WVEC Action Alert

April 8, 2009

Bad Bill Passes out of committee – goes to House Floor – please help!

SB 461 – (Selenium bill) Passed out of the House Judiciary Committee today!
It now will move to the House floor for the full body to vote for or against.
Please contact your representatives in the House of Delegates.  Anyone and everyone!  Tell them to vote against this awful piece of legislation. 

SB 461 is a terrible bill that gives the coal industry a more than two-year extension to comply with water quality standards for the toxic selenium they discharge from their mining operations.

Capitol Phone:  1 877-565-3447 – you can leave a message for any member of the House of Delegates.
Capitol web-site: www.legis.state.wv.us  - find your Delegate(s) and leave message there.

Talking Points / Facts:

• This is a change in water quality standards.
• The federal Clean Water Act, administered by the EPA, requires public notice and a 45-day comment period for any change proposed to a state’s water quality standards. West Virginia regulations also require public notice and a 45-day comment period for any change proposed to a state’s water quality standards.
• The water quality standard change proposed in SB 461 did not have public notice, did not have a 45-day public comment period, did not go through the Legislature’s regular rule-making process, and was never considered by the Joint Legislative Rule-Making Review Committee.
• The extension proposed in SB 461 will NOT be approved by EPA.
• Randy Huffman, Secretary of the WV Department of Environmental Protection, has stated publicly that he opposes SB 461 and expects the coal industry “to meet the deadline of April 2010.”

Selenium is a naturally occurring mineral element that is found is many rocks and soils. In very tiny amounts, it is an antioxidant and is needed for good health. But in only slightly greater amounts, selenium is highly toxic. In humans, it can cause hair loss, nail brittleness and neurological problems such as numbness. In aquatic life, very small amounts of selenium have been found to cause reproductive failure.”

In 2003 U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service biologists found “troubling” amounts of selenium in fish downstream from mountaintop removal mine sites.

Dennis Lemly, the nation’s foremost authority on selenium, has warned that pollution from a Magnum coal operation in West Virginia is dangerously poisoning Mud River fish, leaving some with serious deformities. Fish samples taken by state officials showed some specimens with two eyes on one side of the head, and others with curved spines, according to Lemly’s report.