The North Carolina Department of Environmental Quality’s Division of Water Resources (DWR) has scheduled a public hearing for August 12 to gather comments on Mountain Valley Pipeline LLC’s application for a 401 water quality certification. The proposed project involves constructing 5.2 miles of high-pressure, steel natural gas transmission pipeline in Rockingham County.
The hearing will take place at 6 p.m. at the Eden City Hall Council Chambers, with sign-in and speaker registration beginning at 5:30 p.m.
Mountain Valley Pipeline is seeking state approval for the North Carolina segment of a 30-inch diameter pipeline that would run between Pittsylvania County, Virginia, and Rockingham County, North Carolina. The company’s application states that the construction would result in permanent impacts to 52 linear feet of jurisdictional intermittent streams and temporary impacts to 722 linear feet of jurisdictional streams as well as nearly three acres of wetlands.
Section 401 of the Clean Water Act requires state certifications for federally permitted or licensed activities that may discharge into navigable waters. The DWR review will determine if the proposal meets state water quality standards and whether impacts to surface waters or wetlands have been minimized or avoided.
According to the application, “the pipeline is proposed to provide natural gas to meet specific requests for natural gas to Enbridge Gas North Carolina and Duke Energy Carolinas to meet growing supply and resiliency needs.”
The public hearing aims to collect both verbal and written feedback on the certification request. “DWR is unable to guarantee that there will be enough time to hear comments from all people who register to speak,” according to officials.
Written comments can also be submitted by mail or email until September 12 at 5 p.m., using project number 20181638; version 4 through this Public commentlink. Documents related to the application are available online via Permitfile.
