Guess what, Waynesboro – the Virginia DEQ heard your concerns on Northrop Grumman’s request for a state operating permit that would allow the release of 24.9 tons of hazardous air pollutants, and they’re going to schedule an actual public hearing on the matter.
This came my way in the email on Thursday:
“In accordance with 9VAC5-80-35 E, the Virginia Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ) has authorized a public hearing for the issuance of State Operating Permit No. 81917 for the Northrop Grumman Systems Corporation. The hearing authorization memorandum is attached for your reference. DEQ will notify you and provide you a copy of the public notice for the hearing when it is scheduled.”
Wow, right?
ICYMI
The hearing authorization memo referenced above spelled out the obvious issues with the pretty shady public comment period that ended on April 13.
We got one public notice, y’all, and it was published in a newspaper that almost literally no one reads.
Per the memo:
“The draft SOP public notice, which notified the local community of the public comment period, was published in the News Virginian on March 12, 2026.”
Seriously, that was it.
According to the Virginia Press Association, the News Virginian has a print circulation of 692, and it stopped printing daily in 2023 – it’s now available three days a week.
A three-days-a-week circulation of 692, in a city of 23,951.
Quick math: at absolute best, 2.9 percent of us saw it.
Word, eventually, did get out – the DEQ memo says the agency received “written (email and hardcopy) comments from 250 individuals.”
Of those, 218 requested a full-fledged public hearing.
Per the memo, the DEQ can call a public hearing based on a finding that “there is a significant public interest in the issuance, denial, amendment, modification, or revocation of the permit in question as evidenced by receipt of a minimum of 25 individual requests for a public hearing.”
That low bar having been met, we’re going to get a public hearing on this.
No date has been set.
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Chris Graham
