Northrop Grumman got its state operating permit, and pretty much everything it wanted, in terms of no oversight for its Waynesboro spray-coating operation, from Virginia DEQ on Wednesday.
DEQ sent us an email this morning with the news, noting the “effective date of September 30, 2026.”
No independent oversight; DEQ, as it had already told us it was going to do, is just going to make Northrop Grumman “maintain records of emissions data and operating parameters as necessary to demonstrate compliance with this permit.”
From the archives
- Coverage of the Northrop Grumman permit request: click here.
Hundreds of us had pleaded with DEQ in public hearings and via public comment portals to set up some kind of independent third-party verification process.
The regulators – if we can call them that – had already tipped their hand on not wanting to do that in a public document last month.
DEQ understands that some commenters view self‐reported data as insufficient. The monitoring, recordkeeping, and reporting requirements included in the draft permit meet the regulatory standards necessary to ensure compliance and provide DEQ with the information needed to evaluate the facility’s performance.
Translation: what DEQ is requiring of Northrop Grumman meets the minimum regulatory standard, so, since that’s all they need to do, that’s all they’re going to do.
Thus ends a review process that began on Oct. 31, 2025, which is when Northrop Grumman signed off on its application asking for a permit allowing it to release 24.9 tons of hazardous pollutants into the air over Waynesboro each year.
DEQ posted a public notice in the barely-still-there News Virginian in March pretending to solicit public comment on the application.
After people raised hell over the fact that nobody would have seen that public notice, since only a few dozen people still read the News Virginian, DEQ organized a public hearing, then another.
We now know that those were just provided to let folks blow off steam.
This whole thing was a done-deal formality from the jump.
Vote accordingly – and when I say that, I’m referring directly to Jim Wood, who’s on the ballot trying to run for re-election to the Ward D seat on Waynesboro City Council.
Wood dismissed the public concern about the pollution by comparing it to pollution from cars driving by on the interstate.
Different level of pollution, but anyway, he’s OK with us having 24.9 tons more.
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Chris Graham
