Sharon Ponton, a Virginia organizer with the Blue Ridge Environmental Defense League, is recommending to the State Water Control Board and the Virginia Department of Environmental Quality that the 401 Water Certification Process for the proposed Atlantic Coast and Mountain Valley pipelines be postponed “until all soil and erosion and storm water management plans have been made public.”
The letter further recommends that the third-party contract with EEE be revoked and the request by DEQ to the Army Corps of Engineers to permit the wetland and waterbody crossings be rescinded.
Ponton outlines seven observations and concerns in the letter including DEQ’s statements to the press in April regarding the Army Corps’ Nationwide 12 permit which led the public to believe DEQ would themselves conduct the individual stream and wetland permitting process.
She points out the Erosion & Sedimentation and Storm Water Management plans are incomplete and what has been made available was done so weeks after the permitting process began.