WVEC Action AlertFebruary 17, 2008Contact Legislators NOW to Restore Tier 2.5 Stream List The Senate Finance Committee will take action on SB 456, the Antidegradation Implementation Procedures Rule (60CSR5), on Monday, February 18 at 3:00 PM. Now’s the time to contact the members of this committee (as well as ALL of your legislators) and ask them to restore all 309 streams to the Tier 2.5 stream list as adopted by the Joint Legislative Rule-Making Review Committee. It’s a simple message: anything less than the 309 streams proposed is unacceptable! No more compromises! Here is the list of Senate Finance Committee members: Senator Walt Helmick - Chair (D-Pocahontas) (304) 357-7980 whelmick@mail.wvnet.edu You can also reach Delegates and Senators by calling toll-free at 1-877-565-3447. Background: The Antidegradation rule (60CSR5), contains the controversial Tier 2.5 stream list. Industry folks hate the Tier 2.5 designation because it limits their ability to degrade the state’s most pristine waters. As proposed this year by DEP, the Antidegradation rule would result in the removal of Tier 2.5 protection from one half of the streams which DEP last year qualified for Tier 2.5 status as “Waters of Special Concern.” The proposed reduction from 309 streams down to 156 was purely politically based and has no scientific basis. In fact, DEP has already said that all 309 streams qualify for Tier 2.5 protection. Fortunately, just prior to the start of the 2008 Legislative Session the Joint Interim Legislative Rule-Making Review Committee voted to restore the Tier 2.5 stream list to the 309 streams proposed by DEP last year. Unfortunately, two weeks ago the Senate Natural Resources Committee voted to cut the list down to just 108 streams, a move that was again based purely on politics and not on science. The DEP went through a 6-year process and spent about $1 million to develop the antidegradation policies and to establish the initial Tier 2.5 list. Tier 2.5 allows some stream degradation as it is, but such degradation is limited to no more than 10% of a stream’s assimilative capacity. Lowering the standard from Tier 2.5 to the next level – Tier 2 – would allow for stream degradation of all of the stream’s assimilative capacity. The Tier 2.5 concept itself was a compromise with industry in the first place to avoid having to list all reproducing trout streams in the Tier 3 category, which would allow no degradation. But now, the “Dirty Water Coalition” – a powerful group of polluters including agriculture, timber, coal, oil and gas, manufacturers and the Chamber of Commerce – is rejecting the very compromise it demanded and agreed to and has launched an all-out assault on West Virginia’s most pristine rivers and streams. The political pressure from the “Dirty Water Coalition” is apparently working. As a result of their massive six-year misinformation campaign the DEP, the state legislature and West Virginia’s Governor continue to compromise with the “Dirty Water Coalition” instead of protecting the state’s invaluable water resources for the future. However, other voices are now beginning to be heard in support of stream protection. Just this week, for example, the national Trout Unlimited organization sent out an action alert to its members urging them to contact West Virginia legislators in support of the original Tier 2.5 stream list. So now is your opportunity to help turn all this around. Please call your legislators right away.
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