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State air board backs Buckingham compressor station for Atlantic Coast Pipeline
State air board backs Buckingham compressor station for Atlantic Coast Pipeline
By MICHAEL MARTZ Richmond Times-Dispatch 19 hrs ago
A pitched public battle over a natural gas compressor station for the Atlantic Coast Pipeline in Buckingham County ended with a vote of approval for a permit that state officials hailed as a new national standard for air pollution controls on gas turbines and opponents branded as tainted by political interference from Gov. Ralph Northam.
The State Air Pollution Control Board voted 4-0 to approve the compressor station permit Tuesday, acting without three of its seven members — two of whom Northam had replaced abruptly in November. The vote came during a raucous two-hour meeting at a Chesterfield County conference center that was thronged by protesters and Virginia State Police.
“The bottom line here is the Buckingham Compressor Station will be the most stringently regulated compressor station in the country and the public’s health will be protected,” said Mike Dowd, director of the Department of Environmental Quality’s Air Division, as dozens of protesters stood behind him with their backs turned.
Opponents vowed to continue the fight against the compressor station permit in court and accused the board of ignoring the “disproportionate impact” of the project on Union Hill, a community centered around two African-American churches and the former site of a slave-holding plantation that spawned it. ... “The compressor station is making us the sacrificial lamb,” said John Laury, 74, an African-American resident who grew up in Union Hill and moved back to the community more than 15 years ago.
....
mmartz@timesdispatch.com
(804) 649-6964
By MICHAEL MARTZ Richmond Times-Dispatch 19 hrs ago
A pitched public battle over a natural gas compressor station for the Atlantic Coast Pipeline in Buckingham County ended with a vote of approval for a permit that state officials hailed as a new national standard for air pollution controls on gas turbines and opponents branded as tainted by political interference from Gov. Ralph Northam.
The State Air Pollution Control Board voted 4-0 to approve the compressor station permit Tuesday, acting without three of its seven members — two of whom Northam had replaced abruptly in November. The vote came during a raucous two-hour meeting at a Chesterfield County conference center that was thronged by protesters and Virginia State Police.
“The bottom line here is the Buckingham Compressor Station will be the most stringently regulated compressor station in the country and the public’s health will be protected,” said Mike Dowd, director of the Department of Environmental Quality’s Air Division, as dozens of protesters stood behind him with their backs turned.
Opponents vowed to continue the fight against the compressor station permit in court and accused the board of ignoring the “disproportionate impact” of the project on Union Hill, a community centered around two African-American churches and the former site of a slave-holding plantation that spawned it. ... “The compressor station is making us the sacrificial lamb,” said John Laury, 74, an African-American resident who grew up in Union Hill and moved back to the community more than 15 years ago.
....
mmartz@timesdispatch.com
(804) 649-6964
