Virginia Department of Environmental Quality, State Air Pollution Control Board, Decision Minor New Source Review Permit for Mountain Valley Pipeline, LLC, Lambert Compressor Station (MVP) Registration No. 21652:

Excerpt: The Board…3) determined that the site is not suitable in light of the requirements of the Friends of Buckingham decision, the Virginia Environmental Justice Act and … Read the full decision here and here.

Let’s be clear that our collective work matters. Here is a startling example of the good we can do. Together we are stronger!

The Virginia Mercury: In a 5-2 vote, the Virginia State Air Pollution Control Board on Friday voted to deny an air permit for a proposed compressor station in Pittsylvania that would be a key part of the Southgate extension of the controversial Mountain Valley Pipeline.

“I have concluded that when we equitably consider — not just consider, but equitably consider — the potential negative environmental consequences of this permit on these communities, granting this permit would not promote environmental justice,” Air Board member Hope Cupit said Friday, in the second day of hearings on the Lambert Compressor Station being held in Chatham. “If the Virginia Environmental Justice Act is to mean anything, and if we as a commonwealth are going to promote environmental justice, then the time has come to reject proposals like this one.”

The board based its denial on a determination that the permit did not meet “fair treatment” requirements under the Virginia Environmental Justice Act passed in 2020 and that the site was not suitable for a compressor station given state law and the 2020 decision in a lawsuit over the siting of a compressor station for the canceled Atlantic Coast Pipeline.

In that case, the 4th Circuit Court of Appeals found that Virginia had erred in issuing an air permit for the compressor station planned for the predominantly Black community of Union Hill in Buckingham County.

The decision came as a surprise in Virginia, where denials of air and water permits are rare.

Read the full article by Sarah Vogelsong with the Virginia Mercury, December 3, 2021

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