Will you let this happen (again & again)?

It’s Not Water Under the Bridge

Editorial, Morgantown Dominion Post, February 27, 2015

You better believe history has a way of repeating itself. Take for instance our state leaders, and agencies, long history of allowing industry to have its way with our natural resources.

Never mind the collateral damage done to our environment, especially our water resources. At least it was that way until March 8, 2014, or so we thought.

That was the date when the state Legislature unanimously approved Senate Bill 373 in response to a massive chemical spill into the Elk River. That spill contaminated the water supply of 300,000 state residents in a nine-county region resulting in a tap water ban for nearly a week. But soon after that legislation was passed, some warned that protecting our water does not end with passing a bill.

Industry never sleeps and would keep the pressure on government through its well-financed lobby. As one WVU law professor put it at the time, “While you’re not paying attention, they are.” Guess what? We have not been paying attention.

This week the Senate Judiciary Committee unanimously advanced legislation to the Senate floor that basically guts SB 373. Though the new legislation — Senate Bill 423 — still requires all above-ground storage tanks to be registered with the state, it drops practically all regulation for about 36,000 of those 48,000 tanks.

The new bill purportedly targets tanks in zones of critical concern and a newly defined zone of peripheral concern to public water intakes, rather than protecting groundwater in general.

What that means is, if you rely on a private groundwater well or other such water supply you had better hope there are no above-ground storage tanks nearby. It also drastically reshapes how many industries need to apply for permits, allowing them to opt out of the separate permit process for their storage tanks if they already fall under some other regulatory tool.

Some have estimated that as a result of this provision, fewer than 100 tanks will be subject to the regular strict inspections.

The state Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) secretary was quick to point out recently that the bill the governor sought last year — SB 417 — was not as stringent as the one lawmakers ultimately passed. That was the legislation whose opening paragraphs talked about protecting industry, rather than our water resources. It was the one that died a quiet death once the public got a look at it and started to make some noise.

Something tells us the public needs to start making some more noise again — at SB 423. And if they don’t hear you now, you can always get their attention at the ballot box on November 8, 2016.

WVU College of Law

Speakers say the public needs to keep pressure on government

From an Article by David Beard, Morgantown Dominion Post, March 25, 2014

NOTE:  The WVU College of Law hosted an “Environmental Law” panel discussion in the new area of their building in Morgantown on Monday, March 24^th.  Over 100 people attended this event of the Center for Sustainable Energy and Development.

Government laxity played a major role in the Elk River spill that contaminated the water supply of 300,000 Kanawha Valley residents, experts said at a WVU symposium Monday evening. And public pressure will play a major role in making sure it’s never repeated. “You can have all the laws in the world, the best laws in the world, but they have to be enforced,” WVU law professor Patrick McGinley told the crowd.

West Virginia officials and agencies have a long history of letting industry have its way, to the detriment of the state’s water resources, he said. McGinley cited the late West Virginia federal Judge Charles H. Haden II, who said this institutionalized passivity created a “climate of lawlessness.”

As an example, McGinley cited Massey Energy, which self-reported more than 4,500 Clean Water Act violations from 2000 to 2006. The State Department of Environmental Protection never looked at the reports, he said.  The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency eventually got involved and fined Massey $20 million in 2008, he said. More recently, the EPA fined Massey successor Alpha Natural Resources $27 million for more than 6,000 violations, also overlooked by DEP.

The new comprehensive water protection regulations in SB 373, passed on March 8, can help McGinley said. But the government will need watching over. “I hope the citizens of West Virginia will hold DEP’s feet to the fire,” along with the rest of the state government to enforce the new law.

SB 373’s lead sponsor, Sen. John Unger, D-Berkeley, expanded on McGinley’s thoughts. He said that while he and his staff were drafting SB 373, dedicated to protecting the state’s water, the governor’s staff was huddling with chemical industry representatives to draft their own version, SB 417.

SB 417’s opening paragraphs talk about protecting industry. Unger said public pressure led to SB 417 dying and SB 373 moving forward. “You were ready to burn anybody who tried to touch it.”  But it doesn’t end with passing a bill, he said. Industry will keep pressure on the government through its well-paid lobbyists. “While you’re not paying attention, they are.” Keep pressure on the governor and the DEP. Exert that pressure at the ballot box. “If you wait for someone else to do it for you, it’s not going to get done.”

Paul Ziemkiewicz, director of WVU’s West Virginia Water Research Institute, noted that the primary chemical in the Elk River spill, MCHM, wasn’t and isn’t considered hazardous. <NOTE: It will cause burning of the eyes and skin and may be hazardous to pregnant women.> To prevent future spills, everything that potentially threatens a water supply should be treated as hazardous and kept well contained.

Dr. Rahul Gupta, executive director of the Kanawha-Charleston Health Department, talked about the lack of knowledge about MCHM, about the conflicting information being handed out by federal and state officials, the failed attempts at reassurance and the massive level of distrust all that engendered.  Sometimes it’s best to say you don’t know, he said. “The reverse is very difficult. We found out the hard way.”

His office had been conducting informal surveys of the residents of the affected area, he said, and the continued lack of trust is evident. A March 1 survey showed only 5 percent of the respondents drinking the water.

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.

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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.

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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.”