Environmentalists: Army Corps was wrong to authorize Robeson County gas pipelines
Two environmental organizations intend to sue the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, calling for a halt of operations for a pair of pipelines leading to a natural gas storage facility in Robeson County.
Friends of the Earth and the Winyah Rivers Foundation notified the Corps on Nov. 30 that unless their concerns about Clean Water Act permitting for the Robeson Liquefied Natural Gas Pipeline are addressed within 60 days — by Jan. 29, 2022 — the groups will file suit.
The environmental groups contend that the Corps improperly issued a crucial authorization for two four-mile pipelines that carry natural gas to and from the Piedmont Natural Gas facility. They also say the Corps failed to consider how building the pipelines would impact the surrounding area, including clearing forested wetlands that could worsen known flooding problems and disturbing archaeological sites.
Jed Cayton, a spokesman for the Corps’ Wilmington district office, declined to comment “due to the possibility of forthcoming litigation.”
Piedmont Natural Gas, a subsidiary of Duke Energy, built the $250 million facility about halfway between Maxton and Red Springs.
The utility sends natural gas to the facility, where it is cooled to about minus 260 degrees Fahrenheit, making the gas smaller so it can be stored on the site. The facility is able to hold a billion cubic feet of natural gas, enough to power 100,000 homes on cold days, when demand is at its highest.
In a written statement, Donna Chavis of Friends of the Earth said, “While they promote themselves as a leader in addressing the climate crisis, Duke Energy continues to push high-risk schemes such as the (Robeson pipeline) in vulnerable communities. Investments in fossil fuel infrastructure make no sense financially or ecologically.”
Chavis is an elder of the Lumbee Nation and Friends of the Earth’s senior climate campaigner. Last year, in a press release calling for a stop work order on the pipelines, Chavis said the Piedmont facility was “being built on a foundation of environmental racism during a climate emergency.”
Robeson County is one of the most diverse in the nation, with 42% of its population identifying as American Indian, 31% as white, 24% as Black and 9% as Hispanic, according to the U.S. Census Bureau. The county’s median household income from 2015 to 2019 was $34,976, well below the state’s $54,602 median.
Other Piedmont liquefied natural gas hubs are in Huntersville near Charlotte, in Johnston County’s Bentonville and in Nashville, Tennessee.
In April 2020, Friends of the Earth prevailed in a lawsuit it brought against the Corps over the Keystone XL Pipeline, successfully arguing that the federal agency failed to consider endangered species in its approvals. Shortly after that decision, the organization asked the court to halt construction of the pipelines in Robeson County, arguing that the Corps also failed to consider endangered species in its approval of that project.
In an emailed response, Meghan Miles, a Piedmont spokeswoman, said the company believes the Corps issued the permit “properly.”
Miles contends that the facilities are necessary and that the utility company works to protect culturally important sites and to limit environmental impacts.
“We work with appropriate federal and state agencies and fully comply with all applicable laws and regulations, in addition to following our own standards designed to minimize the impact of our construction activities on surrounding areas,” Miles wrote.
Jefferson Currie II, Winyah Rivers Alliance’s Lumber riverkeeper and a member of the Lumbee Tribe, said in a written statement that the project will degrade water quality in streams and the Lumber River while also worsening local flooding.
“This unneeded Duke Energy project is along what local Lumbee and Tuscarora people call ‘Long Swamp,’ where significant archaeological and historical sites attest to the sustained cultural presence of our indigenous communities in this place for thousands of years,” Currie said.
This story was produced with financial support from 1Earth Fund, in partnership with Journalism Funding Partners, as part of an independent journalism fellowship program. The N&O maintains full editorial control of the work.
This story was originally published December 11, 2021 at 12:36 PM with the headline "Environmentalists: Army Corps was wrong to authorize Robeson County gas pipelines."