MDEQ Has Now Answered the Traceview Comments. The Permit Board Votes Oct. 13.
MDEQ posted its formal response to public comments on Entergy’s 754-megawatt Ridgeland plant, the document the Permit Board will use to decide Tuesday. A newly posted transcript also shows Ridgeland’s zoning board voted no before aldermen overrode it.
The document the Mississippi Environmental Quality Permit Board will lean on when it votes Tuesday is now public. MDEQ has posted its Response to Comments on Entergy Mississippi’s Traceview Advanced Power Station, the formal answer to everything filed during two comment periods on the draft air permit for the 754-megawatt gas plant at 1972 W County Line Road in Ridgeland. The file sits in MDEQ’s October uploads at mdeq.ms.gov, and it is the first new substantive paper on the project since the Wire’s Oct. 6 report.
The response document runs to Appendix A, which reproduces the written comments MDEQ is answering. The lead submission came from the Better Data Center Project and Environmental Advocates Mississippi, dated May 8, 2026, in response to the April 8 public notice. The groups asked MDEQ to deny or modify the permit, and their filing argues that authority over siting rests “solely with the local jurisdictional government (i.e., city or county) under their governance of zoning and parcel purchase / leasing.” That is the same boundary MDEQ drew in its draft permit, which leaves local approvals to Entergy.
The second new document is a transcript MDEQ posted in October, a companion to the 88-page July 14 hearing record. In it, a speaker describes what happened at the local level: the Ridgeland Zoning Board voted no on the conditional use permit, and three days later the Board of Aldermen approved it. WLBT reported in April 2025 that the zoning board voted 4 to 3 against the permit and that aldermen then voted unanimously to grant it, with the request filed by the Madison County Economic Development Authority rather than Entergy. MCEDA executive director Joey Deason told WLBT the authority, not Entergy, held the option to buy the 585-acre site, saying “if you walk in and say, ‘I’m from Entergy,’ the price would probably double.”
The October agenda posting is the third change. On Oct. 6, MDEQ’s Permit Board page listed the agenda as “Coming Soon.” The 2026 agenda archive now carries an October 2026 Agenda PDF, and the board’s page confirms the meeting for Tuesday, Oct. 13 at 9 a.m. at 515 E. Amite Street in Jackson. The board meets the second Tuesday of each month, and its chair is Brian Perry of the Mississippi Department of Agriculture and Commerce.
What has not changed is the permit’s status. MDEQ’s enSearch facility record for Agency Interest No. 89056 still lists the air permit, Air Reference No. 1720-00100, as “Draft Permit Public Comment Period Ends” dated July 14, 2026. The water pretreatment application, MSP092492, remains “Application Determined Complete, Draft Permit Preparation in Progress” as of July 23, 2026. The air vote can happen while the water permit is still being drafted, so Tuesday is not the last regulatory gate.
The construction side is already moving ahead of the vote. The same enSearch record shows general permit construction coverage MSR109942 for Traceview effective Aug. 24, 2026 through Jan. 31, 2027, and a modification to coverage MSR109619 effective Aug. 19, 2026 that now names the Green Acres Substation. The earlier coverage was issued under the name Madison County Advanced Power Station before being renamed Traceview on May 7, 2026. The substation’s appearance in the permit record is the first public paper trail of the grid-side work, and it is the kind of item the air permit does not cover.
One number in the draft permit sets the clock if the board approves. Condition 1.19 states the permit to construct expires if construction does not begin within 18 months of issuance. If the board votes yes Tuesday, Entergy would need to be moving dirt at the West County Line Road site by roughly April 2028. Entergy’s own project page describes a more than $1 billion investment with construction starting in 2026 and an in-service date in 2029, and it says the Ridgeland site was chosen because it sits next to an existing high-voltage transmission corridor, saving “hundreds of millions of dollars” over building elsewhere.
What’s next: The Permit Board meets Tuesday, Oct. 13 at 9 a.m. at MDEQ’s Jackson office, 515 E. Amite Street. The agenda PDF is posted in the 2026 archive at mdeq.ms.gov, and anyone who wants to confirm the date or location can call (601) 961-5041. Watch whether the Traceview item is taken up Tuesday or slips to the board’s November meeting, and read the Response to Comments before the vote to see how MDEQ answered each objection.
After the air vote, the next document to watch is the draft pretreatment permit MSP092492, still in preparation. The staff contacts on the facility record are Jeffrey Bland for air permitting at (601) 961-5112 and Rusty Parrish for water permitting at (601) 961-5193. The 18-month deadline in Condition 1.19 is the first hard date that would show whether Entergy’s 2026-to-2029 schedule holds.