On Thursday, August 13, Laura M. Crowder, the Director of Air Quality with the West Virginia Department of Environmental Protection, issued a letter to Casey Chapman of Fundamental Data following a review of documentation submitted by Chapman following a July 31 request for verification of control of the property for the proposed Ridgeline Power Plant in Tucker County.
“This is exactly what we said from the beginning: Fundamental Data had legal control of the site when we applied for the permit, and the information we certified to the State was accurate,” said Casey L. Chapman of Fundamental Data LLC. “WVDEP has now independently reviewed the agreement, compared the property boundaries and coordinates against our permit application, and confirmed that the site-control requirements were satisfied.”
Chapman and Fundamental Data had submitted a highly redacted Purchase and Sale Agreement from July of 2024 between Western Pocahontas Properties Limited Partnership and Fundamental Data, LLC. As with the Air Quality Permit, the Company made a “Claim of Confidentiality” for the redacted copy submission to the DEP.
“Private is not the same thing as secret,” said Casey L. Chapman of Fundamental Data LLC. “The economics and negotiated terms of a private land transaction have nothing to do with what comes out of a stack. The public has every right to know what this facility is permitted to emit and what environmental standards it must meet. Those requirements are public.”
Chapman, through his PR representatives, said that redactions protect financial terms and other negotiated commercial provisions between the private parties. He insisted that the redactions do not in any way conceal information in regard to the facility’s permitted environmental obligations, emission limits, monitoring requirements, testing requirements or reporting obligations.
In Section 8 of the permit application, the document asks whether the applicant owns, leases, has an option to purchase or otherwise controls the proposed site. Chapman answered “yes” and identified the July 19, 2024 agreement as the basis for the answer, Chapman said.
“I signed that application and certified it as truthful, accurate and complete,” Chapman said. “I take that responsibility seriously, and I would not have signed it if it were not accurate. When the Division asked about the agreement referenced in our application, we provided a redacted copy of the executed agreement.”
Redacted in the six-page document are such items as purchase price, deposit, condition of property, property documents, risk of loss, brokerage fee, expenses and prorations, study period, a site map listed exhibit A and an entire page under a corner header of “Gas Parcel Execution Version.” In all, with the exception of between half and three quarters of the first page of the document, the entirety of the agreement is redacted.
“Information establishing the connection between the agreement and the permitted site is also independently available through public records. Permit R13-3713 identifies the facility coordinates, the Division’s July 31 letter identifies the Tucker County parcel number, and county property records identify the parcel under the historical tract designation A-28 — one of the tracts identified in the unredacted portions of the agreement,” Chapman said.
In a phone interview with the Parsons Advocate, Tucker County Commission President Mike Rosenau confirmed that the Sale Contract has never been formalized. The Tucker County Courthouse has never recorded a sale of the property listed in the Purchase and Sale Agreement between Western Pocahontas and Fundamental Data. All property sales in the County are recorded with County Clerk of Tucker County Barbie Evans and published in the Parsons Advocate.
Crowder stated that her staff had performed a detailed GIS and cartographical comparison of the property boundaries and coordinates and found that the physical boundary of the 291-acre tract outlined in Exhibit A of the PSA corresponds precisely with the Facility Location Map and Plot Plans submitted in the permit application and fully align with the proposed site location near US-48 east of Thomas.
“Based on the technical and legal correlation, the DAQ has determined that the information provided is sufficient to verify Fundamental Data LLC’s legal site control at the time of permit issuance,” Crowder wrote.
The redacted copy of the Purchase and Sale agreement was added to the facility’s public permit file and Crowder informed the company that no unredacted copy was required to be submitted.
“That distinction matters,” Chapman said. “We provided the State with the documentation necessary to verify site control while protecting private commercial terms belonging to the parties to the agreement. WVDEP has now confirmed that the redacted agreement is sufficient and that an unredacted copy is not required.”
Chapman also addressed two additional issues not covered by the DEP letter: Who is financing the project, and who bears the costs associated with its power demand?
Chapman said that a July 1 letter to the company by the WV Department of Commerce confirmed that the company is not seeking financial assistance from the State or County for the project. He also reiterated that all costs attributable to Ridgeline’s electrical demand would be borne by the project and users creating the demand and not shifted to any other West Virginia utility customers.
“People should ask who pays. That’s a fair question. However Ridgeline ultimately connects to or works with the electric system, our position is straightforward: if our project creates a cost, that cost belongs with us and the people using the power — not a family in Parsons, not a small business in Davis, and not another West Virginia ratepayer. We’re not asking West Virginia to bet its money on us. We’re betting on West Virginia.”
– Casey Chapman
Chapman said Fundamental Data will continue to work with State Regulators and to communicate with Tucker County residents and leaders in the community as the project advances.
“People don’t have to agree with us to deserve straight answers from us,” Chapman said. “We intend to keep providing them.”
