North Carolina’s Department of Environmental Quality (NCDEQ) has asked the Atlantic Coast Pipeline (ACP) – for the fourth time – to provide additional information before the agency can continue its consideration of whether to issue a certification for the pipeline under the requirements of Section 401 of the Clean Water Act. The NCDEQ’s November 28 letter says the ACP has failed to provide adequate analysis and explanation of the project’s claim to stimulate economic development and the pipeline’s potential effect to water quality. The letter also asked for more detail about the ACP’s earlier statement to state authorities that “there is no commitment to potential customers or reasonably foreseeable plans to extend the ACP beyond the current terminus.” This information request (perhaps stimulated by the recent public pronouncement by a Dominion Energy Executive that the ACP was prepared to extend into South Carolina) calls into question the ability of the NCDEQ to reach a decision on 401-certification before the end of the year.
North Carolina to ACP: Another Whoa!