DEP sets in-person meeting on Mingo data center permit plans after public outcry

That step is a second public meeting, this time in person, after the DEP drew complaints that its Aug. 18 virtual public meeting to answer questions and take official public comments on the permit applications wasn’t sufficient to accommodate citizens interested in learning more and weighing in on the applications.

The subject will be two air quality permit applications submitted in March by New York City-based TransGas Development Systems LLC to build two off-grid generating facilities to provide power to adjacent data centers.

The proposed facilities are the Adams Fork Harless Data Center Energy Campus to be located off of 22 Mine Road near Holden and Adams Fork Data Energy Center to be located at 2002 Twisted Gun Road in Wharncliffe. The anticipated startup date for the facilities is Jan. 1, 2027. The DEP already has made a preliminary determination to issue the proposed air quality permits.

The DEP is extending the public comment deadline to Sept. 19. It had been Aug. 22.

In an email Wednesday, DEP Chief Communications Officer Terry Fletcher cited “an influx of requests from Mingo County residents for an in-person meeting� that the DEP “recently received.�

“[B]ased on that, the WVDEP scheduled the meeting and extended the comment period to ensure local participation is reflected in the record,� Fletcher said.

Fletcher added that public notices would be published in not just the Williamson Daily News (an HD Media weekly newspaper based in Mingo County’s seat to which the DEP previously limited its public noticing regarding the proposals), but also the Logan Banner (another HD Media weekly newspaper based in Logan County’s seat) and the Mingo Messenger, a Williamson-based publication.

During the Aug. 18 virtual meeting, project critics noted TransGas’ planned facilities would be near communities in neighboring Logan County and questioned why the DEP limited its public notices regarding the proposals to the Williamson Daily News.

Fletcher responded during the meeting that the DEP places public notices in the counties where actions are proposed, adding that the agency publishes the notices on its website and through an email distribution list.

Fletcher said Wednesday more than 90% of the initial requests for a public meeting the DEP received came from outside Mingo County, including many from outside West Virginia.

During the Aug. 18 meeting, Fletcher reported 37 out of 39 comments the DEP had received at the time of its decision to hold a TransGas permit proposal-focused meeting virtually came from citizens at least 90 minutes from the sites.

“So based on the very limited number of comments we received from folks in Mingo County and near the facility or proposed facility, we opted to go with a virtual format, because that would be most accommodating to the number of requests that we received,� Fletcher said during the meeting.

Craig Patrick of Wharncliffe told the Gazette-Mail last week he intended to join the virtual meeting but indicated he was denied access through a Google signup form the DEP used to register citizens for the meeting. The meeting attracted approximately three dozen attendees.

During the Aug. 18 meeting, Fletcher disputed an allegation from Tyler Cannon, climate alliance coordinator for West Virginia Citizen Action Group, that the DEP’s link to register for the meeting via a Google signup form required a Google account to complete.

“I think they should have enough respect about themselves to be able to come down and talk to the people in person,� said Patrick, a 70-year-old former miner who estimated the nearest proposed data center facility would be roughly 2 miles from his home.

'They need to at least come in person'

Per TransGas’ two nearly identical air quality permit applications, each of the two planned facilities would consist of 117 engines able to operate on natural gas or diesel fuel. Each engine would have a maximum output of 21 megawatts, resulting in aggregate power outputs of 2,457 megawatts for each facility. Of those 117 engines per facility, 114 would operate full-time, with three in reserve.

Those figures would make TransGas’ facilities among West Virginia’s most power-intensive industrial sites.

In cases when no gas is available, the engines could be operated in an emergency mode in which the power would come from diesel. In that mode, a single engine could consume 798 gallons an hour with hourly emissions of 10.35 pounds of nitrogen oxides, 1.29 pounds of particulate matter and 17,896 pounds of carbon dioxide.

But the DEP has signaled it will approve categorizing the facilities as “minor sources� after finding all individual pollutant emissions would be below the federal major-source threshold of 250 tons per year of a regulated pollutant. Minor sources are subject to less stringent regulations than major sources.

The DEP’s meeting on the TransGas air quality permit proposals came the next business day after it announced that it approved an air quality permit application for another expected data center facility planned by Purcellville, Virginia-based Fundamental Data LLC in Tucker County, whose community members have fervently opposed that proposal.

The DEP drew the ire of Tucker County residents by making the same minor-source categorization for Fundamental Data’s air quality permit application.

Although the DEP is poised to approve the TransGas permit requests, it’ll hear from residents of Mingo County in Mingo County first.

County resident Johnny Hager, newly elected Mingo County Democratic Executive Committee, welcomed such a scenario after the virtual meeting last week, saying that some older residents don’t have internet access to join virtual meetings.

“[T]here is enough concern in the area from people to know that they need to at least come in person and speak to people,� Hager said.