Large crowds showed up at recent hearings in North Carolina and West Virginia to voice their views – the large majority of which were negative – about whether the Atlantic Coast Pipeline (ACP) should be granted by each state’s environmental regulatory agency a water quality certificate under Section 401 of the Clean Water Act. Each state through which the ACP would traverse must issue a 401 certificate if the project is to move forward. In 2106 New York’s environmental regulators denied a 401 application for the proposed Constitution Pipeline, a project that proposed transporting natural gas from Pennsylvania to near Schenectady, NY, because of its negative impact on water quality. The decision has so far been upheld in the courts.
Written comments to the North Carolina Department of Environmental Quality are due August 19 (Email: . Include “ACP” in the subject line. Postal mail: 401 Permitting, 1617 Mail Service Center, Raleigh, NC 27699-1617).
Written comments to the West Virginia Department of Environmental Protection are due August 4 (Email: . Postal mail: WVDEP Division of Water and Waste Management, Att: Laura Cooper, 601 57th Street SE, Charleston, WV 25304-2345).
Virginia’s Department of Environmental Quality hearings begin August 7 (see below).
Crowd at the NC DEQ hearing in Rocky Mount on July 20; speakers at the WV DEP hearing in Dunmore, WV on August 1, from left: Gil Willis, Elk River Inn & Restaurant; Deni Elliott; Greenbrier River Watershed Association; Allen Johnson, Eight-Rivers Council.