top of the mountain—where a new café, a new 24-hour convenience outlet, a renovation of the lobby reception area, and new membership and realty offices have recently been completed.
Next summer Wintergreen will begin construction of a new members’ ski locker room, renovations of the administrative offices and ski patrol facilities, and the creation of day-lodge and lounge spaces. In addition, part of the retail space in the Mountain Inn will be converted for use as a skier day-lodge space in the winter and a lounge/meeting space the rest of the year. More improvements will be announced early this year.
Wintergreen’s four seasons of mountain recreation attract homebuyers year-round. In addition to its winter offerings, the resort’s amenities include 45 holes of championship golf, an award-winning tennis program with 22 courts, a full-service mountaintop spa, 37 miles of hiking trails, three pools, a lake for swimming and fly fishing, and four places to eat. “The tennis program is highly respected, with our tennis camps rated in the top ten in the world,” Fischer says. “Our tennis program hosts top players for exhibition matches which our tennis members enjoy watching.”
Forty thousand square feet of indoor and outdoor function space plus audiovisual services also make Wintergreen a popular spot for banquets, weddings and conferences. In partnership with The Wintergreen Nature Foundation (TWNF), the resort supports and promotes wildlife habitat preservation and environmental education.
Year-Round Living First and second homebuyers, attracted by Wintergreen’s natural beauty and abundant sporting opportunities (including golf, tennis, swimming and hiking in the warm months), can choose to live either “on the mountain” or in the Stoney Creek community in the valley below. Roughly 85 percent of homes on the mountain are second homes.
In Stoney Creek—where residents enjoy a range of activities including 27 holes of golf, an outdoor pool, tennis courts, and twenty-acre Lake Monocan Park with amenities—that proportion is reversed.
Both communities are close (no more than 45 minutes) to Charlottesville with its rich history, art and culture, foodie scene and intellectual vitality associated with the University of Virginia, and within day-trip driving distance to larger East Coast urban centers
The region’s cheaper home prices have special appeal to retirees and second home buyers and sales are up significantly in recent years.Sales of Wintergreen townhomes have increased over 100 percent, those of single family homes have increased 68 percent, and the average price of a condominium has dropped about 15 percent due to the addition of morelower end condos. Single family home sales in the valley community of Stoney Creek have increased as well.
“Nearby Stoney Creek is something that a lot of people don’t really know about,” REALTOR®Francesca San Giorgio notes. “It should be a bedroom community for Charlottesville; it’s less than 30 minutes to UVA. Every home is a custom home and you have the opportunity to live in the mountains or on the golf course. They’re priced well, from the mid-250Ks to a million dollars.”
Ten townhomes, 61 condos, and 112 single family homes are currently available on the mountain and in the valley. “If one were to compare standing inventory to the total number of homes, condos and townhouses within Wintergreen and Stoney Creek, it would demonstrate a vibrant and resilient real estate market at Wintergreen with a small percentage of properties for re-sale,” Fischer says, adding “People are again discovering Wintergreen.”
If the pipeline is approved, Richard Averitt will be hit on two fronts—his residential property and a commercial lot he bought with the dream to build a $35 million five-star boutique resort. Photo by Sanjay Suchak
Take a short drive through Nelson County and you’d need all your fingers and toes to count the number of deep blue signs with lambasting white block letters that tout the words “NO PIPELINE.”
The Atlantic Coast Pipeline, proposed in September 2014 to run through bucolic Nelson on its way from West Virginia to North Carolina, has amassed intense opposition by environmentalists, property rights enthusiasts and landowners who cringe at the idea of the 42-inch-wide fracked gas pipeline slicing through their backyards.
Though the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, which will eventually approve or deny the $6 billion project, has echoed major owners Dominion Energy and Duke Energy in saying the 600-mile pipeline will have a limited impact, it is undisputed that the ACP will change the lay of the land along its route—disputably forever.
Construction is anticipated to begin at the end of the year, with the pipeline in service by the end of 2019.
Since 2005, Richard Averitt has lived with his family—including his wife, two children, parents, sister, sister-in-law and their respective families—on four parcels that span 135 acres in Nelson. Sitting on a red bench on the porch of his Nellysford home, he motions to the heavily wooded area behind his abode.
“If [the pipeline] does blow up, our house is in the incineration zone, which means everything you see would be turned to splinters or dust. It would kill all of us if we were here. It would obliterate this house,” says Averitt. “But even if it doesn’t ever blow up, is it going to leak and taint our well water and will we be drinking it without knowing? Is it going to pollute our land? Will I walk out of my front door every day for the rest of my life and look at the way they clear-cut all the trees and irreparably damaged the place that we built as our family homestead? I think I would be too angry and too bitter. I think I’m going to have to reimagine my life if we lose. It’s brutal.”
So why keep fighting, when, historically speaking, those protesting pipelines have had little chance of prevailing?
“I don’t have a plan B,” says Averitt. “I expected to live out my life right here.”
If the pipeline is approved, Richard Averitt will be hit on two fronts—his residential property and a commercial lot he bought with the dream to build a $35 million five-star boutique resort. Photo by Sanjay Suchak
The Atlantic Coast Pipeline, if approved, won’t actually touch his residential property. The proposed route runs through his sister’s neighboring parcel and continues to travel into the wilderness about 250 yards from where he sits on his porch.
In order to build it, the pipeline’s construction crew—Spring Ridge Constructors, LLC—will bulldoze a 125-foot-wide path along its entire course before digging a trench to lay the pipe. Because of the steep mountainous terrain behind Averitt’s home, which includes a 15-foot-wide ridge that drops off at 35 degrees on both sides, the crew will need to cut away at the hill and level the area until they have a flat enough work space. In total, they will remove mountain and ridgetops for 38 miles of the pipeline’s proposed route.
But Dominion has always maintained that after it removes the soil and constructs the pipeline, it’ll put the dirt back.
“What does ‘putting it back mean?’” Averitt asks. “They say, ‘We’re required to put it back.’ How? If you just pile all that dirt back on, first off, it doesn’t look like what it used to look like. And secondly, even if you did, the first time it rains, what’s going to happen? It’s just going to wash down.” He adds, “The process of installing the pipeline is so ungodly destructive to someone’s land.”
And once Dominion does purchase an easement from a landowner, the power giant will have permanent ownership and access to it, meaning it can access the easement whenever it pleases.
For that reason—and many others—Averitt says landowners along the route should have a say in whether FERC gives the greenlight to the project. But when Dominion sent a letter to his sister, Dawn Averitt, in February 2015, the company said it wanted to perform a precondemnation survey of her land, and if she didn’t give her approval, they would take her to court.
Throughout the entire process, Dominion has said it will only use eminent domain as a last resort.
“I would argue, with absolute conviction, that they used eminent domain since the very first communication,” Averitt says. “They stepped up and said we want to come to your land for a precondemnation survey to decide if we will condemn your land—or take your land. They basically cocked the gun with the very first communication. …So anything Dominion says about this idea that they worked with landowners is garbage.”
Averitt also received a letter the same week as his sister. This one, though, was regarding 100 acres of commercial property he bought four years ago.
Much to his dismay, Dominion said it wanted to run its pipeline through that, too.
What the frack?
When two sides are as passionate about the Atlantic Coast Pipeline as those who love it and those who loathe it, a lot gets lost in translation. Here’s how Dominion spokesperson Aaron Ruby and Southern Environmental Law Center attorney Greg Buppert answer the same five questions.
Is there a need for the Atlantic Coast Pipeline?
Aaron Ruby (above left): Public utilities in Virginia and North Carolina are depending on the Atlantic Coast Pipeline to generate cleaner electricity, provide home heating for a growing population and power new industries like manufacturing. Our region’s existing pipelines are fully tapped. They cannot support a growing economy or the transition to cleaner energy. Pipelines in Hampton Roads, for example, were stretched so thin in recent winters that public utilities had to shut off service to more than 100 industrial facilities just to keep homes warm and hospitals running.
Greg Buppert (above right): No. The Atlantic Coast Pipeline will deliver natural gas to power plants. However, consistent with national trends, more energy-efficient buildings and appliances in Virginia mean the economy can grow without building new power plants. If Virginia doesn’t need new power plants, then we don’t need a new pipeline.
What other options exist?
AR: Because our region’s existing pipelines are fully tapped, public utilities in Virginia and North Carolina decided in 2014 that they needed new pipeline infrastructure to meet the growing needs of their customers. After exploring numerous options from multiple pipeline developers, they chose the Atlantic Coast Pipeline as the most cost-effective option for their customers.
GB: Studies confirm that existing pipelines have space to move gas to Virginia and North Carolina. But Dominion won’t reap the same profits if it uses existing pipelines instead of building its own. FERC—the federal agency charged with reviewing natural gas pipeline projects—has not meaningfully evaluated whether existing pipelines are a less costly, less destructive alternative to the Atlantic Coast Pipeline.
Will the Atlantic Coast Pipeline be safe?
AR: Public safety is our top priority, and we’re taking every precaution to make sure the pipeline operates safely. Before the pipeline goes into service, we will inspect every weld with X-ray equipment and pressure test the entire pipeline with water to make sure it’s totally secure. Once in service, we will monitor the pipeline 24 hours a day, seven days a week from our gas control center, where operators can remotely shut off individual sections and take immediate action if they find any abnormal conditions. The pipeline will be regularly monitored by aerial and foot patrols, and the interior will be periodically inspected with robotic devices that will allow us to find and fix any damage before it’s a risk to public safety. These overlapping layers of protection are the reason underground natural gas pipelines are the safest form of energy transportation in the U.S.
GB: Landowners all along the route are rightly concerned about pipeline safety. When a high-pressure transmission pipe ruptures, it can produce an intense, large fireball beyond a local fire department’s ability to control. Dominion’s decision to go through the steep, landslide prone mountains of western Virginia only exacerbates these concerns.
Do the majority of people support or oppose the Atlantic Coast Pipeline?
AR: There are many diverse views about the pipeline, but it’s clear the majority of Virginians support the project and want to see it built. Most Virginians want cleaner electricity, lower energy costs and a growing economy, and they understand that it takes new infrastructure to make that possible. That’s why more than 25 local governments along the route have supported the project, and why public opinion polls consistently show 2-to-1 support among all Virginians.
GB: Opposition to the Atlantic Coast Pipeline continues to grow as citizens grasp the corporate self-dealing driving this project. The McAuliffe administration embraced the project in 2014 without having all the information needed to understand its environmental damage and its cost to utility customers. It’s now up to the governor and DEQ to ensure that Virginians are protected from this unnecessary project.
What will be its biggest effect?
AR: First and foremost, this pipeline is going to provide cleaner electricity and affordable home heating to millions of Virginians. Because of our company’s transition from coal to cleaner-burning natural gas and the billions of dollars we’re investing in new solar projects, our customers could see their carbon footprint shrink by 25 percent over the next eight years. We are making historic progress in reducing our environmental footprint, and it’s projects like the Atlantic Coast Pipeline that make it possible.
GB: Renewable energy is poised to transform how we get and distribute energy in Virginia. The cost of solar technologies drops each year, unlike coal and gas, and we are a few years away from affordable battery storage systems. The Atlantic Coast Pipeline is a $6 billion investment in gas that will undermine Virginia’s transition to clean renewable energy, possibly for decades.
In fall 2013, Averitt, along with his father and wife, bought the large plot of land across from Bold Rock Hard Cider in Nelson County for a passion project. On the land that runs from Spruce Creek, down to Horizons Village and back, they hoped to build a five-star boutique resort similar to Big Sur’s Post Ranch Inn or Meadowood in Napa Valley. The $35 million project was to be called Spruce Creek Resort and Market.
Internationally renowned for its ability to combine built and natural landscapes, Charlottesville-headquared architecture firm Nelson Byrd Woltz was in on the plan, too.
“We hired them because that was such a perfect fit for what we wanted to do,” Averitt says. “We wanted to build a place that felt like it had always been there. To do that in real estate development is hard. You can’t go in and bulldoze and start from scratch.”
The team configured a design plan and began doing economic estimates and recruiting investors. When the pipeline notice showed up in the mail, Averitt says he didn’t think Dominion would actually choose that route, and he decided to proceed with his resort plans. They applied for and received special-use permits from Nelson County, and the next step, he says, was to spend between $1 million and $2 million on true engineering, such as stormwater runoff and landscaping plans.
“All the engineers and investors and other people we were going to work with said we can’t put a couple million dollars into something that could be eviscerated by the pipeline,” Averitt says. “So we’ve been on hold ever since—and fighting like hell.”
Dominion, however, has said the Atlantic Coast Pipeline won’t affect Averitt’s plans to build a secluded boutique resort in the wilderness. And FERC agrees.
“They said they believe the two things can coexist,” Averitt says. “That we can build our dream project on this land after they clear-cut five and a half acres, level the ground with thousands of trees gone and reshape the land. That it’s still then compatible with a boutique five-star resort is, of course, absurd.”
The Averitts are currently working with appraisers and eminent domain counsel for the worst-case scenario of loss of property value.
“But value is not what we want to fight about,” Averitt says. “We believe this is an absolute unconstitutional taking and abuse of eminent domain.”
To take the value of somebody’s land from a private company—in his case Rockfish Valley Investments LLC—and give it to another private shareholder-owned corporation—Dominion—is not what eminent domain was designed for, according to Averitt. It was designed for the government to transfer land value or assets in a case where the public needs it for public use.
“Eminent domain is an extreme power, and with it comes extreme responsibility to ensure that land is never taken from a landowner unless the public needs the land and there is no other practical means to meet the need,” he says, and adds that this has recently been abused by claims that the public “benefits” of the pipeline, like lower energy bills or creating jobs or new tax revenue, are good enough reasons.
The line should be drawn any time the power of the state is used to take from any individual or business and give the value of the taking to another individual or business, he says.
“So any time you transfer that asset to anything other than a city, county, state or federal government entity, in my opinion, it’s a violation of the constitution,” Averitt says. “And we’re going to sue over that.”
In a blue and tan plaid button-down shirt and jeans, Averitt jumps in his gold Toyota 4Runner with a yellow “don’t tread on my property rights” bumper sticker on the back, with the same coiled black snake featured on the historic Gadsden flag. With one hand on the wheel, as the vehicle bounces its way down rocky roads to his commercial property, Averitt uses his other hand to trace the pipeline’s route with his index finger across brightly illustrated site plans.
If approved, the ACP will traverse Spruce Creek, the waterbody Averitt would like to name the resort after, and steamroll through plans he’s made for interconnected tree houses and a luxury spa.
Averitt says his project would create more than three times the permanent jobs of the entire 600-mile pipeline. Although Dominion projects that the ACP will create 17,000 jobs, Averitt says that number is inflated, with some of those jobs being for pipeline contractors from Texas, Oklahoma and West Virginia.
“They’re going to come in, they’re going to build along a whole bunch of areas for about 18 months if Dominion’s right, and then they’re going to go away and there’s no more than 40 permanent jobs on the entire 600-mile route,” he says. Spruce Creek Resort and Market would have about 125 permanent jobs plus additional seasonal opportunities for employment.
Dominion, however, projects more than 2,000 permanent operational jobs. In 2014, public utilities in Virginia and North Carolina decided a new pipeline was needed to meet customer demands. They chose Dominion and Duke Energy’s proposed ACP as the most cost-effective option, which will replace coal plants with cleaner burning natural gas and provide electricity and heating to “millions” of homes, says Dominion spokesperson Aaron Ruby, who has been defending it ever since.
Almost immediately, opposition emerged from people who say the natural gas industry is declining due to cleaner methods. Some studies show that the state’s 2,200 miles of existing pipelines have the capacity to move more gas to Virginia and North Carolina, according to Southern Environmental Law Center attorney Greg Buppert.
And while pipeline opponents argue that their rights of way could be used to house the ACP, thus nixing the need for a new route, Ruby says it doesn’t quite work that way.
Back in Nelson County, Averitt stops the 4Runner and crunches his way to the creek. He stands between two trees marked with orange ties that signal the route for the pipeline. His face is hard.
“We’re going to fight. We’re in this all the way to the end, and we’ll go to the Supreme Court if we can find standing and can’t win before that,” he says. “They won’t cut a tree down on our property before they take us away in handcuffs, because at some point, you have to say, as a citizen, ‘I won’t stand for this.’ This is our Boston Tea Party.”
Neighborhood watch
Just a few miles away in the Fortune’s Point neighborhood at the top of Wintergreen, David and Nancy Schwiesow are fighting their own battle.
“It’s beautiful here—peaceful, quiet,” says David as he sits on the ledge of his living room fireplace. Floor-to-ceiling glass windows reveal expansive mountain views that look as though they were peeled off a canvas. “Quality of life is pretty close to perfect here.”
But there’s a chance it won’t be for long, he says, if Dominion runs the Atlantic Coast Pipeline through four of the six parcels in Fortune’s Point.
The company plans to clear a 300-foot-wide-by-300-foot-long space directly across from Wintergreen’s only entrance. There, they will drill about 5,000 feet through the mountain, which will go under the Blue Ridge Parkway and into Augusta County, according to the Schwiesows.
In Fortune’s Point, the ACP’s proposed route slices through the center of the first and second parcels, narrowly misses the Schwiesow’s cul-de-sac and curves back through two of their neighbors’ properties—one of them being Friends of Wintergreen Chairman Jonathan Ansell.
FOW is a citizen group that doesn’t oppose the ACP, but has proposed four routes members say will be much less destructive.
David, a FOW founder, drives along the pipeline’s route, pointing out that parcels one and two will practically be destroyed, and their owners have said they will no longer be able to build on them. He pauses to admire three neighborhood deer before driving to the entrance of Ansell’s home—one of the 10 “most valuable properties in Nelson,” David says.
Ansell’s home is for sale, but no one’s biting, David says.
“People aren’t buying houses that are going near the pipeline,” says Nancy, who has worked in real estate for 35 years. “If I had a client that was considering house A and house B, with everything else being equal, they’re not going to buy a house that’s near the pipeline.”
Adds David, “If we hadn’t built here, we wouldn’t build here.”
“Not in our wildest dreams,” says his wife.
Nancy and David Schwiesow live in Wintergreen’s Fortune’s Point neighborhood, where four of six parcels could be sliced by the ACP. It could also cross the resort’s single entrance, leaving them trapped if the pipeline blows. Photo by Sanjay Suchak
One of the main concerns for the Schwiesows is safety. Because the pipeline, if approved, will pass directly across the sole entrance and exit to the resort. During peak times, there are 10,000 people on the mountain, which would create a potentially catastrophic safety risk if an explosion or gas leak occurs, they say. Emergency medical providers wouldn’t be able to reach them.
The blast zone—or the potential impact radius—for the 42-inch pipeline is 1,100 feet on either side.
“Imagine 1,100 feet up the mountain,” David says. “A solid wall of fire. …You can’t stop it. We’ll be trapped up here. It would literally be the single biggest catastrophe in Virginia’s history.”
A 20-inch gas transmission line exploded in Sissonville, West Virginia, in December 2012, shooting flames almost 100 feet into the air, destroying four residences, damaging five others and obliterating an 800-foot section of Interstate 77.
“The fire melted the interstate and it looked like lava, just boiling,” said Kanawha County Commission President Kent Carper to MetroNews on the accident’s one-year anniversary.
“We have never had anything like that on any of our pipelines,” says Ruby, whose company has built more than 15,000 miles of natural gas transmission pipelines in the country. “A catastrophic failure of that nature is extremely rare.”
From 1994-2013 in the U.S., the Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration’s pipeline data records show 855 serious incidents with gas distribution and transmission, which resulted in 319 fatalities, 1,254 injuries and more than a $1 billion in property damage.
Risks and benefits
It’s been 48 years since 124 people were killed in Nelson County during Hurricane Camille. The most impacted area at the time was Davis Creek, on the southern end of Roberts Mountain. Now the ridge is full of debris flow from the natural disaster and other subsequent landslides. Dominion would like to run its pipeline through there, too.
Ernie Reed, the president of environmental group Wild Virginia and an active member of Friends of Nelson, lives near the foot of Roberts Mountain and has been vocal through the years-long fight against the ACP.
The mountain, near the 166th mile of the proposed route, is one of the tallest peaks in the area, a place where environmental groups have studied the potential effects of the pipeline. It’s an extremely narrow ridge, and he says between 20 and 60 feet of mountaintop will need to be decapitated to make a surface flat enough for the pipeline.
“You can imagine the number of steep slopes and waterbody crossings and the potential for massive erosion,” Reed says, adding that the site is already sensitive from the havoc wreaked by Camille.
He compares this to a recent example of Hurricane Harvey’s effect on Houston, Texas. There, the water runs straight to the roads.
“Well, if you have a 10-foot ditch that’s been filled in with a pipeline and it crosses the steepest areas across the Allegheny Mountains, the Allegheny Plateau, the Blue Ridge Mountains, Reeds Gap, the Blue Ridge Parkway and then back down through here all the way to the James River, all that water will just scour out that entire pipeline route,” Reed says. “And what’s in the middle of that pipeline route is a natural gas pipeline, so you look at what damage happened in Nelson County from Hurricane Camille and add something that’s flammable and toxic on top of that, and this is a recipe for disaster at least the size of what’s going on in Houston, probably even worse.”
Birds chirp and bugs buzz as Reed sits on the porch of his remote log cabin in Nelson County. He says his 120-acre slice of wilderness was compromised by one of the pipeline’s previously proposed paths, but because more than 300 route adjustments have been made, his land is no longer directly affected. He is, however, still in the blast zone.
But the man who has done conservation work for 30 years says his fight is about more than that.
“My interest is in protecting the national forests and, of course, those belong to everybody,” Reed says. “They provide resource values and amenities you just can’t get anywhere else.”
Because the ACP is proposed in a national forest, its approval will require 14 amendments of existing plan standards that impact soil, wetlands, old growth, the Appalachian Trail and endangered species. The pipeline would destroy 214 acres of national forests and eliminate almost 5,000 acres of interior forest habitat, according to Wild Virginia. It would also cross about two and a half miles of porous and unstable karst areas on U.S. Forest Service land.
Reed says bisecting one of the most contiguous areas of the George Washington National Forest with a 125-foot clear-cut required for the pipeline is something that can’t be mitigated. The forest will never be able to repair itself.
“The idea that the national forest could be destroyed is a death by 1,000 cuts,” he says. “You take one massive cut right through the middle of it and the forest will never be the same, and will never recover to any extent in our lifetime and maybe ever.”
FERC has also said that the ACP could negatively impact seven endangered species along the route: the Indiana bat, northern long-eared bat, Roanoke logperch, Madison Cave isopod, clubshell mussel, running buffalo clover and small whorled pogonia.
Adds Reed, “It’s unfathomable that federal agencies and state agencies would consider these types of impacts insignificant.”
Plenty of people have voiced support for the project, including Virginia Governor Terry McAuliffe, but environmentalist Reed, in his Wild Virginia T-shirt, says anyone who looks at it objectively can see that “it’s the wrong thing at the wrong place at the wrong time, and no good can come from it.”
“The number of people that support the pipeline are totally limited to the people who benefit either financially or ideologically from it,” Reed says. “I have not met anybody in three years that, when they understand the circumstances, doesn’t question it.”
But lifelong Nelson resident and former chairman of the Nelson County Chamber of Commerce Carlton Ballowe, who lives in Faber on one of the ACP’s previously proposed routes, doesn’t fit that bill.
He supports the pipeline because it’ll bring revenue to the county, spur statewide economic development and make the country less dependent on foreign sources of energy, he says.
“When it was going across my property, I considered it a win for everybody but me,” Ballowe says. “I wouldn’t be so selfish as to deny the greater good in my own self interest.”
And while local pipeline opponents may be the vocal majority, Ballowe says some ACP champions in the community are afraid to express their opinions.
“I know one [business owner] that was supportive of the pipeline and some [opponents] found out that he was and they worked very hard to try to negatively impact his business just because of his support for the pipeline,” Ballowe says.
Dominion’s Ruby says a number of people along the route support the project, but aren’t comfortable speaking to the media after being subjected to hostility.
“There is a concerted effort by pipeline opponents to harass and intimidate people in the community who speak out in favor of the pipeline,” he says. “Supporters have had anti-pipeline signs posted on their property. They’ve been accosted at the grocery store and at their places of business.”
One group of pipeline opponents, however, wants to focus on the positive.
“A lot of folks don’t want to get drawn into protesting, or get wound up about things or be frustrated with Dominion,” says Cville Rising co-founder Lee White, whose environmental group formed at the end of last year. “Our focus is to try to have more of a positive, forward-looking perspective.”
In an anti-pipeline mission called Walking the Line, about 30 protesters hiked 150 miles of the ACP’s proposed route through Virginia. Courtesy Lee White
For 16 days and 150 miles, a core group of about five people organized by White hiked the ACP’s proposed route from Highland County through Bath, Augusta and Nelson counties, eventually ending at the site of what could be the pipeline’s highly controversial compressor station in Buckingham County. For this outing, called Walking the Line, hikers joined and dropped off along the way, with about 30 pipeline opponents marching together at one point.
“The vision was that of a celebratory, peaceful walk of resistance, to share the stories of the communities and the beauty of the landscape that would be impacted,” White says, and adds that one of the most powerful moments was trudging up the Deerfield Valley, located between Bath and Augusta counties, for three days, walking 10 miles a day.
“When you walk up those mountains, you can’t even comprehend how they could physically build these pipelines,” White says. The proposed ACP will swing across Deerfield Valley for 30 miles. “That was one of the most impactful parts because you get a good sense of how the valley will be decimated. There will be nothing there.”
The group had a theme song along the way, an old bluegrass tune called “Sow It on the Mountain”:
“Sow it on the mountain / reap it in the valley / because you’re gonna reap just what you sow.
If you’ve been a gambler / you’d better quit your gambling / ’cause you’re gonna reap just what you sow.
If you’ve been a tattler / you’d better quit your tattling / ’cause you’re gonna reap just what you sow.
If you’ve been a liar / you better quit your lying / ’cause you’re gonna reap just what you sow.”
Bring a chair or blanket to this movie on the green, and watch the sunset and a Disney classic. Free, 8:30-10:30pm. Boar’s Head Resort, 200 Ednam Dr. (855) 615-7587.
NONPROFIT
Charlottesville Women’s Four Miler
Saturday, September 2
Help run breast cancer out of town at the largest all-women’s race in the state. Proceeds benefit UVA Cancer Center’s Breast Care Program. $50, 8am. No race day registration. Foxfield, 1950 Garth Rd. womens4miler.com
FOOD & DRINK
Saunders Brothers baking contest
Saturday, September 2
Think you make the best pie in town? Prove it at this ninth annual baking contest, featuring a new 12- and-under category and multiple pieoptions. Free, 9:30am. Saunders Brothers Farm Market, 2717 Tye Brook Hwy., Piney River. 277-5455.
HEALTH & WELLNESS
Mountain bike race
Saturday, September 2
Celebrate the end of summer by tackling a wicked mountain bike race, open to all levels. $39, 10am. Wintergreen, 39 Mountain Inn Loop, Roseland. 325-2200.
It can chill, it can challenge, it can soothe and inspire. It’s a spot to relax, and explore, and a place to have fun and just let loose. Twice named Best Ski Resort by readers of the Washington Post, Nelson County’s four-season, 11,000-acre Wintergreen Resort is an all-in-one sports playground, conference center and nature retreat, with magnificent mountain views, classy amenities, fine dining and a world-class snowmaking system.
Twenty-seven hundred lucky people make their homes there year round, relishing Wintergreen’s unspoiled beauty, affordable mortgages, and close proximity to major metropolitan areas. Vacationers and day-trippers come for golf and tennis, hiking and fly fishing, and so much more—including a month-long classical music festival—in the warmer months, but some 150,000 visitors enjoy it over the course of the winter season alone. Let’s take a look at winter “on the mountain.”
Snow Winter sports enthusiasts love winter in the air, but they need winter on the ground, and Wintergreen is where to find it. The resort’s snowmaking system is “a big deal,” General Manager Hank Thiess says. “People come from all over the world to look at what we do here.” With 40,000 linear feet of pipeline, more than 400 snow guns, and 45 weather stations, Snowpower—as the system has been newly named—can pump out 8,000 gallons of the cold white stuff a minute. “If you could direct all that snowmaking onto a football field,” Thiess says, “that would result in thirty-seven feet of snow in 24 hours,” (and a canceled game). Wintergreen is the only ski area in the U.S with 100 percent of its terrain covered by automated snowmaking. And this is snow of a uniform depth and consistency and quality from the top of the slopes to the bottom.
Snowpower allows Wintergreen to recover quickly from rain or unseasonably warm periods, making possible its extended snow-sports season. Depending on Mother Nature’s whims, Wintergreen may make snow from November into March, or even as late as early April. Its ski events typically run through early March, sometimes later.
All that snow covers 130 slantwise acres, on which are 24 ski and snowboard slopes and trails, two terrain parks, the state’s largest tubing park, and a snow park for young kids. Twenty-three percent of Wintergreen’s snow terrain is considered suitable for beginners, while 35 percent is for intermediate and 42 percent for advanced and expert sliders.
Skiing Skiing is Wintergreen’s most popular sport, with tubing next. Skis (and snowboards), boots and poles may all be rented, either for individual sessions, or for a whole season at a time. Slopes are open all day long, as well as Tuesday through Sunday nights. Wintergreen’s snowscapes are suitable for every level of experience and expertise. The Upper & Lower Dobie slopes attract beginners; Eagles Swoop and Tyro are for intermediate skiers; a 2,000-foot single-black-diamond named The Outer Limits and a double-black-diamond dubbed the Cliffhanger lure daredevils and free spirits. The park boasts seven lifts able to handle as many as 11,200 skiers an hour, including two high speed lifts with a six-passenger capacity.
Wintergreen skiers can also participate in NASTAR (National Standard Race), the largest public grassroots ski race program in the world. Across the country, more than 95,000 NASTAR participants compete for platinum, gold, silver and bronze medals in appropriate age and gender groups. Participants are also ranked by ability. Top ranked racers qualify to compete in the Nature Valley NASTAR National Championships.
The NASTAR race course is open on Saturday and Sunday afternoons from noon to 2:00 p.m., weather permitting. The cost is $7 for two timed runs or $15 for unlimited runs. The race takes place in modified Giant Slalom format. Racers are timed electronically, and results are posted online in real time. Medals are awarded to all participants who qualify as compared to the pacesetters of the day.
Freestyle Skiing Voted 1st Place by Blue Ridge Outdoors Magazine, Wintergreen’s Terrain Park lets thrill seekers hone their freestyle skills, with a progression of features suited for every skill level. Adding to the challenge, the layout of the more than 40 features is changed frequently. On any given day skiers will find an arrangement of tabletops and fun boxes, spines and hips, straight rails, s-rails, rainbow rails, battleships, and down-kinks. To handle the high traffic on weekends, one lift is dedicated entirely to the terrain park. Thiess stresses that park staff strive for a safe environment, urging users “to abide by the rules and be respectful of other people. There’s a phrase that is used there,” Theiss says. “It’s ‘respect gets respect.’ Everybody watches out for the other person.”
The park also hosts a series of five events throughout the season, including three Rail Jams (January 15, February 19, and March 6) and two Slopestyles (January 9 and February 26). These events are open to skiers and snowboarders of all ages with a valid lift ticket. The registration fee is $25. Prizes will be awarded for individual events; skiers who compete in at least three out of five events are eligible to win the Grand Prize.
Skiing Lessons Wintergreen’s ski and snowboard instruction is available for all ages and ability levels, and is based on the American Teaching System. The five-week Mountain Mornings ski program for kids ages three to six includes approximately two hours of on-snow time per lesson, a four-hour lift ticket, and rental equipment. The Treehouse serves kids four to fourteen, while offering childcare for kids two-and-a-half to twelve. The Childcare plus Snowplay program for ages three and up is a full-day program offering an hour of introductory ski instruction, plus arts, crafts and group games.
The Ridgely’s Rippers program for ages four to fourteen teaches skiing, and Mountain Explorers for ages seven to fourteen teaches both skiing and snowboarding. Mountain Explorers Pro is a multiple-day program for intermediate-advanced skiers ages seven to fourteen. Lunch, snacks, and hot chocolate are served between lessons. Parents are encouraged to ski for free, or relax in The Gristmill coffee shop while their kids play and learn.
Ridgely the Bear makes surprise appearances at Ridgely’s Fun Park, where kids three to eleven love the mini-tubing carousel, bear paw snow shoes, tunnels, and the gentle tubing hill each weekend from December through February. Over at the Treehouse, kids of all ages learn to ski in full and half-day programs that include lunch, snacks, and hot chocolate. Treehouse programs run Monday through Friday.
Tubing Wintergreen’s popular tubing park is the largest in Virginia. Officially called the Plunge but nicknamed the “scream machine,” it’s more than three football fields long, long enough to get going nearly 30 miles per hour. A conveyor lift takes tubes and tubers back up the hill, again and again.
Skating Folks who prefer sliding on a flat surface can head to the Shamokin Ice Skating Rink outside on the Blue Ridge Terrace, where a 150-ton “chiller” keeps the ice icy when the weather is not. The 45 x 90 foot rink can hold up to sixty skaters at a time, and is available for skating parties, birthday parties, broomball events, etc.
The Wintergreen website’s Mountain Message Blog provides updates on slope conditions and park openings and closings. The three Mountain Cams let skiers stuck at work or at home get a good look for themselves, whether it’s for deciding when to go play or for daydreaming and watching friends already there.
And a Whole Lot More The 13-room spa at Wintergreen provides everything from nail and facial treatments and pedicures to specialty massages and body wraps. Seasonal treatments and standard sports massages are available as well, all in a serene setting. Conference planners will find 24,000 square feet of indoor conference space and 20,000 square feet of outdoor conference space, along with audiovisual services and an award-winning banquet spread. Four restaurants—The Copper Mine Bistro, The Edge, Devils Grill, and Stoney Creek Bar and Grill—offer food for all tastes and occasions.
Living “Wintergreen and Stoney Creek have always been a big draw to Nelson County,” says Mountain Area Realty’s Chastity Morgan. “Their numerous amenities coupled with natural beauty make them appealing as a destination or a place to call home.” Nest Realty Group’s David Ferrall agrees: “What draws people is the beauty of the county and the breweries and wineries, hiking, skiing and golf.”
Mountain Living, Valley Living Wintergreen’s bucolic setting and close proximity to the George Washington National Forest make it a four-season paradise for nature lovers. Skiers and snowboarders who turn into golfers, hikers and tennis players in the warmer months also love to stay and play year round, either on the nearly 4,000-foot mountain itself or in the Rockfish Valley community of Stoney Creek below. Roughly 85 percent of homes on the mountain are second homes, while in Stoney Creek, an estimated 70 percent or more are owned by full or part-time residents. Some work during the week and spend weekends in Nelson; others might spend the winter months in Florida and live here the rest of the year. Mountain homes at Wintergreen Resort range in price from under $250,000 to $1.25 million, while 1,100 condos and townhomes are priced from under $50,000 to more than $500,000. Homes at Stoney Creek are currently priced from $300,000 to $800,000, where a typical lot size is one or two acres.
“On top of the mountain, a lot of times you’ll get people who want to be more active, right there with the action,” says Mountain Area Realty’s Marlo Allen, who has lived in Nelson County all her life and owns property in both communities. “In Stoney Creek, they don’t have to be right there in the midst of it. Some people like not having to drive as high. A lot of people in Stoney Creek live there full-time, and they get together. It’s a very social community, whether you want to golf or ski or not.”
Stoney Creek residents enjoy a range of resort activities right there in the valley, including 27 holes of golf, an outdoor pool, tennis courts, and twenty-acre Lake Monocan Park. The Stoney Creek Golf Course is ranked 34th best in the U.S. by Golf Digest. Park amenities include a snack bar and a picnic area with charcoal grills, horseshoe pits, a sand beach with volleyball court, plus recreational equipment.
Wintergreen’s world class facilities and gorgeous setting make it a destination spot for sport and recreation lovers from around the country—and from around the world. One hundred and thirty university students from Brazil, Argentina, Peru and Chile spend their summer vacationsat Wintergreen each year, helping with the shops, the restaurants, and the lifts. “I will arise and go now, and go to Innisfree,” said the Irish poet. But he meant to say “to Wintergreen.”
