Cove Point Expansion, Our Position

After ten years as the Riverkeeper program serving the Patuxent watershed, we feel we can speak to Calvert County residents as friends, members, boosters and patrons who share both our love of the Patuxent, the natural environment and of Calvert County.

We at Patuxent Riverkeeper are deeply concerned that the likely environmental impacts of the Dominion facility at Cove Point LNG export terminus will impact the Patuxent River, the Chesapeake Bay and the quality of life for residents of Calvert County. We are also concerned that these impacts have not been fully disclosed or have been downplayed to the general public. We have no illusion about the level of support this proposed expansion currently enjoys both from the political establishment as well as from the many residents who hope to benefit from prospective jobs and other economic dividends.

The problem is however, that there are lots of other impacts beyond the economic ones and we feel that the public should be well informed. Not necessarily as a means of trying to stop the project, or to cause delays or trouble for the applicant but so that citizens can become well informed in their public deliberations, and have an opportunity to express their opinions and/or concerns at a point in the public process when such input could truly make a difference.

We feel it is irresponsible for the public process to neglect the totality of this project’s impacts and we feel it is unacceptable for the applicant to deny a full portrayal of the proposed construction and long term impacts. These impacts range from the massive construction staging area proposed next to the public boat ramp at the foot of the Governor Thomas Johnson (Solomons) Bridge, traffic impacts from overflow parking on Hellen Creek, the new installation and storage of toxic industrial chemicals needed to operate the expanded plant, dramatic increases in tanker traffic on the shipping lanes offshore on the Bay and the creation of a network of pipelines and other infrastructure in the region that will undoubtedly have impacts on local streams, neighborhoods and communities. And how about the proposed zoning changes that would exempt the Dominon facility from all county zoning ordinances? How will that impact adjacent and customary uses by non-Dominion taxpayers? Naturally we are also concerned about the water quality and ecosystem impacts from all of the above.

Our speaking out at this time should not be construed as a negative referendum or an attack on the corporate citizenship of Dominion which of course has brought valued investment to the area. For us, it is really not about fracking or greenhouse gasses or national energy policy that have been raised by other interest groups. For Patuxent Riverkeeper this is entirely about a public process in Calvert County where the environmental quality of the region is at stake and where the planned outcomes will influence permanent impacts to the present way of life with thus far, almost no public exposition of the potential implications beyond the dollars and cents.

Many of the issues raised by Patuxent Riverkeeper and other concerned parties have been rebuffed with claims of homeland security related to the nation’s "energy infrastructure". While this may be so, we think it sad that the first awareness many people will have of the associated impacts might occur after the permits have been issued and the bulldozers are already underway.

It’s time to start asking the right questions so we can get full disclosure of all of the impacts of this massive expansion project. We need to know what else will be expanded besides the County’s coffers. Plainly if in the totality of what can be known at this time, it is learned that this is an excellent and needful project without change, then our organization would embrace it, because we serve the people and communities of Calvert just as much as we serve the Patuxent River. Indeed it this is such a great project, how could full disclosure possibly harm it?

The time for a full discussion of the environmental impacts is today. The time for a full environmental impact statement was yesterday. Because tomorrow could be too late.

Sincerely yours,

Frederick L. Tutman, Riverkeeper
Patuxent Riverkeeper