David Paylor, the director of Virginia’s Department of Environmental Quality (left) listens on Aug. 10 to Ernst Kastning, a retired professor of geology at Radford University and an authority on karst terrain, near Sinking Creek and nearby caves in Giles County. Paylor had participated that day in a meeting in Newport about DEQ’s plans to protect water quality in light of the proposed Mountain Valley Pipeline.
ERICA YOON | The Roanoke Times
A federal court ruling has upheld the decision last year by New York’s Department of Environmental Conservation to deny a state water quality permit sought by the Constitution Pipeline, an interstate natural gas transmission pipeline.
The court’s decision, handed down Friday, came while the Virginia Department of Environmental Quality is considering whether to recommend that similar water quality permits be granted for the proposed Mountain Valley Pipeline and Atlantic Coast Pipeline. Opponents of the projects have closely followed the case in New York.
Each of those controversial interstate natural gas pipeline projects seeks Clean Water Act 401 water quality certification, the same certification denied the Constitution Pipeline by New York’s environmental agency in April 2016.
On Tuesday, David Sligh, conservation director of Wild Virginia and an investigator for the Dominion Pipeline Monitoring Coalition, said the court’s decision contradicts repeated assertions by Gov. Terry McAuliffe that Virginia has little say over the Mountain Valley and Atlantic Coast projects because the pipeline companies must apply to the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission for environmental review and approval.
“We have known and argued to Virginia officials for over two years that they had all the authority they needed to demand necessary information and deny certification unless compliance with water quality standards is assured,” Sligh said. “We were right and the governor was wrong for those many months when he claimed his administration could not affect the fates of these hugely destructive pipelines.”
Sligh suggested the 30-inch diameter Constitution pipeline presented fewer environmental risks than either the Atlantic Coast or Mountain Valley pipelines, which each would be 42 inches in diameter.
“We ask Governor McAuliffe again, ‘Do Virginians deserve less protection than New Yorkers?’ ” he said.
The Roanoke Times – Duncan Adams – 08.23.2017
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