“We have never seen this kind of uprising of people in this state on an environmental issue,” Sligh said. “I’ve been working on these issues for over 35 years, and I have never seen this kind of effort. I have never seen this kind of unity. And that is important, and I think they recognize this.”

It was unclear why the board let the Mountain Valley Pipeline certification, a process opponents contend has suffered from the same deficiencies, go through without a similar amendment.

“I do know that the board’s response to the public comment yesterday had an impact on them today,” Hayden said.

Pipeline opponents had urged the board to reject the certification outright and invite developers to reapply to avoid the possibility that the state might waive its authority to impose conditions on the project by missing a deadline to issue the certification. But, in just one example of the widespread confusion that surfaced during the proceedings, the DEQ could not say when the one-year clock on the water certification deadline began ticking.

“Unfortunately we don’t know the date of that 12-month window,” Hayden said. “That’s something that still needs to be resolved.”