Press Releases

  • Winston-Salem Weaver fire air quality worse than reported by agencies

    The Blue Ridge Environmental Defense League has released a report which shows that hazardous air quality during the Weaver Fertilizer Plant fire was downplayed.

    The report Winston-Salem Weaver Fertilizer Plant Fire – Analysis of Publicly Disseminated Air Quality Information During Facility Fire Incident highlights instances when local officials told the public that the air quality was okay and pollutants were just “irritants” when, in fact, levels of Particulate Matter 2.5 were in the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s hazardous and very unhealthy categories.

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  • SC woman concerned over new gas pipeline in front of home, officials say it’s legal (WPDE.com)

    A woman living in Atlantic Beach reached out to ABC15 with concerns after she said a gas pipeline was installed in front of her home — without notice.

    Kathy Andrews said the home she’s lived in for nearly two decades on 32nd Avenue in Atlantic Beach was disrupted a couple of weeks ago.

    Andrews said she walked out of her door to see Dominion Energy workers digging a hole in her front yard; something she said she never gave permission or received a notice for.

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  • Citizens Urged to Attend the People’s Hearing at Hannah Pamplico High (prnewswire.com)

    A public forum will be held at Hannah Pamplico High School, 2055 S Pamplico Highway, on Saturday, May 21 at 1pm to discuss the proposed Dominion Energy pipeline.

    Environmentalists say the pipeline will cause harm to residents’ health and to wildlife in an area with an abundance of natural beauty and historical value.

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  • Riverneck-Kingsburg Pipeline Project, Public Notice No. SAC 2019-01427

    Dear Mr. Wenerick:

    On behalf of the Blue Ridge Environmental Defense League and its members in South
    Carolina, I write to provide comments on Dominion Energy’s proposed Riverneck-
    Kingsburg pipeline project, PN # SAC-2019-01427. These remarks will supplement the
    comments filed today on our behalf by the South Carolina Environmental Law Project
    (“SCELP”).

    In sum, we oppose the granting of the nationwide permit, NWP-12, for this project. Also,
    we hereby request that an extension of the comment period be granted and that a public
    hearing be held on this matter.

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  • Small pipeline, large worries for some S. Carolina residents – ABC27

    PAMPLICO, S.C. (AP) — The land agent who arrived at Reatha Jefferson’s door in May, unannounced and unmasked in the middle of the pandemic, told her he was giving her one more chance.

    The agent was there on behalf of Virginia-based utility giant Dominion Energy. He wanted to see if Jefferson would let Dominion run a new natural gas pipeline through the land her great-grandfather, a rural Black farmer, had bought more than a century ago in Pamplico, South Carolina.

    Jefferson sent the agent away and in July, the utility served her with court papers in an attempt to use eminent domain to build the pipeline.

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