CHARLOTTE — A Lumberton man plans to speak Wednesday in opposition to a liquefied natural gas facility proposed for Robeson County during a meeting of the North Carolina Environmental Justice and Equity Advisory Board.
The Rev. Mac Legerton will be representing the Southeast NC Climate, Disaster, and Justice Ministry when the board meets in the conference room of the Harris Alumni Center, Tate Hall on the campus of the University of North Carolina at Charlotte. The center is located at 8688 Alumni Way.
Also planning to speak against the LNG facility during the public comment period set for 6 to 7 p.m. are Jeff Currie, of Lumber Riverkeeper, and Caroline Hansley, Sierra Club Organizing representative.
Legerton, Currie and Hansley are expected to speak against what they call a “dangerous” facility proposed for “one of the state’s most diverse, and poorest counties,” according to a press release from the Sierra Club.
The advisory board is part of the NC Department of Environmental Quality and is tasked with “integration of environmental justice and equity considerations into departmental programs, policies and activities to mitigate the environmental or public health impacts in communities disproportionately burdened by environmental harms,” according to the board’s charter.
Piedmont Natural Gas, a subsidiary of Duke Energy, has proposed and planned the facility as a way to continue providing customers with a reliable supply of natural gas during peak usage days, when extremely low temperatures create a higher-than-normal demand for natural gas.
The facility will be located roughly halfway between Maxton and Red Springs, in an area already zoned for heavy industrial use. The 1 billion-cubic-foot storage facility will cover about 60 acres of a 685-acre piece of Piedmont-owned property.
“Piedmont has owned that tract of land for over 10 years,” said Tammie McGee, a Duke Energy spokesperson.
The company had planned to build a similar facility at the site in 2008, she said. But the recession forced Piedmont to put plans for the facility on hold.
“Suddenly usage slowed down because of the recession,” McGee said.
Piedmont expects to begin construction as early as June, McGee said. The start date is dependent on receiving clearance from the Department of Environmental Quality. Construction should be finished in the summer of 2021.
The facility is expected to create up to 150 jobs during construction and 10 to 12 permanent jobs to manage operations. The project will provide more than $800,000 annually in tax revenue to Robeson County.
