The Chickahominy Power Station, second of two privately-owned, gas-fired, electric generating plants slated for the Roxbury Road corridor of rural Charles City County, is close to becoming fully permitted. This is primarily due to insufficient public notice, little citizen involvement, and a state-level regulatory structure unprepared to fully examine and evaluate potential adverse impacts of such projects.
Together and if approved, the Chickahominy Power Plant and its “sister” C4GT plant, already fully permitted just a mile away, along with a third plant operating at the county landfill, would make Charles City County one of the largest generators of air pollution in the nation.
We will continue to oppose the Chickahominy gas plant on the basis of its final permit application as well as more generally in what appears to be a massive failure of Virginia’s permitting process. We remain hopeful that citizens and leaders, both elected and unelected, will be successful in creating a “pause” of this unwanted and unnecessary project in order to study, improve and adjust Virginia’s permitting processes. The Commonwealth has not been — and is still not — prepared to adequately protect Virginia’s citizens, communities, soil, water, or air from the profit motives of merchant power generators, from the short-term economic interests of Virginia localities, or from corporate confidentiality agreements with local governments and economic development authorities, agreements that hide projects of wide impact from their constituents and the very citizens that will be affected.
What can you do to help?
Please become and stay informed. Bookmark the C5 website and sign up for our updates.
* Here you can access pertinent news coverage as well as regulatory documents. Also posted here are documents about New Kent’s arrangement to provide water to the Chickahominy Power Plant, including maps.
*Participate in public comment at appropriate junctures. The C5 website will be your key resource for upcoming events and meetings.
* Finally, you can begin now to let your elected officials — at all levels of government — know that this situation greatly concerns you and that you will hold them accountable for responsible action.
by Lynn Wilson, Henrico County, Virginia, a member of C5