Note: A hearing for the ACP air permit is set to take place Tuesday, Sept. 11, 5 p.m. at Buckingham County Middle School. 

The Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ) is taking comments until Sept. 11 about the Buckingham Compressor Station Air Permit.

DEQ wants to hear only about the air permit. The piecemeal method of evaluating this huge complex industrial project does not answer many critical unanswered questions. DEQ and Dominion Atlantic Coast Pipeline assure us this is the best in class, meeting all regulations. But we like our air and water clean and we don’t want the tons of pollutants dumped on us that the ‘regulations’ say are okay.

For 4 years now we have asked for, and have yet to see evacuation plans. An air permit would be granted without considering health and safety; before considering worst-case scenarios? Dominion tells us safety is first priority. We don’t want anyone to live near a high pressure 57,000-plus hp compressor station, which is highly explosive (methane is not only highly explosive, it is also 87  times more of a green house gas than CO2), highly toxic, and an easy terrorist target.

We have repeatedly asserted there is no need for these pipelines. The owners of Transco Pipeline have said there is enough infrastructures in place to meet demand.

The NAACP has asked for a halt to the Atlantic Coast Pipeline (ACP), and Mountain Valley Pipeline (MVP). The governor’s Advisory Council on Environmental Justice has asked for a moratorium. Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) has issued a stop work order for noncompliance.

First and foremost, we ask you to ask for a 30-day extension of the comment period.

A second important request: The DEQ should immediately complete a Quantified Risk Assessment (QRA) for the Buckingham Compressor Station prior to permitting and to work with other state agencies to conduct a Health Risk Assessment (HRA) and a Health Impact Assessment (HRI).

As Baseline Testing Project Manager, I went to the local, then regional health departments to ask for assessments. They sent me on to the DEQ, who also said no. We were left to fend for ourselves. Friends of Buckingham thus took up the hefty project of testing 30 well water sites close to the 26 miles of proposed ACP in Buckingham. We have done air monitoring in eight homes around the compressor station site and are in
process with health surveys. We are also monitoring streams that would be impacted.

There would be 36 stream crossings by the ACP.

It is my opinion that this testing should be a standard requirement for any potentially polluting industry. For this to be a regulatory requirement would, though, be an admission of that danger. We came to realize that industry co-writes regulations with state agencies, and thus big money is more influential than our impacted and beleaguered communities.

This has got to change. The climate cannot wait. The purpose of government, by the people and for the people, is to look after the collective needs of the commonwealth, as industry cannot and does not.

For further information about the air permit and how to comment, please go to Friends of Buckingham website:

http://www.friendsofbuckinghamva.org/friends/critical-unanswered-questions-about-acps-union-hill-compressor-station-to-supplement-your-comments-for-deq-air-permit/

Heidi Dhivya Berthoud
Secretary Friends of Buckingham