DEQ should change monitoring process before considering air permit for proposed gas plant
RICHMOND, Va. — Today on behalf of the Chesterfield County Branch of the NAACP, the Southern Environmental Law Center sent a letter to the Virginia Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ) requesting that it require Dominion to conduct critical monitoring before the Department considers Dominion’s air permit application for its proposed gas plant in Chesterfield.
The letter asks that the monitoring be “specifically designed to collect data in the vicinity of the proposed source” and that DEQ ensure Dominion’s radius for establishing the area to be affected is at least three miles.
This would be an improvement to Dominion’s current proposal to use existing air monitoring data to conduct its analysis of ambient air quality in the area that would be impacted by the proposed gas plant. Dominion’s Environmental Justice screening report currently limits its evaluation radius to one mile, despite the Environmental Protection Agency’s assessment that utilizing a three-mile radius better represents communities neighboring power plants.
“Today’s request is just the latest in attempts from the Chesterfield residents, advocates, and experts across the state to have those in power turn course and adequately hold Dominion accountable. Dominion continues to rely on gas and has not properly reached out and engaged those most impacted by that reliance,” said Nicole Martin, president of the Chesterfield NAACP.
Because the proposed gas plant is expected to be a source of many hazardous pollutants, an accurate assessment of ambient air quality is essential. In particular, the gas plant will emit significant amounts of particulate matter less than 2.5 millionths of a meter, or microns, in size (aka PM2.5), which is small enough to penetrate deep into the lungs. Health risks from increased emissions of PM2.5 present a particular concern because elevated concentrations of PM2.5 are linked to adverse respiratory health effects (including acute events such as asthma attacks), as well as cardiac arrest and stroke.
A recent report from Dr. Loren Hopkins, a National Environmental Justice Advisory Council member and Chief Environmental Science Officer and Bureau Chief of the Data Science Division in the Houston Health Department, was cited in the letter and included as an attachment. In the report, Dr. Hopkins states that the PM2.5 monitors nearest Dominion’s proposed location are over seven miles away from the Coxendale Road site, which brings into question whether they will accurately reflect ambient air quality in nearby communities.
After months of speculation, Dominion alerted Chesterfield County residents in late August that it plans to build the proposed gas plant at its existing Chesterfield Power Station site at Coxendale Road after originally saying it would be built at the James River Industrial Center.
SELC staff attorney Rachel James reiterated the importance of getting the monitoring process right.
“This is not a request for more, but a request for DEQ to adequately assess Dominion’s application and encourage the utility to put the health and well-being of the people of Chesterfield first,” James said.
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