When the state Department of Environmental Quality announced in April that it would require individual water-quality certifications for the Atlantic Coast and Mountain Valley natural gas pipeline projects, environmental groups applauded what they thought would be an exhaustive, stream-by-stream review of the pipelines’ potential construction implications.
The DEQ confirmed Wednesday, however, that it will rely on a U.S. Army Corps of Engineers national permit for the hundreds of spots where the pipelines will cross waterways — a “blanket” permit for utility line activities that pipeline opponents say doesn’t do enough to safeguard some of the pristine streams along the routes from sediment that could be dislodged via construction, leveling ridgelines and tree removal, among other effects.
That’s at odds with what DEQ spokesman Bill Hayden said April 6, when Hayden told the Richmond Times-Dispatch that the DEQ would require certifications for each individual segment that crossed or affected a waterway. Hayden was even more explicit with The Roanoke Times, telling the paper in an email that “the ‘individual’ certification looks at each wetland, stream crossing, etc., separately, to determine specific requirements that would be necessary.”
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