WVEC NoticeJune 7, 2010
Two WV Rivers on List of Nation's Ten Most Endangered (From Public News Service-WV -- June 02, 2010) CHARLESTON, W. Va. - Two rivers in West Virginia are among the nation's ten most threatened, according to the group American Rivers. The Gauley River is third on the annual list; the Monongahela is number nine. Their challenges are part of a new report, "America's Most Endangered Rivers," released today. Cindy Rank, who chairs the West Virginia Highlands Conservancy mining committee, says the Gauley has some of the best whitewater in the eastern United States, although pollution from surface mining is starting to encroach. "There's a lot more mountaintop removal mining – and with that, of course, comes all the problems that are occurring throughout a lot of the more southern part of the state." From Fairmont to Pittsburgh, threats to the Monongahela include old mining sites and a boom in natural gas drilling. Rank says the death of wildlife in a Mon tributary, Dunkard Creek, shows that pollution can pose risks to an important source of drinking water. "It was really the death of Dunkard earlier in 2009 that woke people up to the problems of TDS, total dissolved solids." She also finds it disturbing that even its location, in the heart of a national recreation area, has not been enough to ensure protection for the Gauley. "There are big problems at the Nicholas/Clay County line, extending closer to the Summersville Lake and the Gauley National Recreation Area – which of course, is highly valued." State and federal environmental regulators have announced intentions to restrict the amounts of selenium, salt and other minerals that can wash into rivers from mines and gas wells. The coal industry has criticized those plans, but Rank notes any new standards will have to be enforced to protect endangered waterways. The full report is online at www.americanrivers.org. (You can also read Charleston Gazette reporter Ken Ward’s article about this subject online at http://www.wvgazette.com/News/201006010519). Legislature Begins Interim Meetings (By Donald S. Garvin, Jr. -- WVEC Legislative Coordinator) The West Virginia Legislature held its first set of monthly Interim Committee meetings May 24 to May 26. This was the first full set of monthly Interim meetings for 2010. Primarily, the committees only received staff reviews of the various study topics they have been assigned, so there was not much substantive discussion. Judiciary Subcommittee A did, however, have a presentation from the WV Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) on possible funding sources for capital improvement projects at Eastern Panhandle wastewater treatment facilities. These improvements are needed to meet the new nutrient removal requirements of the federal Chesapeake Bay Initiative. Theresa Koon of DEP’s Office of Water and Waste Management told the legislators that the state must come up with between $110 million and $140 million to finance new and upgraded treatment systems in order to meet phosphorous and nitrogen reduction goals by 2025. DEP has been meeting with stakeholders in the area to discuss funding options. According to DEP the top three options are (and I am not kidding about this):
I guess we will have to wait and see how this all flushes out (sorry, but I couldn’t resist). The substantive presentations will begin in earnest at the June Interim meetings (June 7 through June 9). Almost all of the environmental regulatory study issues have been assigned to Judiciary Subcommittee A. The study topics include a variety of Marcellus shale gas drilling issues (both environmental and surface owner issues), a continuing discussion on coal slurry injection, in addition to handling the nutrient reduction in Chesapeake Bay. This subcommittee was also assigned the coal mine safety topic. Judiciary Subcommittee C has been assigned a study of the Public Service Commission’s exemption from legislative rule making. The Joint Commission on Economic Development has been assigned several important study topics involving renewable energy and “green jobs” and “green public policy” initiatives. Finance Subcommittee B has been assigned several interesting study topics, including “tax issues generally”, a study of the tax burden on the coal industry (right!), and a study of the federal “stimulus” monies the state has received and expended to date. So there will be plenty for us to watch and participate in during the 2010 Interims. You can see the entire list of study topics on the Legislature’s web site at http://www.legis.state.wv.us/Committees/Interims/2010_Interim_study_assignments.cfm And the West Virginia Environmental Council will post important updates and action alerts about these meetings on our web site. DEP Releases 2011 Rules Drafts (By Donald S. Garvin, Jr. -- WVEC Legislative Coordinator) The WV Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) has released the initial drafts of the agency’s rule changes that it intends to propose to the Legislature in 2011. So here’s my annual legislative tutorial about “rules.” The Legislature passes laws (or statutes), and then they pass rules (or regulations). Generally speaking, the laws or statutes set out the broad guidelines for government actions, and the rules set out the specific details or regulations. Generally speaking, the laws establish the authority for the government to act and create an agency to implement the action. Generally speaking, the agency then develops (or “promulgates”) the individual rules needed to enforce the laws. Agency rules are not proposed by individual legislators. They are developed annually by the specific agency and are then presented to the Legislative Rule-Making Review Committee during the Interim sessions. Usually, the Legislative Rule-Making Review Committee then simply approves the rules and passes them on for consideration by the full Legislature during the regular session. There are normally more than a hundred of these rules. If you look at the legislative web site, you will see a long list of bills in both the House and the Senate with titles like, “Authorizing Commissioner of Agriculture promulgate legislative rule relating to shellfish” (that was an actual rule title last year). But you can’t find out what’s in these rules on the legislative web site. Each agency files its rules with the Secretary of State’s office, and that’s where you have to go to read them. It’s not a particularly citizen friendly arrangement. And it gets even worse when the rules get to the full Legislature. But I will cover that another time. This year the DEP is proposing changes only to 12 of its rules (some years the number is more than double that). The list includes major changes to the Water Quality Standards rule and the Surface Mining Reclamation Rule, as well as changes to seven air quality rules, the Surface Mining Blasting Rule, the Hazardous Waste Management Rule, and the Secretary’s rule for Freedom of Information Act requests. The Water Quality Standards rule is a good example of why these rules changes are important to the public. This year DEP is proposing a statewide drinking water quality standard for “total dissolved solids” of 500 mg/liter (think Marcellus shale, the Monongahela River, and the Dunkard Creek fish kill). DEP’s proposal is the same as the federal EPA’s recommended standard to protect human health. However, polluting industries are already lobbying DEP to weaken how the standard is measured – they want the standard to be applied at public water supply intakes and not at the point of discharge, using the entire river or stream as a “mixing zone.” The DEP will publish the final drafts of all these rules in the next couple of weeks, and will then schedule public comment periods and public hearings for each of the proposed rules during the months of June and July. To keep you informed, the West Virginia Environmental Council will post the schedules and action alerts about these rules on our web site. |