I’ve had the pleasure of organizing in Hampton Roads for almost two years now. Climate activists like you have stood beside me as we fought off the threat of offshore drilling on our coast. We’ve come together to tell our personal accounts of living on the front lines of sea level rise through Flood of Voices. We even bothered our local paper, The Virginian-Pilot, so much that they dedicated a section of their website to sea level rise. However, there is another threat that calls us to action yet again: Fracked-gas pipelines.
Virginia’s polluters are moving forward with their plans to construct the Atlantic Coast Pipeline (ACP) and the Mountain Valley Pipeline (MVP) even though they would be locking our coastline into catastrophic climate repercussions. This egregious disregard for public health and lack of foresight has sparked a fire under activists in the Shenandoah Valley and Southwest Virginia. They have shown up to public meetings in droves and they are tirelessly fighting the construction of these fracked-gas freeways.
But they can’t do it alone.
We on the coast have a special obligation to join the fight against these pipelines (and we already are taking action). Throughout the spring and summer, activists in Hampton Roads held meetings with ten legislators urging them to weigh in for a full and fair federal review of both the ACP and the MVP. The long-term effects of an influx of fracked gas into our state will be felt first in Norfolk and the rest of Hampton roads through rising sea levels and more coastal flooding. The immediate impacts will touch us, too. In the Deep Creek community in Chesapeake, landowners and low-income residents face the prospect of the ACP coming into their backyards. Plus, we know what can happen when coastal residents come together to say NO to a fossil fuel project (remember that offshore drilling proposal?).
Across the Commonwealth, there is one more unifying reason why we should be fighting these ludicrous pipelines: water. We all need it, and we all prefer it to be clean. So why would we risk the safety of what pours out of our faucets when we can produce energy from clean sources like offshore wind instead? These pipelines present a very real threat to the thousands of streams, rivers, waterways, and wetlands that have a direct impact on Virginians’ drinking water and to our efforts to remediate the Chesapeake Bay.
The statewide resistance has already begun: over 600 climate activists marched on the Governor McAuliffe’s mansion with a unified message that called for clean energy instead of fossil fuel infrastructure. Just a couple weeks ago, activists across the state (and the country) came together for an event called Hands Across Our Land where they joined hands to loudly proclaim their opposition to pipelines anywhere and everywhere!
Now, as the Federal Environmental Regulatory Commission prepares an Environmental Impact Study for each pipeline, the resistance must intensify. We expect FERC to release its environmental review of the Mountain Valley Pipeline any day now. But this decision isn’t a federal one alone. Governor McAuliffe has the power to direct his Department of Environmental Quality to deny the Clean Water Act permits for both pipelines and we need to make it VERY clear that it would be in the best interest of the people and our climate that he does just that. Because we know that he sometimes struggles with science of climate change (Just do a quick search of #TeachTerry).
The time is now to join us in fighting off yet another attack on our climate in Virginia. Contact me at harrison@chesapeakeclimate.org and I’ll plug you into one of our community action teams near your city: there, you will gain the tools that you’ll need to be the changemaker Virginia’s climate movement has been waiting for! I can’t wait to celebrate another victory with you.
Coal Ash in Virginia – What's Next
As summer winds down, the battle over Virginia’s long-term solution for coal ash disposal is heating back up. This summer saw several significant events and improvements in the fight against reckless coal ash disposal in Virginia.
First, the Virginia Sierra Club and Southern Environmental Law Center teamed up in court to sue Dominion for violations of the Clean Water Act at its leaking Chesapeake coal ash ponds. The trial spanned 4 days in Richmond, at the end of which Judge Gibney said he was inclined to agree that arsenic was in fact leaking from the Chesapeake coal ash ponds and that Dominion was in violation of the Clean Water Act, but said he was not yet sure of a solution. He plans to rule on the case within the next few months.
This summer also saw the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency close a significant loophole in its coal ash rule. Previously, if utilities managed to close their inactive coal ash ponds within three years of the issuance of the rule, they would essentially escape all federal regulation. We speculate that this is why Dominion was moving so quickly–faster than almost all other utilities in the country–to close its inactive ponds. Thankfully, thanks to a lawsuit brought by Earthjustice and others, this loophole is now removed.
We view this as a significant win. Before this update, inactive coal ash ponds that closed early were not subject to any groundwater monitoring or other post-closure care requirements–basically, they were unregulated under federal law. Under this new rule, Dominion no longer has an incentive to meet the April 2018 closure deadline and, if it does, the company will still not be able to escape the full requirements of the coal ash rule. Dominion’s inactive ponds are now subject to monitoring and corrective action; groundwater contamination at the site is subject to strict cleanup standards; and these monitoring and cleanup requirements apply for 30 years after closure. We hope that this new EPA rule will result in Dominion giving more thought to its closure plans.
Despite these victories, there is still much work to be done. The next permit fight on the table is a dewatering permit for Dominion’s Chesterfield coal ash ponds. These ponds, which sit directly next to a playground and park, hold millions of tons of coal ash. They were shown to be leaking into the James River during a study conducted by Duke University earlier this summer.
This permit process goes before the Virginia State Water Control Board on September 22nd in Richmond, Virginia for a public hearing. The hearing will begin at 9:30 am at the General Assembly Building, House Room C (9th & Broad Streets) in Richmond. This permit still has serious deficiencies–from the high temperature of the released water to impacts to the endangered Atlantic Sturgeon habitat. We need Virginians to come together and show Dominion and state regulators that we demand a closure process that will protect our drinking water for decades to come, not Dominion shareholders’ bottom line. Especially as more southeastern states agree to excavate and move their coal ash to modern, lined landfills, or decide to recycle it–creating an economic windfall out of a toxic situation–Dominion lags farther and farther behind.
I’m hopeful on this campaign, friends. This summer hundreds gathered to march in 100* heat in Richmond to call on Governor McAuliffe to move us away from a future full of fossil fuels and dirty energy. To stand with Virginians, not with Dominion. Our movement is growing in Virginia and beyond. From the beautiful blockade against the Dakota Access Pipeline, to the unprecedented deployment of renewable energy across the globe, the tide is turning. We need your help to push us there.