Early Springtime -- Very Serious Issue
What is it we are defending, after all, if not our land and water and air quality?
Reprint of the Editorial, Morgantown Dominion Post, Opinion Page 10-A, March 2, 2017
Some scoff at the notion of putting the environment in the same category as national security. They might want to do more than scoff at that thought, now. In light of an undeclared war on the environment, that’s our perception, too.
Though this is no call to include defense of our natural resources in an oath of office for officials, those resources are just as important as defending against “all enemies, foreign and domestic.” Because, other than citizens and our way of life, what is it we are defending if not our land, water and air?
In recent weeks, from Charleston to Washington, DC, an offensive was launched to nullify, roll back and suspend environmental regulations. Also, to shorten the leash on the very watchdog agencies that enforce these laws, while appointing unfit officials to head them over strong objections.
The new WV Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) secretary is a longtime coal executive who has “mixed emotions” about climate change.
The nation’s new Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) administrator; who sued the agency many times as Oklahoma’s attorney general, will not say whether he will even allow study of climate change. Furthermore, he asserts more debate is needed on that subject.
For the record, we’re no experts on climate science. But we have the good sense to listen to those who are. And, those experts, scientists dedicated to the study of this issue, universally agree: That debate ended years ago.
The administrations in Charleston and Washington, by and large, view environmental regulations as overly burdensome to businesses. In the Legislature, a water pollution bill to permit more toxic discharges – with the support of Governor Justice – is on a fast track at the behest of the West Virginia Manufacturers’ Association.
The WV-DEP rejected these industry backed changes to water quality rules just last year.
Meanwhile, the Trump administration has delayed for months consideration of a proposal to require companies to prove their financial wherewithal to cleanup polluted mining sites. Scores of companies in the past have evaded paying for cleaning up mines by declaring bankruptcy, only to re-emerge later in a different guise and avoid that liability.
We know contaminated waterways from abandoned mines all too well. Not a stone’s throw from where this newspaper is printed, Deckers Creek is one such (polluted) waterway. Its aquatic life and potential for recreation were devastated more than 60 years ago and still are.
In recent weeks, our newspaper began a feature we call “Earth Watch” that’s focused on threats to the environment. Such stories magnify many facts in this war, but none important than: “Our environment needs you.”
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