Middlesex County Board authorizes negotiations with Dominion for landfill solar lease amid vinyl chloride concerns

The Middlesex County Board of Supervisors voted to authorize staff to engage the Berkeley Group and begin negotiations with Dominion Energy to lease the county landfill and the adjacent Thacker property for a proposed solar development.

The motion, made by Mister Jesse and seconded by Mister Crittendon, passed on a roll call vote. County staff and the Berkeley Group told supervisors the county received two proposals in response to an April RFP — from CI Renew (sometimes referenced in the packet as CLRenew) and Dominion Energy — and that Berkeley’s evaluation recommends negotiating with Dominion.

Public comment at the meeting highlighted environmental concerns. "My concerns center around the potential impact this project could have on the health of the Dragon Run, the local wildlife, the community, and my family's well-being," said Trey Major, a Stormont resident who said his family’s property abuts the landfill and Thacker parcel. Major told the board that, as of July 2024, "the levels of vinyl chloride ... had reached their highest level ever recorded" and urged the board to require verifiable data showing contaminant levels are decreasing before moving forward.

Michael Zayner of the Berkeley Group, participating remotely, told the board the consultants had asked follow-up questions and that changes at the federal level to investment tax credits altered the financial comparison between the two proposals. "Once we accounted for those changes," Zayner said, "Dominion of the two responses presented the most compelling proposal for the county to consider, both financially and from a performance standpoint." Berkeley’s memo (dated Aug. 27, per the packet) notes that CI Renew’s originally modeled lease payments of $2,824,319.95 would be reduced — by Berkeley’s calculation — to about $1,412,160 if the projects cannot capture the now-changed tax credits.

Board members pressed staff on timing and permitting. The county’s permitting path will involve VMRC, the Corps of Engineers and DEQ; staff advised that a special-exception zoning application and environmental reviews would be required if a developer decides to move forward. Staff said any negotiated ground-lease would return to the board and be sent to public hearing before final approval. The county attorney and staff told supervisors October would be the month to present a draft contract; the board could then send it to public hearing in October or November and, if desired, execute the lease after hearings.

Responding to Major’s public comment about contaminant monitoring, a board member asked staff to invite the county’s environmental monitor, Resource International, to the October meeting. "We've had recent good news on our test results, so we probably need to bring them in and have them speak to that," a county official said during discussion, so the board and the public can review monitoring details.

The board’s vote authorizes staff to work with the Berkeley Group and to enter negotiations with Dominion Energy; it does not approve a lease. Staff said the county will present the negotiated contract to the board and schedule public hearings before any lease is executed.

What happens next: staff will continue negotiations, Resource International is to brief the board on recent monitoring results at the October meeting, and any proposed ground-lease would return to the board and be subject to a public hearing before a final vote.