A group of thirteen expert scientists and engineers submitted reports to the Virginia Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ) on August 22, 2017, finding that DEQ has failed in its duty to properly analyze and protect against the water quality damages the Mountain Valley Pipeline and Atlantic Coast Pipeline would cause to Virginia’s waters. In the reports, one issued for each of the pipelines, the authors wrote that they had reviewed the information DEQ claimed to rely upon in its draft Water Quality Certifications (WQCs) and made their own independent assessments. The experts’ conclusion in each case:

DEQ’s draft WQC, which asserts that there is a “reasonable assurance” that Water Quality Standards (WQS) will be met with the conditions contained in that draft, cannot be supported by the evidence in the record and pertinent scientific authorities and knowledge. Such a finding in the Department’s recommendation to the State Water Control Board (SWCB) would be professionally incompetent and would fail to meet minimum standards of scientific proof.

The authors of the expert report have a vast depth of experience and training (nearly 400 years in professional and academic posts overall) in the entire range of scientific and technical fields pertinent to DEQ’s decisions on the pipelines. They include the incoming President of the American Fisheries Society, a member of the Virginia Cave Board, and former senior engineers and scientists at the Virginia DEQ, the Virginia Department of Transportation, and the Maryland Department of the Environment. The group includes licensed professional engineers and geologists, professors from Virginia Tech and Washington and Lee University, authors of hundreds of peer-reviewed academic papers, and those who’ve served as expert witnesses in court for DEQ and other state and federal agencies. A complete list of the authors is included below.

“The authors of this report used strong language in our criticism of the proposed findings DEQ has made in its draft Certifications for the pipelines, because we are frankly dismayed to see an agency that’s supposed to base regulatory decisions on science and law ignore the facts and betray the public,” said David Sligh, Conservation Director of Wild Virginia and a Regulatory Systems Investigator for the Dominion Pipeline Monitoring Coalition (DPMC). The two groups included the expert reports as part of extensive submittals to DEQ during the comment periods that ended yesterday.

Rick Webb, DPMC’s Coordinator said, “we are not criticizing the dedicated technical employees at DEQ and the other state agencies who’ve studied the potential impacts from the hugely-disruptive projects. In fact, we cited the recommendations agency staff made in previous comments in which they explained why much more data and analyses were needed before protection of state waters could be assured, as the law requires; that permanent damages to our waterbodies could result and residents’ wells and springs ruined without additional information and protective measures.”

“What we are criticizing is the McAuliffe administration’s regulatory proposals, which ignore the concerns and devalue the expertise of their own technical staff,” stated Sligh. “DEQ must not proceed with flawed and scientifically-unsupported recommendations to the State Water Control Board to approve Certifications for either project. If Director Paylor, Secretary of Natural Resources Ward, and the Governor mandate such an approach, then the members of the Water Control Board must play their roles as protectors of the public and reject those recommendations.”

Link to the complete report:  Evidence of Water Quality Threats from the Atlantic Coast Pipeline – Failure to Assure Compliance with Virginia Water Quality Standards

The reports’ authors include:
Dr. Paul L. Angermeier
Ralph Bolgiano
Malcolm Cameron
David Collins, P.E.
Ari Daniels
Dr. Pam Dodds, P.G.
Dr. David Harbor
Robert K. Johnson
Rick Lambert
William Limpert
Dr. Brian Murphy
David Sligh
Rick Webb

Additional DPMC comments on the Draft 401 Water Quality Certification submitted to the Virginia Department of Environmental Quality 

Hydrogeological Assessment of the Proposed 401 Water Quality Certification to be Issued for the Atlantic Coast Pipeline Project, Virginia, by the Virginia State Water Control Board – prepared by Dr. Pam Dodds

An Assessment of Significant Impacts Which Challenge the Option of Issuance by the Virginia State Water Control Board of  a 401 Water Quality Certification for the Atlantic Coast Pipeline – prepared by Malcolm Cameron

Deferred Planning for the High-Hazard Areas of the ACP – prepared by Rick Webb

NOTE:  Documents cited in the above comments can be made available on request.