ASF promotes stream & wildlife recovery and preservation

Editorial Opinion by Morgantown Dominion Post, March 19, 2020

We’d like to interrupt the continuous coverage of coronavirus to take Monongalia County Commissioner Tom Bloom up on his offer to write an editorial about his comments regarding the Appalachian Stewardship Foundation.

Thank you, sir, for offering yourself up as a distraction. The public appreciates you.

Let us preface this editorial by saying that we like Bloom. But it is our job as a trusted news source to follow up on accusations made on the public record against an entity. Particularly if the support for such an accusation is unclear.

We reported a claim (DP 01-16-20) Bloom made that the Appalachian Stewardship Foundation had only spent $355,400 of the $4 million it received as part of an agreement with Longview on “stream and forest remediation.” The other half of the claim was that ASF had spent $1,244,609 on “lawyers and other fees.” Bloom’s source for this information was a letter from Longview president Jeffrey Keffer.

Five days later, ASF representatives posted a response online stating they have not paid legal fees to any lawyer.

We published a follow-up article (DP 02-12-20) after doing our own accounting and reported $1.6 million had been set aside in an endowment fund but $2.2 million had been awarded in the form of 99 grants to environmental organizations in the region. This accounts for $3.8 million.

At the time that article was printed, Bloom had not responded to multiple requests for comment.

Another month later, Bloom has finally gotten back to us. On Monday, he said he will not apologize for questioning the ASF’s spending habits. Rather, he reiterated his claim that less than $355,000 has been spent on “carbon dioxide sequestration and stream mitigation.” Specifically, Bloom points to five grants totaling $207,500 to Appalachian Mountain Advocates — a public interest law and policy organization — dating back to fall 2012 as particularly questionable.

According to Bloom, “The ASF chose grant applications that appear to fund programs that were to stop fossil fuel programs, shut down pipelines and stop fracking. To me, that doesn’t meet the agreement. So if the paper wants to write an editorial about how things appear and accuse me of getting this all wrong, well, I’ve gone through the numbers.”

We’re so glad Bloom finally articulated a specific complaint. We, as well as our readers, were dangling on that cliff hanger for two months, wondering what, precisely, ASF had done wrong. We’re still not entirely sure where Bloom gets his numbers (we calculated six grants totaling $190,000 awarded to AMA starting in spring 2014), but it’s helpful to know that Bloom’s discomfort is grant money funding legal efforts rather than literal tree planting.

We see nothing wrong with ASF’s choice of grant recipients. In the case of AMA, their efforts are focused on preventing environmental problems rather than just cleaning up after them. If ASF chooses to fund programs that treat the source instead of the symptoms, we take no issue with that. But Bloom is allowed to disagree.

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See also: Appalachian Stewardship Foundation Replies to Longview Issues, Larry Harris, FrackCheckWV, January 28, 2020

The geographical range of the foundations’ activities includes West Virginia, parts of Virginia, Maryland and Pennsylvania. Since its first granting round in 2012, ASF has received $4 million from Longview Power and approved grants totaling over $2.2 million to groups across West Virginia and Virginia through our twice annual grant distribution process.

A description of that grant process and a complete list of those grants awarded to date is available on the ASF website at: www.appalachianstewards.org

A statement (contained in an internal email from Longview’s president and CEO) that ASF has paid $1.2 million to lawyers, individually or collectively, is false. ASF has not paid legal fees to any lawyer.

MORGANTOWN DOMINION POST editorial Monday 20 April 2015

Can the WV-DEP reform itself?

Environmental well-being is primarily a function of regulatory well-being. That at least is the idea in the state Department of Environmental Protection’s (DEP) realm.

The DEP is still the principal agency that West Virginia deploys to monitor its hills, rivers and streams and its air. But is that as true as we would like to think?

While some try to portray the WV-DEP as yet another regulatory bogeyman, others call it the Department of Environmental Prevarication.

In the past, we have leaned more toward the latter description. However, in recent weeks, the DEP has taken initiatives that give one reason for hope. For instance, this past week, the DEP ordered more than 90 coal prep plants to disclose potential pollutants that could be dumped into waterways. The DEP said that order will better protect state streams and that any additional costs should not be significant compared to the liability for polluting waterways.

That agency also recently hosted a public hearing on water quality standards, part of one program’s annual quarterly meetings. These meetings agendas also don’t dawdle on fluff, either.

The most recent agenda took up proposed changes to aluminum and selenium criteria and an update on algae monitoring done in 2014. The DEP has also become much more visible in the state’s annual spring highway cleanup, through the Adopt-A-Highway program.

Clearly, for those who take a dim view of the DEP’s efforts — and we often count ourselves among them — there are also reasons to think nothing has changed. For example, the state’s Environmental Quality Board recently said the DEP violated state law when it allowed a company to operate two underground injection wells with a “rule” it issued, instead of a state permit.

Or the WV-DEP’s almost cavalier approach to reports of black water flowing into a Raleigh County stream. Only after it responded in a timely manner on the fourth report was a coal company cited.

There was also the incident of orange rocks in the Cheat River at the mouth of Muddy Creek recently, which the DEP appeared nonchalant about investigating, and no one was held accountable.

No, the DEP has not cast off its bureaucracy and still appears to lean in on industry’s side more often than it does the environment’s. However, because of the DEP’s increased manpower and funding, as well as coal’s diminishing influence, this could change.

In the interest of everyone’s well-being, it should.

This Land is Your Land; This Land is My Land

Trans Energy Inc. to Restore Streams and Wetland Damaged By Natural Gas Extraction Activities in West Virginia

Press Release from the U.S. EPA, Contact: Jennifer Colaizzi, September 2, 2014

Company will also pay $3 million civil penalty to resolve alleged Clean Water Act violations

WASHINGTON – The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), the West Virginia Department of Environmental Protection (WVDEP), and the Department of Justice (DOJ) today announced a settlement with Trans Energy Inc., requiring the oil and gas company to restore portions of streams and wetlands at 15 sites in West Virginia polluted by the company’s unauthorized discharge of dredge or fill material.

Trans Energy will pay a penalty of $3 million to be divided equally between the federal government and WVDEP. The Clean Water Act requires a company to obtain a permit from EPA and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers prior to discharging dredge or fill material into wetlands, rivers, streams, and other waters of the United States.

“As part of our commitment to safe development of domestic energy supplies, EPA is working to protect wetlands and local water supplies on which communities depend,” said Cynthia Giles, assistant administrator of EPA’s Office of Enforcement and Compliance Assurance. “By enforcing environmental laws, we’re helping to ensure a level playing field for responsible businesses.”

“Today’s agreement requires that Trans Energy take important steps to comply with state and federal laws that are critical to protecting our nation’s waters, wetlands and streams,” said Sam Hirsch, Acting Assistant Attorney General of the Justice Department’s Environment and Natural Resources Division. “We will continue to ensure that the development of our nation’s domestic energy resources, including through the use of hydraulic fracturing techniques, complies with the Clean Water Act and other applicable federal laws.”

In addition to the penalty, the company will reconstruct impacted aquatic resources or address impacts at 15 sites, provide appropriate compensatory mitigation for impacts to streams and wetlands, and implement a comprehensive program to ensure future compliance with Section 404 of the Clean Water Act and applicable state law. Among other requirements, the company will work to ensure that all aquatic resources are identified prior to starting work on future projects in West Virginia, and that appropriate consideration is given at the design stage to avoid and minimize impacts to aquatic resources. It is estimated that Trans Energy will spend more than $13 million to complete the restoration and mitigation work required by the consent decree.

The federal government and WVDEP allege that the company impounded streams and discharged sand, dirt, rocks and other materials into streams and wetlands without a federal permit to construct well pads, impoundments, road crossings and other facilities related to natural gas extraction. The government alleges the violations impacted approximately 13,000 linear feet of stream and more than an acre of wetlands.

Filling wetlands illegally and damming streams can result in serious environmental consequences. Streams, rivers, and wetlands benefit the environment by reducing flood risks, filtering pollutants, recharging groundwater and drinking water supplies, and providing food and habitat for aquatic species.

EPA discovered the violations in 2011 and 2012 through information provided by WVDEP and the public, and through routine field inspections. In summer 2014, the company conducted an internal audit and ultimately disclosed to EPA alleged violations at eight additional locations, which are also being resolved through this Consent Decree.

The settlement also resolves alleged violations of state law brought by WVDEP. The consent decree has been lodged in the Northern District of West Virginia and is subject to a 30-day public comment period and court approval.

For more information: http://www2.epa.gov/enforcement/trans-energy-inc-clean-water-act-settlement