Colonna’s Shipyard, Inc. (“Colonna’s”) appreciates the opportunity to offer comments on the Virginia Department of Environmental Quality’s (“DEQ”) Guidance Memo APG-578, which addresses the use of emergency generators in the case of “sudden and reasonably unforeseeable events” resulting from a planned electric outage. Colonna’s commends DEQ for its leadership in balancing the agency’s air quality objectives with the practical operational realities manufacturers in the Commonwealth must face. The proposal thoughtfully recognizes both the public’s interest in clean air and industry’s critical need for reliable power when faced with utility-initiated outages that, although “planned,” do not provide sufficient time to obtain a portable, Tier 4, or Tier 4-equivalent generator.

Colonna’s is the oldest privately-owned shipyard in the United States and employs approximately 750 people. Colonna’s shipyard is located in Norfolk, Virginia on the Eastern Branch of the Elizabeth River and occupies more than 100-acres within a longstanding industrial waterfront corridor. Since 1875, Colonna’s has built and repaired every type of marine vessel—from wooden sailboats and tugboats to U.S. Navy combatants, auxiliaries, and commercial ships. Today, through multiple divisions and affiliates, the company delivers full?service ship repair and industrial capabilities, including machining, welding, steel fabrication, and maintenance, to both government and commercial customers. For many commercial owners, the vessels Colonna’s services constitute their owners’ entire livelihoods.

In recent years, demand for shipbuilding and repair has accelerated and shows no sign of abating. For example, in 2025 alone, the U.S. Navy awarded two contracts to offerors including Colonna’s—worth up to $2.16 billion in the aggregate—for the repair, maintenance and modernization of nuclear-powered attack submarines and shipyard messing and berthing barges. To keep pace with this growth, Colonna’s has invested more than $150 million over the past decade to expand and modernize operations, including a recently announced investment of $79 million to construct an additional dry dock. As shipbuilding, repair, and allied industrial services expand across the Commonwealth, uninterrupted and reliable power is not only an economic imperative, but a national security necessity, ensuring time?sensitive defense work proceeds safely and on schedule, including during utility?driven planned outages beyond a source owner’s control.

As noted by DEQ, emergency generators may only be used in limited circumstances, including during an “emergency,” which is defined under both 9 VAC 5-540-20 and 9 VAC 5-80-1110 as a “sudden and reasonably unforeseeable event[] where the primary energy or power source is disrupted or disconnected due to conditions beyond the control of an owner of a source.” DEQ’s Guidance Memo APG-578 clarifies that even when a source receives advance notice of an imminent outage (i.e., within fourteen calendar days or less), the outage may nonetheless constitute a “sudden and reasonably unforeseeable” event due to the time constraints involved in obtaining a portable, Tier 4 or Tier 4-equivalent generator. Thus, Guidance Memo APG-578 provides additional operational flexibility for source owners like Colonna’s to utilize emergency generators.

Colonna’s—like many manufacturers across the Commonwealth—depends on limited backup generation to conduct safe dry dock operations when its primary energy source is interrupted. The shipyard’s three existing dry docks rely on a single portable generator to maintain critical pumping, lighting, and safety systems necessary to deliver its mission?critical shipbuilding and repair work. Because DEQ previously considered planned utility outages to be “non-emergency” events, those events presented significant compliance uncertainty because, although they share the same fundamental characteristics of emergencies that involve an unavoidable loss of primary power, DEQ treated them differently. Without the flexibility offered by DEQ’s new, more reasonable guidance, Colonna’s could face an unnecessary risk of harsh legal penalties for energizing essential systems during safety?critical events that would not be considered an “emergency” under DEQ’s prior interpretation of the regulatory definition of that term.

Colonna’s’ ability to operate its generator during short-notice, utility-initiated outages is therefore vital to protect safety and to avoid damage to critical government and commercial vessels. Indeed, if power were interrupted while the dry docks were in use, then loss of ballast and control systems could create immediate stability risks—sudden list/trim, tipping, or an uncontrolled drop of a partially lifted warship back into the water. Power loss could also prevent storm?lowering procedures that refloat vessels during inclement weather, increasing the chance of capsizing or structural damage. Further, in deep?submergence operations, the dock could settle on the bottom and become stuck due to mud suction, requiring external assistance and prolonging hazards. Reliable, short-term use of Colonna’s permitted emergency generator during limited notice, planned outages is critical to avoiding these catastrophic consequences and would result in no meaningful impact to the environment, given that the generator would continue to meet federal standards throughout the short period of operations needed because of a planned outage.

Therefore, Colonna’s supports DEQ’s Guidance Memo APG-578 because it sensibly addresses the problems presented by DEQ’s prior interpretation, not just for data centers, but for all industry in the Commonwealth with uninterruptable power needs. Guidance Memo APG-578 addresses these problems by recognizing the emergency character of certain planned outages and affording narrowly tailored flexibility that preserves safety and provides compliance certainty to the regulated community.

Colonna’s appreciates DEQ's consideration of this comment.