Key Permit Denied for Mountain Valley Pipeline

A key permit for the Mountain Valley Pipeline was denied by Virginia’s Air Pollution Control Board on December 3, 2021. The permit was to build a compressor station in Pittsylvania County. The denial cites the commonwealth’s Environmental Justice Act, which was passed in July 2020.

The Mountain Valley Pipeline, LLC’s Lambert compressor station would reportedly have been located within 5 miles of 4 communities that have been identified as environmental justice communities. Compressor stations are known to emit both volatile and semi-volatile organic compounds (VOCs and SVOCs) into the air. An October 2021 survey in Environmental Advances found that 3 Ohio homes in close proximity to compressor stations had VOCs exceeding state standards for indoor air pollution.

 

Virginia’s Office of Environmental Justice was established in April 2021 and is tasked with ensuring ‘the fair and meaningful involvement of all people into the development, implementation and enforcement of environmental laws, regulations and policies across all DEQ [Department of Environmental Quality] programs.’

The denial of the Lambert compressor station was the first substantial permit denial since the passage of the Environmental Justice Act. During the hearing, Virginia DEQ board member Hope Cupit argued that under the new law, it’s the board’s duty to promote environmental justice — not just consider it.

‘If the Virginia Environmental Justice Act is to mean anything, and if we as a Commonwealth are going to promote environmental justice, then the time has come to reject proposals like this.’

Mountain Valley Pipeline, LLC is currently building an extension that would have connected to the proposed compressor station and taken the pipeline 75 miles south into North Carolina. After this decision, the future of the pipeline extension is unclear.