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Over the holidays, Air Products pushed through a public comment period for something called a Water Quality Certification, a necessary step in obtaining the federal permit it needs to build its blue hydrogen/carbon capture and sequestration project.
A Water Quality Certification is a determination by the Louisiana Department of Environmental Quality (LDEQ) that an activity, as described in a permit, will comply with Sections 301, 302, 303, 306, and 307 of the Clean Water Act. If the Water Quality Certification is granted, the project is one step closer to bringing considerable safety and environmental risks to Ascension, St. James, St. John, Tangipahoa, and Livingston Parishes, including:
- Building a new ammonia facility within half a mile of Sorrento Primary School.
- Running a new 38-mile carbon dioxide pipeline through Ascension, St. James, and St. John the Baptist parishes.
- Injecting and storing millions of tons of carbon dioxide underneath Lake Maurepas.
- Exposing our families to more industrial pollution that can cause more cancer, respiratory illnesses, and reproductive, maternal, and newborn health harms.
No one deserves to be the testing grounds for a project of this scale. That’s why we are committed to doing everything we can to prevent Air Products from getting their Water Quality Certification. Make sure you’re signed up for email updates to be notified of if and when the public hearing is granted.
Last time, with only five working days to comment, more than 200 people used Earthworks’ comment portal to request a public hearing for the certification. If LDEQ grants the public hearing — which they should — it will also initiate a comment public period in which residents will be able to write comments for decision makers to read.