MEC Air Permit Hearing Set for August 1 Jul 28, 2024Action Alerts

The North Carolina Division of Air Quality has scheduled a public hearing for Dominion Energy’s air permit application for the proposed Moriah Energy Center (MEC) in Person County, NC. The controversial MEC facility would initially be home to a 25 million liquified natural gas storage tank, with plans for a second 25 million gallon tank in the future.  

Residents of the communities surrounding the proposed site of the facility have been fighting the proposal since the project was publicly announced in late August, 2023. In February of this year, several residents living closest to the facility filed a lawsuit against the Person County Commissioners, opposing the rezoning of more than 450 acres of land from “rural conservation”, to “general industrial”.  As of now, the rezoning remains paused due to this litigation.  

Dominion has begun clearing land to prepare for construction at the MEC site. Since that time, unprecedented levels of sediment have been recorded in nearby creeks, which are also home to a number of endangered or threatened aquatic species.

One of the final hurdles for Dominion is the approval of their air permit application.  The liquefaction process would separate heavy hydrocarbons from the natural gas stream before storage. The heavy hydrocarbon stream would either be routed back to the natural gas pipeline or burned off with flares. The majority of emissions at the facility would come from combustion sources including heaters, generators and flares. Dominion’s own projections suggest that the facility will emit more than 65,000 tons of greenhouse gasses into the atmosphere, each year.  The facility would also allow tanker truck loading and unloading of liquid natural gas.

The air permitting hearing will be held on Wednesday, August 1, 2024 at Vance Granville Civic Center in Henderson, NC.  Members of BREDL’s NoMEC chapter have voiced their displeasure with DEQ regarding the location of the hearing, which is two counties away from the location of the proposed facility. Numerous Person County residents have requested a change of venue, or an additional hearing. At this time, neither a change of venue, nor an additional hearing date has been announced.  

NoMEC members are asking that DEQ deny Dominion’s air permit application, and that the facility be required to implement safety features that would reduce the threat of a significant leak and explosion.  If you would like to submit a comment to the Division of Air Quality, please email DAQ.publiccomments@deq.nc.gov before August 2. Be sure to include ‘Moriah-Energy.23A’ in the subject line. 

For more information on NoMEC’s fight against Dominion Energy, please visit www.NoMEC.org.