A meeting to discuss and possibly decide the Buckingham Compressor Station’s air permit is scheduled in Richmond for Tuesday at 10 a.m.

The State Air Pollution Control Board, according to the tentative agenda at the Virginia Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ) website, is set to meet at the DoubleTree by Hilton Richmond-Midlothian, James River Parlor G/H, located at 1021 Koger Center Blvd.

The meeting to discuss the Minor New Source Review Permit comes after members of the board voted Dec. 19 to delay action on the permit.

The board also voted to approve a written public comment period to consider specific documents that the board received since the previous meetings, which took place Nov. 8 and 9.

“The documents to be considered per the Board’s instructions relate to questions and concerns on demographics and site suitability for the proposed air compressor station,” the DEQ website cites. “The Board also clarified that the permit conditions, including the amendments that were discussed and approved at the Dec. 19, 2018, meeting, are not subject to public comment. Further, the Board indicated that public comment is not being sought on the conduct of a health assessment by the Virginia Department of Health.”

The public comment period started Dec. 21 and ends Friday, Jan. 4, at 11:59 p.m.

The documents, which include an Environmental Justice Screening report dated Dec. 3 and ACP Buckingham Compressor Station Environmental Justice Review dated Nov. 28, meant to represent the approximate number of people within a mile, two-mile and five-mile radius in the Union Hill area, where the proposed compressor station air permit is located.

The site selection analysis, according to the ACP review, found that the study area minority population, 34.3 percent, is lower than the statewide minority population, 39.5 percent, and lower than the Buckingham County minority population, 39.6 percent.

The documents also include a letter from the Southern Environmental Law Center (SELC) dated Dec. 7 that contends that the screening tool is meant to give a “preliminary, approximate understanding of who might be affected by a new source of industrial pollution.”

“For a small community like Union Hill, those tools are not capable of providing an accurate picture of who actually lives within a one- or two-mile radius of the facility,” Greg Buppert with SELC stated in the letter. “Instead, they can only generate estimates based on census data for larger areas.”

SELC argued that a more comprehensive look at the population located in Union Hill could be gained by reviewing the data its client Friends of Buckingham provided to DEQ.

The Union Hill Community Household Study Site and Methods Report, by Dr. Lakshmi Fjord, can be found on the DEQ website.

The study, Buppert said, “identified 99 specific households in this community, the majority of which are within 1 mile of the proposed compressor station. Of those 99 identified households, 75 households—a total of 199 permanent residents—participated in the study and answered specific questions about race, health and age. Of those 199 people, 83.4 percent identified as non-white, the vast majority of whom are African-American or biracial.”

The permit concerns the 53,783-horsepower compressor station, would be located off Route 56, and would be connected with the Atlantic Coast Pipeline (ACP), which is expected to span 600 miles, crossing Buckingham, Cumberland and Prince Edward counties.

The permit included 51 requirements for the compressor station, including that the operations practice proper emission controls, that equipment be installed with the proper monitoring devices, that the appropriate fuel be used and regulated, that the emissions fall within the necessary limits and be properly tested and evaluated.

The Buckingham compressor station will be the only compressor station in Virginia used by the ACP.

Comments for the public comment period can be submitted to the DEQ by mail or hand delivered to the Piedmont Regional Office, Re: Buckingham Compressor Station, 4949-A Cox Road, Glen Allen, VA 23060; by email at airdivision1@deq.virginia.gov or by fax at (804) 527-5106.

Documents related to the permit, according to DEQ, can also be accessed at the Buckingham Library, located at 1140 Main St. in Dillwyn. The library’s phone number is (434) 983- 3848.

To contact the DEQ for public comments, document requests and additional information, email DEQPublicInfo@ deq.virginia.gov.