Community members, advocates call on North Carolina to reject the air permit application for the Moriah Energy Center

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
August 2, 2024

CONTACT
Juhi Modi, North Carolina Field Coordinator, (919) 537-2427, juhi@appvoices.org
Dan Radmacher, Media Specialist, (540) 798-6683, dan@appvoices.org

HENDERSON, N.C. — On Thursday, Aug. 1, community members and advocates expressed their opposition to the Moriah Energy Center, a proposed liquefied methane gas storage facility proposed to be built in Rougemont, North Carolina. The Division of Air Quality held a public hearing on Dominion Energy’s air permit application for the project. About 100 people attended the hearing, and 39 people delivered public comments. Thirty-eight of the speakers urged the DAQ to deny the air permit application, and one person from the Carolinas Natural Gas Coalition spoke in favor of the project. 

Community members from Person County and beyond voiced their concerns about the facility’s threat to air quality and human health, as well as the safety risks it would pose. Many also expressed distrust in Dominion Energy due to the sediment pollution caused in local waterways by site preparation for the facility, as well as a lack of proper responses to the community’s questions about the facility. 

“Just with their initial site preparation, does this board know that Dominion is already polluting nearby streams and watersheds with illegal levels of turbidity that has required state intervention?” asked Don Narensky, an impacted community member from Person County. “Do you think their toxic emissions will be any different? I don’t think so.”

Jill Hoffman, who lives about 1,600 feet from the site and holds a PhD in toxicology, said, “I’m very concerned about the pollutants that will be released by this facility. These chemicals cause cancer. These chemicals cause a multitude of other diseases. These chemicals damage our environment. It is the responsibility of the state of North Carolina to protect its citizens.”

Multiple commenters expressed concerns about the Moriah Energy Center’s emissions of acrolein, benzene, formaldehyde and hexane, and the public health impacts these pollutants would have. 

“Acrolein is known to deplete glutathione. Glutathione is what we need in order to detoxify toxins,” said Merrilee Narensky, a Person County resident. 

Eleanor Weston, a health sciences librarian from Durham said, “Many [of these pollutants] are carcinogens and can cause asthma. Their own estimates of their hazardous air pollutants for this plant would be at 77% of North Carolina’s acceptable ambient levels, but amounts are likely higher because their estimates did not include secondary formations of these pollutants.”

Various speakers also discussed that Dominion’s estimates of pollutant emissions are likely to be underestimated. 

“So far they [Dominion Energy] have only provided the bare minimum of information required of them which is just an estimate of their projected emissions,” said Elizabeth Arant, a resident of Durham and an early-childhood teacher. “These estimates, however, are likely to be insufficient, as research has shown that modeling of the levels of gases such as formaldehyde has been found to underestimate real levels. One study found that in North Carolina, real levels of formaldehyde are 1.4 to 1.6 times greater than typical estimates.”

Additionally, attendees commented on the safety risks of this facility. Dominion Energy representatives have said on multiple occasions that there will be no accidents at the Moriah Energy Center. From 2012 to 2023, there have been 37 reportable accidents or incidents at liquefied methane gas facilities across the U.S. Fifteen of those were caused by human error, 19 were due to equipment failure and three were weather-related.

“Dominion Energy has refused to include common-sense safety features in this plan, including leak detection and repair systems, or double-walled tanks,” said Weston. “They have also declined to create a Risk Management Plan for this facility. … I don’t think it is acceptable or responsible to put an air quality hazard like this [the Moriah Energy Center] in our community without a plan for what happens if there is an accident or additional emissions. Moreover, Dominion Energy has a history of leaks and air pollution from their facilities. A Dominion facility in Chesterfield, Virginia, emitted over 180,000 pounds of pollution above their permitted leaks as reported by EPA’s Toxic Release Inventory.”

Photos from the hearing are available by contacting North Carolina Field Coordinator Juhi Modi.