Person County commissioners approve huge natural gas storage facility over opposition
After hearing from dozens of opponents to a Dominion Energy liquefied natural gas storage site, the Person County Board of Commissioners unanimously voted this week for a rezoning that will allow the project to move forward.
In total, 38 people spoke against the project.
They urged commissioners to either deny the rezoning request or delay the vote, listing concerns that ranged from environmental impacts to the inability of the area’s volunteer fire department to handle an explosion on the site to how the decision could further change a bucolic area of the county.
During Monday’s meeting, Andrea Childers described moving to the area about 30 years ago with her husband, Paul. They commuted to the Triangle, Childers said, but it was worth it for the chance to care for a large garden, sit in a tree stand before work or tend to their bees.
Building the LNG plant, Childers warned, would cause people who are similarly seeking to live in a quieter rural area near enough to the Triangle for jobs to turn their attention elsewhere.
“If this LNG facility was here, there is no way we would have moved here. We would have moved on to another county. And I guarantee you that other commuters today will do the same,” Childers told commissioners.
For Dominion to move forward with building the equipment to cool gas and a storage tank to hold it, the Person County Board of Commissioners needed to rezone the 485-acre Rougemont tract from a mixture of rural conservation and residential designations to general industrial.
Dominion officials have said building the tank that will store natural gas frozen to minus 260 degrees Fahrenheit is necessary to guarantee service to the Triangle, particularly on cold winter days when demand is highest. Liquefied natural gas takes up significantly less space than the vaporized state gas exists in at normal temperatures.
Initially, Dominion plans to build one tank that can hold 25 million gallons of liquefied natural gas, which amounts to two billion cubic feet of natural gas when it is returned to a normal temperature. Another tank is possible based on market conditions, according to permit applications Dominion submitted to regulators.
Outside of Dominion officials, nobody spoke in support of the project.
The Rougemont site is near an existing Dominion pipeline, a factor that played a key role in the company choosing to build a new storage facility there. Liquefied natural gas could also be brought to the facility by tanker truck, but Dominion has said that would be rare.
When demand spikes, the proposed storage facility would be able to provide as much as 200 million cubic feet from each tank per day. Dominion solely plans to provide that gas to its customers.
Dominion also owns a storage facility in Cary, with a tank that is half the size of those it plans to build in Person County.
Rusty Harris, Dominion’s vice president of gas distribution, told the commissioners that natural gas is vital to economic development both in Person County and in surrounding areas the company serves.
“Our job is to make sure that we have the infrastructure in place to allow economic development to happen here and across our service territory,” Harris said.
The facility would result in about $800,000 in local taxes annually. Dominion said its construction will create 300 jobs, with 12 full-time employees managing the plant once it is finished.
That wasn’t enough to sway the dozens who spoke Monday and hundreds more who packed the meeting room.
Dominion’s project still needs to receive an air permit from the N.C. Department of Environmental Quality that would allow it to emit a set amount of pollution each year.
The company’s permit application indicates that once completed, the facility would emit the equivalent of 65,579 tons of carbon dioxide emissions, about as much as 14,200 gasoline-powered cars. Other emissions would include 94.9 tons of carbon monoxide annually, 35 tons of nitrogen oxides and 3.96 tons of hazardous air pollutants.
Kathryn Span, who raises goats on a Rougemont farm, told the commissioners they should maintain the existing zoning for the area. The county already has an industrial area along Highway 501, Span said, and dropping an industrial site into Rougemont would introduce the uncertainty that zoning is supposed to quell.
“Person County should not throw its established zoning aside for this new project, which promises neither jobs nor lifestyle amenities for Person County residents and instead leaves county residents bearing all the risk and consequences,” Span said, noting that the plant would primarily serve residents of other counties.
Commissioner Charlie Palmer made a motion to approve the project, and the board took its vote without discussion. None of the commissioners explained their votes during the meeting.
The packed room erupted as soon as commissioners finished voting.
“Shame!” shouted one person, a chant later taken up by many in the group.
Holding up a hand, Person County Board Chairman Gordon Powell said, “If you folks want to stay you can stay, but you’re gonna be quiet.”
“You’re not gonna listen to us anyway,” came a response from the crowd.
This story was produced with financial support from the Hartfield Foundation and 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 7, 2023 at 12:23 PM with the headline "Person County commissioners approve huge natural gas storage facility over opposition."