To Whom It May All Concern,
I request that any and all permits, including the air permit, be pulled immediately for the proposed Fundamental Data Ridgeline project.
This project has been mired in secrecy from the get-go, and it continues to this day. Our local officials have been unable to get any clear answers on this project as they have been stonewalled all across the board. As a former bank auditor this lack of transparency bodes ill of many red flags. This is unacceptable.
The Ridgeline project would require ten to fifteen million gallons of water per day. The Thomas-Davis area cannot handle that type of demand. Last year we had a severe drought on top of this mountain which caused our water sources to drop drastically. Both communities were scrambling to provide potable water to the residents. Don’t even think of tapping into the aquafer. After that would dry up the surface ground and cause sinkholes to appear which would drive down property values and drive away our tourists, which is our main source of income. The use of local water is unacceptable.
Once the water is used where will it be flushed into? Pendleton Creek is in the line of fire of the project. This creek empties Blackwater Canyon, the crown jewel of the State of West Virginia, and the Blackwater River. from thence it moves on to the Cheat River. Friends of Blackwater has spent $3,000,000 cleaning up Beaver Creek which dumps into the Blackwater at Davis, and $12,000,000 on the North Fork of the Blackwater River. Friends of Cheat have spent a lot of money cleaning up the Cheat River. Up here on top of the mountain we love our trees, and we love our clean water. Negating efforts to clean up our waters is unacceptable.
The application for this project is heavily redacted. This is unacceptable. Another red flag. What is being hidden from public view?
The air permit lists emissions of carbon dioxide (CO2), carbon monoxide (CO), nitrogen oxides (NOx), sulfur dioxide (SO2), volatile organic compounds (VOCs), particulate matter (PMs), hazardous air pollutants (HAPs) and lead. This constitutes toxic chemicals that would pollute the environment causing cancer and other diseases in our children and all our residents. The pollution generated by the facility would drive down property values. This is unacceptable.
As best as can be determined the only jobs available to keep our young folks here would be jobs that do not provide a livable wage such as janitors and security detail. This is unacceptable.
According to new State law, the county would only receive 30% of the taxes from the Ridgeline project. Also, only 10% of the power produced could be sold to the wholesale market which would help reduce electric bills for the citizens. This is unacceptable.
The site of Ridgeline would include the storage of 30,000,000 million gallons of diesel fuel. The tanks have a propensity to leak and pollute the surrounding affected area. What if they caught fire? Both towns would certainly be decimated. This is unacceptable.
A woman from the Virginia area who has a second home spoke at a public meeting on Sunday. She is affected by the same type of facility with noise pollution. She said there is constant humming noise 24/7, and there is light pollution as well. We like our dark skies up here on this mountain. We do not need the noise pollution.
Representatives from Ridgeline were offered the opportunity to participate in our public meeting. They were offered to be there in person, by web cast and by phone. They failed to do so. Senators Shelley Moore Capito and Randy Smith should have been at that meeting but were not. More red flags. This is unacceptable.
Finally, due to the height of the facility in would negatively impact the view shed of both communities and drive down property values.
To summarize, the only thing I see in the Ridgeline project is all negative: carcinogenic air pollution, lack of a suitable water source, air pollution, noise pollution, lack of well-paying local jobs, an unfair share of the resulting tax structure, the potential for severe water and land pollution resulting in a Brownfields site, a negative impact on the view shed, the potential for an environmental disaster, the potential for an oil tank explosion of epic proportions, and abundance of secrecy and stonewalling. This is unacceptable.
I do not want the Ridgeline project in Tucker County, West Virginia. It must be stopped now.
Yours, Joseph W. Dumire 282 Brown Street P.O. Box 415 Thomas, WV 26292-0415 jwdumire@outlook.com
