Administrative Watch: NC Wants More Water Info on Pipeline
The state of North Carolina has more questions about the water quality impacts of the proposed Atlantic Coast Pipeline in our state.
Developers of the proposed Atlantic Coast Pipeline for transporting natural gas from West Virginia have been told they must provide more information to the NC Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ) before it can properly evaluate their application. DEQ’s Division of Water Resources told the applicant, in a letter sent last week, that it needed more detailed analysis of the project’s impact on water quality and the economy in specific areas of the affected counties.
This is the state’s fourth request for more data from the applicant, which has sought to skim over the potential impacts while pressing for accelerated approval of its request. North Carolina’s deliberative approach to this major energy infrastructure project stands in marked contrast to the rapid (and controversial) green light it received at the national level by the Trump Administration. That approval is still being challenged by pipeline opponents.
The proposed pipeline would begin at a fracked natural gas operation in West Virginia, and continue for 600 miles across Virginia and North Carolina. It would impact rivers, streams, and wetlands in eight NC counties, from Northampton on the state’s northern border with Virginia, to Robeson on its southern border with South Carolina.
