Kate Addleson, director of the Sierra Club, Virginia chapter, comments on the State Water Control Board decision to approve Dominion’s Chesterfield Power Station coal ash dewatering permit.
“The Sierra Club is disappointed that the State Water Control Board, a citizen’s board, failed to reject Dominion Virginia Power’s Chesterfield Power Station Virginia Pollutant Discharge Elimination System Permit.
“The Department of Environmental Quality and the board are not doing enough to adequately protect Virginia’s waters. This permit fails to protect the James River, America’s founding river and a source of drinking water for more than 50 localities, from the harmful pollutants in coal ash and water treatment processes.
“The permit allows Dominion to use minimum requirements for thermal discharge and water intake, and allows for more stringent limits on toxic pollutants like arsenic and lead to be delayed until March 2022, rather than requiring Dominion to meet the federally suggested date of November 2018.
“We are concerned that DEQ is unjustifiably willing to bow to the wishes of corporate polluters like Dominion.
“Today’s decision is a disappointment for all those who use the James and care for the species that call it home, including the endangered Atlantic Sturgeon. There was no need to wait for another permit cycle to implement more stringent standards.
“The permit accepted today by the State Water Control Board fell far short of the stringency needed to adequately protect our water and public health.”
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