Smithfield town leaders have given their approval to a temporary contractor yard to be located on a 42 acre site on Mallard Road just east of Interstate 95.
Representatives from Atlantic Coast Pipeline (ACP) plan to use the site for temporary mobile office trailers, material and equipment storage during the construction of the ACP in the area. The site will be the main facility for construction of the pipeline through Nash and Johnston counties in 2019 and 2020.
Planning Director Stephen Wensman said only 29 acres of the 42 acre site will be used by ACP. Of the 29 acres, 13 will be graveled to including parking and work areas. 13 acres of topsoil will be removed and stockpiled in the northwest corner of the property, also acting as a buffer with nearby homes. The land is owned by Marshall Incorporated of Smithfield.
The site will also include three temporary driveways and above ground fuel tanks.
Councilman Marlon Lee asked Hal Kitchin, a Wilmington attorney representing ACP, if any security would be on the site. Kitchin said the site would be busy with workers during the day. At night at least one security person would be on duty.
The town board placed several restrictions on the necessary permit. ACP must install an 8 foot tall fence, prepare a stormwater management plan, prepare an erosion control plan, submit a detailed site plan, and limit the operation to no more than 3 years.
Wensman recommended ACP be required to post a bond for site remediation but the council did not include the bond requirement as a final condition.
ACP is a 550-mile pipeline that will begin in the shale basins of Harrison County, West Virginia and travel south to Robeson County, NC. A spur will run east near the Virginia / North Carolina border to Chesapeake, Virginia.
