Virginia NAACP Files Powerful Comments on Dominion’s Proposed Union Hill Compressor Station

The Virginia State Conference NAACP yesterday filed the following, powerful comments on Dominion’s proposed fracked-gas compressor station in Union Hill. See below for their 1/4 comments and also for an attachment, with copies of the the NAACP’s prior comments and public statements they have made on this issue. All are now filed with the Virginia Air Pollution Control Board. There’s lots of great stuff in here, such as:

• “We have followed this permitting process closely and we remain deeply troubled by what appears to be a deliberate effort by the applicant, Dominion Energy, to erase the historic African American community of Union Hill from the record of consideration. This is nothing more or less than an effort to erase the relevance of African American’s presence, culture, and heritage. We do not use that term lightly. But the record, as discussed below, leads to no other conclusion.”
• “This oversized compressor station will be an industrial emitter in a nonindustrial area and will forever change the character of the community from a scenic and historic setting to industrial. There has been no consideration for maintaining the community’s scenic aesthetics, nor pro-active mitigation efforts to prevent substantial degradation to air and water qualities. We ask the Air Pollution Control Board to vote No.”
• “We also must note that we are troubled by the decision by the Virginia Department of Environmental Quality (“DEQ) to limit this public comment period to seven working days during the Holiday Season and New Year’s Day. This seems to us to be a calculated effort by DEQ to limit public input from across the Commonwealth on this very important issue.”
• “There are NO long-term offsetting economic benefits, such as employment or increased commerce, that ameliorate the economic harm that Union Hill residents will experience in lost property values.”
• “The findings of the Household Study were unequivocal. 99 households were surveyed within 1.1 miles of the proposed compressor station, comprising a total of 199 weekday residents. 83% of those were people of color. 62% of the residents are African American and another 14% are mixed African American and Native American. 2% are Native American and another 5% are mixed Native American and White.”
• “Finally, DEQ did not give any consideration to the Governor’s Advisory Council on Environmental Justice (“ACEJ”), which reported significant environmental justice issues.”

VSC NAACP DEQ UnionHillComp… by on Scribd

VSC NAACP DEQ UnionHillComp… by on Scribd