FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

January 26, 2018

Contact:
Collin Rees, collin [at] priceofoil.org
David Turnbull, david [at] priceofoil.org

North Carolina Fails Its Residents by Approving Atlantic Coast Pipeline Water Permit

Today, the North Carolina Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ) approved the Section 401 water quality certification for the proposed Atlantic Coast Pipeline (ACP). In response, David Turnbull, Strategic Communications Director with Oil Change International, released the following statement:

“North Carolina’s Department of Environmental Quality has failed North Carolinians by granting certification of the Section 401 water permit for the Atlantic Coast Pipeline. The Atlantic Coast Pipeline presents severe threats to clean water, community rights, Indigenous sovereignty, environmental justice, and the climate.

“For these reasons, thousands of North Carolinians have risen up in opposition to this dangerous pipeline, and those opponents are not going to rest easy until this pipelines is rejected outright. Governor Cooper will continue to hear loudly from North Carolinians opposed to this pipeline until this pipeline is scrapped once and for all. To show real environmental and climate leadership, Governor Cooper must break free from Duke Energy’s grasp and protect North Carolinians by stopping the Atlantic Coast Pipeline.

“The additional ‘restrictions’ placed today by the DEQ are woefully inadequate to protect North Carolina’s water and communities. The DEQ mandates the use of ‘Horizontal Directional Drilling’ to protect the Neuse River – yet this same drilling technique is so dangerous that it’s resulted in state and federal regulators shutting down construction of two major natural gas pipelines just this month.

“Simply put, the Atlantic Coast Pipeline is a boondoggle that imperils our climate and communities and must not be built. Today the Department of Environmental Quality utterly failed to protect the water and people of North Carolina. Landowners, activists, and communities along the route of the Atlantic Coast Pipeline will continue to fight tooth and nail to make sure this dangerous, unnecessary pipeline is never constructed.”

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Notes for editors: