Virginia Water Board to decide on fracked-gas pipelines

This is the pivotal moment.

This week, the State Water Control Board kicks off a series of meetings where it will decide on permits for the fracked-gas Mountain Valley and Atlantic Coast pipelines. The Board will accept comments from people living in impacted communities, technical experts and people like you who are concerned about water quality.

This is our chance to show the board that Virginia does not want these pipelines. They cannot be built without violating state water quality standards for our streams, rivers, wetlands and drinking water supplies. The pipelines are risky and not needed — but water is life. Please join us to stand up for clean water.

Virginia State Water Control Board Pipeline Permitting Meetings

December 6 & 7 (Wednesday – Thursday) – Mountain Valley Pipeline
December 11 & 12 (Monday – Tuesday) – Atlantic Coast Pipeline
Trinity Family Life Center, 3601 Dill Road, Richmond, Va.
Both sets of meetings will start at 9:30 a.m. RSVP here.

If you commented or signed a petition during the July-August public comment period, you are entitled to speak directly to the Board. Public comment may only be accepted on Dec. 6 and Dec. 11, so the first day of these meetings is the priority. The board is likely to decide whether to approve, deny, or delay these projects on the second day of each meeting.

Even if you did not comment previously, we need to pack the room in solidarity. Join us for this final push to tell the State Water Control Board to protect our waters from the Atlantic Coast and Mountain Valley pipelines. Click here for everything you need to know about the meetings.

BACKGROUND

Water is life. We all know this, yet developers of the fracked-gas Atlantic Coast and Mountain Valley pipelines would place profits over people — over our water, our land and our health.

Each state on the pipeline routes must certify that the projects will not violate state water quality standards before construction may begin. The Virginia Department of Environmental Quality has drafted permits for both pipelines, but the State Water Control Board — an independent citizen board of seven water experts — has the authority to deny them.

More than 20,000 people submitted comments over the summer — the vast majority saying that construction of the Mountain Valley Pipeline or Atlantic Coast Pipeline would create such significant damage that our state water quality standards would be violated. If the Board studies the facts and listens to the experts, the only conclusion it can make is that these pipelines cannot be built.

Virginia officials can and MUST stop these pipelines. RSVP for the meetings now!