Dominion Energy will not build a fracked gas compressor station in Charles County. The AMP Creeks Council and greater southern Maryland community are celebrating their victory after a two-year fight to prevent this station from being built on 14 clear cut acres surrounded by fragile wetlands that often flood in the Accokeek/Bryans Road area. Read about some of their efforts here and here. Sierra Club is proud to have supported this effort over the past several years and we’re committed to continuing this fight with these great partners (when/ if) Dominion targets another location.
Emily Architzel, an AMP Creeks Board member who recently moved from Bryans Road to Accokeek and is disabled said, “Holy cow! I’m breathing a giant fracked gas-free sigh of relief. The pollution from this compressor station would have driven my family out of the area because of the potential impacts to my health.”
Dominion suffered a possibly fatal blow to the project’s permitting process this spring after 12 hearings, during which AMP Creeks and several individuals were represented by J. Carroll Holzer, P.A., when the Charles County Board of Appeals denied Dominion’s application for a zoning special exception to build Charles Station. Dominion then sued the Board of Appeals and the Charles County Board of Commissioners in the Federal District Court of Maryland in a desperate attempt to have the entire Charles County zoning code preempted. AMP Creeks filed a motion to intervene in the proceedings. The admirable, but difficult ruling by the Board of Appeals was made under extreme pressure, and set in motion a mechanism that could stop the Maryland Department of the Environment (MDE) from approving Dominion’s Air Quality permit. Without that permit, Dominion would be unable to move forward.
AMP Creeks President Kelly Canavan said, “AMP Creeks is fully committed to continuing to fight this project wherever it rears its ugly head, but for now we’re celebrating. We fully intend that this win will be a trend, not an aberration. The health of one community is no more important than the health of another. Dominion’s carpetbagging profiteering has no place in a decent society.”