DAVIS – The West Virginia Department of Environmental Protection has approved the air quality permit for the proposed Fundamental Data power plant and data center in Tucker County.

Fundamental Data’s permit application was received on March 18, and on June 18, the state DEP – Division of Air Quality provided notice of an open comment period for a permit “for the construction and operation of a combustion turbine facility proposed to be located off of US-48 near Thomas in Tucker County.”

The DEP’s Final Determination document, dated Aug. 13, notes that more than 1,600 comments were received during the public comment period.

“From the date of Fundamental Data LLC’s notice of application (March 26, 2025) until the

conclusion of the public comment period (July 18, 2025), the DAQ received 1,605 written

comments and 18 oral comments at the July 17, 2025 public meeting from various individuals

and organizations concerning the proposed facility,” the Final Determination document states.

“Most public comments were against the issuance of the permit,” the document states. “The few generally supportive comments referenced the potential positive economic impacts of the proposed facility while many of the non-technical comments that were explicitly non-supportive expressed concern over the potential environmental or other detrimental impacts of the facility without providing a technical or regulatory basis for a reconsideration of the DAQ’s preliminary determination.”

The comments prompted the DEP to make changes to the permit, according to the Final Determination document.

“As a result of comments received by the public during the public notice period, and verbal

comments provided by telephone by the United States Environmental Protection Agency, changes to the draft permit were made to address appropriate concerns where applicable,” the document states.

Changes to the permit included the addition of hourly and annual formaldehyde emission limits; a condition that “aggregate fuel consumption (natural gas/diesel) must be monitored hourly instead of daily”; and the “addition of a permit condition to monitor the gross energy output (lb/MW-hr) of each combustion turbine on a continuous basis.”

The Final Determination document was signed by engineer Jerry Williams, P.E.

The proposed Ridgeline Power Plant would be a 500-acre natural gas power plant fueling a data center. The facility would be located between the towns of Davis and Thomas if constructed. Residents of those two towns have been voicing their disapproval of the facility for months.

A member of the grass-roots advocacy group Tucker United said the group was “extremely disappointed” by the DEP’s decision.

“We are extremely disappointed that the West Virginia DEP really isn’t upholding their mission to protect our air, land and water,” Tucker United’s Nikki Forrester told The Inter-Mountain Tuesday. “We weren’t surprised by the decision because they discussed at the public meeting that they’ve never rejected an air quality permit before. But at the same time, we feel that they are siding with industry instead of doing their job of protecting the environment for people.

“The fight is not over,” Forrester said. “We are still in a legal appeal with them that we are waiting to hear about and we are just going to look at every strategy we possibly can to fight this proposal. It’s a bad proposal for Tucker County and we are willing to explore every possible pathway and we are committed to doing that because this place could be changed forever if something like this goes through.

“It’s really disheartening to see the lack of transparency from these companies and even the DEP and how they are handling these projects that are going to transform communities,” Forrester said. “We still have not seen and don’t have a good understanding of how the air pollutants from this are going to impact our community. We deserve to know what is going to be happening in our homes and how it is going to affect us.”