It’s fair to give Waynesboro leaders hell for the mess that we’re in with Northrop Grumman, which is on the verge of getting a permit from the Virginia DEQ that will allow the military-industrial giant to spew tons of pollutants into our air, and eventually our groundwater.
A former member of Waynesboro City Council reached out to me recently to make clear that our folks would have known from the jump what Northrop Grumman had in the works – that there’s no way the folks at NG would have committed $400 million to what it’s calling its Blue Ridge Advanced Manufacturing Center without expecting that it would be able to pump its hazardous pollutants into our local environment.
Meaning: our folks on Waynesboro City Council would have had to have known, and signed off on the deal anyway.
It isn’t what they sold us, back when this project was announced, in 2023, what we’re getting.
Per a press release from Northrop Grumman, the new facility planned in Waynesboro “will increase capacity to manufacture and test advanced electronics and mission solutions to meet our customers’ growing needs,” according to a statement attributed to Northrop Grumman CEO and President Kathy Warden.
That all sounds Space Age – “test(ing) advanced electronics” sounds like people in cubicles working on computers; “mission solutions” sounds even loftier.
Maybe it’s just me, but “mission solutions” evokes a bunch of smart people sitting around various tables thinking through grand strategies.
The reality of what they’re going to be doing in Waynesboro: they’ll have people spraying stuff on other stuff.
It’s the stuff that they’re spraying that we need to be worried about.
And considering that the permit they’re about to get allows them to release 24.9 tons of hazardous pollutants into our local environment, holy crap.
We were led to believe, back in 2023, that Northrop Grumman was coming to Waynesboro to set up a high-tech, Space Age shop right here in our backyard – giving our local economy a boost with hundreds of high-paying jobs for engineers and computer wizards.
We were going to be like Northern Virginia – these are the kinds of jobs that require smart people!
Turns out, no – the reason Northrop Grumman wanted to set this operation up in Waynesboro was, they didn’t want the environmental damage up there in NoVa, where they’re based.
They assumed the hicks out in the sticks would be so desperate for a couple hundred low-tech jobs for people to spray stuff on other stuff that we’d do anything, including assent to polluting our air and water beyond recognition, to get them – and they were right.
ICYMI: Northrop Grumman comes to Waynesboro
- DEQ is going to make us guess when the next Northrop Grumman hearing is
- Still no word on the DEQ follow-up hearing on Northrop Grumman
- We’re going to get another DEQ hearing on Northrop Grumman request
- Waynesboro leaders sold their souls, and ours, to Northrop Grumman
- Comments on Northrop Grumman permit request raise issues to DEQ
- No help coming from environmentalists on Northrop Grumman permit
- Game plan coming together on how to fight Northrop Grumman pollution permit
- Northrop Grumman announces plans for $200M manufacturing facility in Waynesboro
- DEQ needs to grant extension on Northrup Grumman SOP
- DEQ to set public hearing on Northrup Grumman permit request
- DEQ sets public hearing on Northrop Grumman permit request
- Locals gave Virginia DEQ an earful on Northrop Grumman permit request
- DEQ says it’s OK for Northrop Grumman to pollute our environment
- How Waynesboro residents can challenge the Northrop Grumman pollution permit
- Waynesboro played by the rules with the Northrop Grumman deal: Need to change the rules
- Northrop Grumman announces plans for $200M manufacturing facility in Waynesboro
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Chris Graham
