Photo by Caroline Hansley
Today, in a victory for environmental justice, the Virginia Air Pollution Control Board voted 6-1 to deny the air quality permit for the proposed Lambert Compressor Station. Without this key permit, the Mountain Valley Pipeline (MVP)’s Southgate extension is unlikely to ever be built, and now the entire pipeline project is in even further jeopardy. It lacks necessary federal and state authorizations, is years behind schedule, and continues to face stiff grassroots opposition. The denial of a key permit is a huge victory for the communities who have worked tirelessly to protect their health and homes from corporate polluters.
The Lambert Compressor Station would have connected the beleaguered Mountain Valley Pipeline to a proposed Southgate extension into North Carolina. Had the permit been granted, nearby environmental justice communities would have been subjected to additional air pollution in the form of carbon monoxide, particulate matter 2.5, and formaldehyde—substances known to contribute to respiratory problems, heart disease, and cancer.
In their denial of the permit, state air board members cited the negative effects this additional industrial facility would have had on air quality in the region, as well as the lack of a thorough environmental justice study outreach to people of color and/or low-income people living close to the proposed Lambert Compressor Station site. This decision marked the first time that the Air Pollution Control Board based a permit denial on the Virginia Environmental Justice Act, a monumental piece of legislation that provides environmental justice communities power over the kinds of permitting decisions that have long harmed them.
The Southgate extension project was first announced almost four years ago. Since then, communities have been organizing from West Virginia to North Carolina to stop the MVP Mainline and this proposed Southgate extension. They’ve packed hearings, including one virtual hearing in February of this year where dozens spoke out against the project. More than 400 individual comments were received on this permit alone.
For this latest decision, the state air board received public input for two days, and more than 80 percent of speakers warned of disproportionate health impacts to communities of color from air pollution, and climate effects from the proposed station.
Elizabeth Jones & Anderson Jones of the environmental Justice Committee for the Pittsylvania County NAACP.
The MVP mainline project has been a hazard for years -- racking up more than $2 million in fines for more than 350 water quality-related violations in Virginia and West Virginia. This latest defeat for the project should send a clear signal to MVP’s backers: The age of fossil fuels is over. It’s time to cancel this polluting pipeline once and for all.
Photos by Caroline Hansley