Pinar Gurdal, from right, Rick Shingles and Russell Chisholm show their opposition to the Mountain Valley Pipeline project during the debate for the Democratic nomination for governor at Virginia Western Community College on Thursday, May 4, 2017, in Roanoke, Va. (Heather Rousseau /The Roanoke Times via AP)
Virginia Democratic gubernatorial candidate Ralph Northam, under pressure from environmentalists to oppose two natural gas pipelines, told voters for weeks that he had won assurances from state regulators that they will increase scrutiny on the projects by assessing environmental impacts along specific sites, instead of relying on a “blanket” approval from federal officials.
But this week, the state agency in charge of the review said it miscommunicated its plan.
The Virginia Department of Environmental Quality will not issue individual permits for every waterway the pipelines cross, but rather rely on the decision by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers whether the project complies with water quality rules at wetland and stream crossings. State officials say they will scrutinize the projects by evaluating areas outside the purview of the Army Corps, but the extent will be far less than environmental activists had believed.
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