WVEC Action AlertMay 5, 2010May 19 Water Quality Standards Public Meeting The West Virginia Department of Environmental Protection’s Water Quality Standards Program is having a public meeting to discuss issues related to the agency’s "Triennial Review" of the state’s water quality standards. The meeting will take place Wednesday, May 19, from 1:30 PM to 3:30 PM in the Coopers Rock conference room of the Department of Environmental Protection, located at 601 57th Street SE, Charleston, WV. Staff from the Water Quality Standards program will discuss proposed updates to legislative rule 47CSR2 “Requirements Governing Water Quality Standards” which will include changes to the criteria for iron, total dissolved solids, nutrients and other parameters to protect the state’s waterways. The "Triennial Review" of a state's water quality standards is a requirement of the federal Clean Water Act. This is the first meeting the agency has held on these proposals since they were first discussed at a preliminary meeting almost a year ago. At that time DEP Office of Water and Waste Management personnel said they were considering weakening the standard for mercury pollution because West Virginian's don't eat much fish caught in West Virginia waters. They also said they were considering weakening the standard for iron in Category B-2 "trout waters". They also discussed the problem of "nutrients" in state rivers and streams (nitrogen and phosphorous), but had no water quality standards in mind for those pollutants at that time. The final issue discussed was a possible statewide water quality standard for "total dissolved solids" (TDS), which is primarily comprised of sulphates from mining operations and chlorides from a variety of sources, including oil and gas drilling operations. Following the May 19 meeting, DEP will announce its proposed rule changes and will hold a public comment period and public hearing on those proposed changes. Quite frankly, this is a woefully inadequate method of developing regulatory policy designed to protect the state's invaluable water resources. The agency has not had any further public discussion about these water quality standards for almost a year. When water quality rules were developed by the Environmental Quality Board, monthly meetings were held to discuss the proposed changes. It appears that DEP, now that it has the rulemaking authority, has decided it wants only minimal input from the public or the polluters. However, this is the hand the Legislature has dealt us. So if you have concerns about the state's water quality standards, I encourage you to attend the meeting on May 19. Donald S. Garvin, Jr.
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