The North Carolina Department of Environmental Quality’s Division of Water Resources (DWR) has scheduled a public hearing for August 12 to gather input on Mountain Valley Pipeline LLC’s application for a 401 water quality certification. The certification is related to the proposed construction of a 5.2-mile section of high-pressure, steel natural gas transmission pipeline in Rockingham County.
The public hearing will take place at 6 p.m. in the Eden City Hall Council Chambers at 308 E. Stadium Drive, Eden, North Carolina. Sign-in and speaker registration are set to begin at 5:30 p.m.
Mountain Valley Pipeline is seeking approval for the construction of a 30-inch diameter pipeline that would run between Pittsylvania County, Virginia, and Rockingham County, North Carolina. According to the application, approximately 5.2 miles of this pipeline would be located within North Carolina.
Project documents indicate that construction would permanently affect 52 linear feet of jurisdictional intermittent streams and temporarily impact an additional 722 linear feet of jurisdictional streams as well as nearly three acres of jurisdictional wetlands.
State water quality certifications under Section 401 of the Clean Water Act are required for federally permitted or licensed activities that may result in discharges into navigable waters. The review process will assess whether the project meets state water quality standards and whether impacts to surface waters or wetlands have been avoided or minimized.
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 DWR stated, “The purpose of the public hearing is to allow the public to submit verbal and/or written comments regarding the 401 water quality certification application. DWR is unable to guarantee that there will be enough time to hear comments from all people who register to speak.”
In addition to providing comments during the hearing, members of the public can submit written feedback by mail or email until September 12 at 5 p.m. Written comments can be submitted online using this link (use project number 20181638; version 4): Public commentlink. Comments sent by mail should be addressed to Sue Homewood, 401 Permitting, 1617 Mail Service Center, Raleigh, NC, 27699-1617.
Further information about the application and related materials can be accessed online: Permitfile.
