About a year ago James Golden, Director of Operations at the Virginia Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ), indicated that applications for water quality certification of the Atlantic Coast Pipeline (ACP) and the Mountain Valley Pipeline (MVP) could be denied “in theory.” (1) We are calling on Governor Terry McAuliffe to take action now to ensure that DEQ’s enforcement of the law is more than theoretical; that the certain damages these proposals would cause to hundreds of our streams and wetlands are honestly acknowledged by DEQ and prevented.
In a letter to the Governor dated July 25, 2017, the Dominion Pipeline Monitoring Coalition (DPMC) described how the Governor’s top environmental officials have skewed the regulatory reviews of these major pipeline proposals. State records and public statements clearly show that DEQ has failed even to acknowledge its duty to deny water quality certifications for the ACP and MVP, despite the Clean Water Act’s mandate that DEQ do so.
In a recently-revealed letter, Secretary of Natural Resources Molly Ward wrote to Dominion Power that “there can be no predetermined outcomes” in the State’s actions on proposals for the pipelines. But as David Sligh stated in DPMC’s letter, “[t]hat assurance rings hollow in light of records describing DEQ’s deliberations.” (2)
Dominion Pipeline Monitoring Coalition – DPMC Staff – 07/26/2017
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