We don’t know if you saw the good news about the federal court win for Union Hill, a community fighting the construction of a gas compressor station that would supply the Atlantic Coast Pipeline. Charles City residents fighting two massive gas projects have reason to be encouraged by the court’s decision to vacate the ACP’s air board permit because of the strong parallels between Charles City and Union Hill. As the court explained, “Environmental justice is not merely a box to be checked, and the board’s failure to consider the disproportionate impact on those closest to the compressor station resulted in a flawed analysis.” We think the decisions to issue air permits to Chickahominy and C4GT, the gas plants proposed for Charles City, were also the result of flawed analysis.
The DEQ is still considering the water permit for the Chickahominy Gas Plant. There will be lots of opportunities in January to get involved with C5 and to oppose that permit. Please join us at any of these comment writing parties, and if you have a laptop/tablet, bring it, but no worries if you don’t!
Also, mark your calendars for these two events hosted by the DEQ to talk about the permit:
Thursday, January 23, at 6:30 p.m. at Varina Library, the DEQ will host an informational session
January 28th, at 6:30, at Charles City County High School, the DEQ will host a public hearing on the permit.
The comment period on the water permit for Chickahominy ends on February 14th, and we want to make sure that all Virginians are informed and involved. We hope you’ll join us in this fight, and bring a friend!