RICHMOND, Va. (AP) – Some people in central Virginia are preparing to fight a plan to put a natural gas pipeline through their properties that would serve a yet-to-be-built power plant in Charles City County.
While Charles City County has approved the plant, property owners and county government leaders along the pipeline path said they have no information yet about the actual route of the pipeline. Environmental groups say the line would serve a plant that is not needed for Virginia’s electricity needs.
“The natural gas industry has written our law in Virginia, and nationally, to a very great extent,” said Lynn Peace Wilson of Henrico County, who received a letter from the pipeline company about her property across the Chickahominy River in New Kent County. “They have written themselves protections that make it very difficult for anyone to question what they are doing.”
The company behind the pipeline proposes “to foul our air and our water and our soil and our wetlands”should prepare for a fight, she said.
The letters that went out didn’t say so, but the developer of the plant told the Richmond Times-Dispatch that the company won’t try to legally force any property owner to allow use of their land for the pipeline. If any property owners along the proposed route from near Charlottesville to Charles City County object, the company will change the route, said Irfan Ali of Balico LLC.