Ready to Serve

PRESIDENTS DAY in 2014.

Advocacy by Duane Nichols, www.FrackCheckWV.net, February 16, 2014

NOW is the time for YOU to say what you THINK!  Whether you have ever contacted the President of the United States, he needs your opinion NOW.

What are you doing for President’s Day.  One thing above all other should be done.  Let someone know what you think about these Big Issues of the Day.

1.  The Keystone XL pipeline project is at the top of the Big Issues regarding climate change.  Should crude Canadian tar oil be pipelined across the United States? The President is to decide one way or the other very soon. What do you have to say, and to whom?

2. The Cove Point export terminal on Chesapeake Bay is at the top of the Big Issues regarding the unlimited expansion of Marcellus shale development in Pennsylvania and West Virginia, with similar real or potential impacts in Ohio, New York, Maryland, and other states.  What do you have to say, and to whom?

3. The State of West Virginia has experienced recent chemical spills into the rivers, coal slurry spills into the rivers, and explosions and fires on Marcellus well pads and other forms of pollution to our environment.  Is it not time for the federal U. S. government to get involved and apply some guidance and regulation?  What do you have to say, and to whom?

On this President’s Day in 2014, you can easily contact your President:

A. Write a letter to President Obama, The White House, 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW, Washington, DC 20500

B. Call the White House and leave a message: 202-456-1111

C. Send an email to the President at this link:

http://www.whitehouse.gov/contact/submit-questions-and-comments

>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

UPCOMING ACTIVITIES RELATING TO THE ABOVE:

1. The annual E-Day at the WV State Capitol is Monday, February 17th, from 10 am to 3 pm in Charleston, WV.  Be there or be square. Free tickets for the bus (7 am at the I-68 Walmart near Morgantown and other locations) are available here.

2. An information session in Uniontown, PA, on February 20th, entitled “Community Stewardship Achievements with Shale Gas Drilling.” Location is the East End United Community Center, 150 Coolspring Street, 7 pm to 9 pm. Advanced registration is required, contact Kathryn Hilton at 724-455-4200 or kathryn@mtwatershed.com

3. The Cove Point Rally in Baltimore is also on February 20th at the War Memorial Plaza downtown, noon to 1:30 pm.  Details are given on www.FrackCheckWV.net for February 8th. The bus from the Frederick Community College Arts Center departs at 10:15 am and returns at 3:20 pm for $15 with a reservation here.

Storage Tanks on Elk River

WV needs changes in state regulations after chemical leak

From an Article by Whitney Burdette, Charleston Daily Mail, January 21, 2014

CHARLESTON, W.Va. – The West Virginia Rivers Coalition and Downstream Strategies have co-authored a report outlining specific recommendations they think the Legislature should take in light of the recent chemical leak.

Angie Rosser, executive director of West Virginia Rivers Coalition, said in a news release this report is the only one of its kind to emerge after the January 9th chemical leak that contaminated the water supply for 300,000 residents and West Virginia American Water Co. customers.

“We speak for those who expect more of our government, more in its approach and much more in its attitude toward protecting our water supplies and our health,” Rosser said. “We bring the voices of all West Virginians whose water is threatened by contamination. They demand meaningful change and accountability at every level of government.”

The 84-page report focuses on issues, information gaps and policy remedies as they relate to environmental laws most relevant to the chemical spill, including the Clean Water Act, Safe Drinking Water Act and Emergency Planning and Community Right to Know Act.

Evan Hansen, president of Downstream Strategies, said the report presents “comprehensive reforms to protect our water supplies.”  “We show how state and local governments could have significantly reduced the risk of this spill occurring and more effectively responded to it,” Hansen said.

Downstream Strategies is a Morgantown-based consulting firm specializing in environmental science policy and research and water system research. The firm announced last week it is available to conduct independent testing of a consumer’s water supply.

The report makes several recommendations, including:

  Officials “change their tone and expectations to hold the Department of Environmental Protection accountable for fully and consistently enforcing its permits and all environmental laws,”

  The Legislature should require the Bureau for Public Health and other entities to write protection plans and fund those plans,

  The Legislature should provide state-specific protective standards for chemicals used in large quantities in the state, and

  Support local emergency planning committees and local governments in planning efforts to manage and minimize risk.

P.S. The full 84 page report is entitled “The Freedom Industries Spill: Lessons Learned and Needed Reforms“

One of 300,000 in WV

Spill Lesson: “Protecting Clean Water Is Not a Luxury”

From the Article by Dan Heyman, WV Public News Service, January 13, 2014

CHARLESTON, W.Va. – Many West Virginians have decided that the lesson from the Freedom Industries chemical spill is to better protect their water from pollution. For years, the state has seen legal and political battles between industries and citizen groups over clean water rules. 

While waiting in line for bottled water this weekend, Marilyn McGeorge of Charleston said she believes the accident showed clear signs of widespread negligence – not just by the company, but by regulators as well.

“The Department of Environmental Protection should have been aware that with that tank poised above the water supply, this was something that could happen very easily,” McGeorge said.

According to Angie Rosser, executive director, West Virginia Rivers Coalition, people tend to regard environmental and water quality rules as luxuries – something that can be bent to allow economic development. She said that is proving to be dangerous.

“Protecting the environment is really protecting our quality of life. We just had the 40th anniversary of the Clean Water Act. Yet we still, every day, permit industries to pollute directly into our drinking water sources,” Rosser pointed out.

The accident shows that the regulatory attitude needs to change, she added.

“Clean water is essential for life. This kind of a harmful, toxic chemical, with such close proximity to a drinking water source for over 300,000 West Virginians, is just unacceptable,” she said.

In the past, state officials have described water protections as sufficient, or even excessive. McGeorge said the accident should also make people think differently about cases in which local residents have had their well water polluted by coal mining or natural gas fracking.

>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

WASHINGTON POST EXCERPT – - -
 
West Virginia residents cope, with days of water woes still ahead after chemical spill

From an Article by Joel Achenbach, Washington Post, January 12, 2014

CHARLESTON, W.Va. — Around the swollen Elk River, now flowing with a chemical that’s hard to pronounce, myriad streams and rivulets tumbled from the hillsides over the weekend, the result of a drenching downpour. Logs and branches floated downstream, toward the junction with the Kanawha in the heart of the city. Potholes on the beat-up country roads had turned into deep puddles.

As they say: Water, water everywhere, but not a drop to drink.

“DO NOT USE WATER,” say the signs taped over sinks at the airport, and in the State Capitol the sinks are entirely wrapped in plastic bags. People line up for free water at the fire stations or buy it at the Dollar General — $1.60 for a 20-ounce Dasani, $39 for a flat of 24 bottles.

A chemical used in coal processing has leaked from an old tank along the Elk and invaded the water supply, a crisis that has affected nearly 300,000 people in nine counties and effectively closed the largest city in the state. You can’t drink the water, bathe in it or do laundry with it. It’s good only for flushing.

Monday will mark the fifth day of the water emergency, which began early Thursday when people all over town registered a powerful odor like black licorice. Two state employees tracked the leak to Freedom Industries, which owns a row of vintage storage tanks along the south bank of the Elk. The chemical had leaked from an inch-wide hole in the bottom of one tank, pooled in a containment area and then seeped through a porous cinder-block retaining wall, down the bank and into the river.

The public water supply inlet was just a short distance downstream.

URL for Washington Post cartoon is here.

>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
 
CHARLESTON GAZETTE EXCERPT – - -
 
State ignored plan for tougher chemical oversight

From an Article by Ken Ward Jr., Charleston Gazette, January 12, 2014

Three years ago this month, a team of federal experts urged the state of West Virginia to help the Kanawha Valley create a new program to prevent hazardous chemical accidents.

The U.S. Chemical Safety Board recommended the step after its extensive investigation of the August 2008 explosion and fire that killed two workers at the Bayer CropScience plant in Institute.

Since then, the proposal has gone nowhere. The state Department of Health and Human Resources hasn’t stepped in to provide the legal authority the Kanawha-Charleston Health Department needs to start such a program. And Kanawha County officials never funded the plan, and seldom mention that the CSB recommendation was even made.

Now, with more than 300,000 residents across the Kanawha Valley without usable water following a chemical accident at Freedom Industries on the Elk River, some local officials say it’s time for action. “We’d had their recommendation on the books for several years now,” said Dr. Rahul Gupta, director of the local health department. “This gives us another opportunity to look at what they recommended.”