Energy & Environment

Another person has been killed in an explosion at a West Virginia industrial plant where two people were killed last month, authorities said Tuesday.

Officials said the explosion Tuesday morning was at Midland Resource Recovery, a company based in Ontario, Canada, that odorizes natural gas.

In a preliminary report, the West Virginia Department of Environmental Protection said contractors at the facility outside Philippi were disassembling a 30-gallon tank, trying to render tanks safe from the previous explosion May 24 that killed two and injured one.

West Virginia's Public Service Commission on Thursday issued a final settlement order closing its investigation into West Virginia American Water's role in a chemical spill and resulting water crisis in the Charleston area in January 2014.

Thousands of gallons of a coal-cleaning agent leaked from a Freedom Industries storage tank into the Elk River, leaving 300,000 people in nine counties without water for up to nine days. Businesses in the state's largest drinking water system were temporarily shut. Hundreds of people headed to emergency rooms for issues from nausea to rashes after contact with tap water that smelled like licorice.

Authorities say a 32-year-old miner has been killed at a mine in southern West Virginia.

The Office of Miners' Health, Safety and Training says the incident occurred shortly before 9 p.m. Tuesday at the Rockwell Mining LLC Gateway Eagle Mine.

The Environmental Protection Agency is conducting a month-long sampling of water and soil for PCB chemicals in West Virginia.

The testing in Minden until Friday is for polychlorinated biphenyls, which were commonly used as an electrical equipment insulator. The EPA lists PCBs as a "possible" carcinogen and in 1977 banned their used except in totally enclosed systems.

A West Virginia county has designated three new water trails that follow segments of the Ohio River and two tributaries.

The Charleston Gazette-Mail reports the Pleasants County Convention and Visitors Bureau announced the three St. Marys-area trails on Friday. The Middle Island Creek Water Trail, French Creek Water Trail and Ohio River Wildlife Refuge Water Trail join more than a dozen such trails in West Virginia.

Alpha Natural Resources says it is plans to open a new underground coal mine in West Virginia this summer and create more than 50 jobs.

The Kingsport, Tennessee, coal producer says the Panther Eagle Mine at subsidiary Marfork Coal is expected to begin extracting metallurgical coal as early as July.

Federal mine safety officials will discuss recent coal mining deaths during a meeting this week in West Virginia.

The meeting Thursday in Beaver, West Virginia, near Beckley, will also address regulatory issues. Interested parties unable to attend may participate via teleconference or online using WebEx.

The West Virginia Department of Environmental Protection is holding several events for residents to dispose of tires this month.

The Rehabilitation Environmental Action Plan events will be Wednesday in Summers County; Saturday in Ohio, Boone and Hardy counties; June 15 in Doddridge County; and June 21 in McDowell County. Events were held previously in Upshur and Harrison counties.

Flood-affected communities in southern West Virginia are receiving federal aid to help clean up brownfield sites for future development. 

MATOAKA, W.Va. — The red caboose parked at the edge of a rundown commercial block is the only rail car some people have seen in Matoaka in more than a year.

It bears the markings of the Norfolk and Western Railway, a company merged years ago and absorbed into oblivion, like Amoco and Oldsmobile. It has come to rest here, a relic of the past.

The National Weather Service has issued a flash flood watch through Monday morning for southwest West Virginia, as well as northeast Kentucky and southwest Virginia.

The watch begins Saturday afternoon.

The service says there's a risk of severe thunderstorms Saturday with damaging winds, large hail and an isolated tornado possible.

The president's chief economic adviser is casting doubt on the future of U.S. coal, saying it "doesn't really make that much sense anymore as a feedstock," directly contradicting President Donald Trump's repeated promises to revive the struggling coal industry.

Briefing reporters Thursday night on Air Force One, Gary Cohn singled out natural gas as "such a cleaner fuel." By exporting more natural gas and investing in wind and solar energy, the U.S. "can be a manufacturing powerhouse and still be environmentally friendly," Cohn said.

Two people are dead in Barbour County this afternoon following an explosion at Midland Resource Recovery, according to Barbour County Emergency Management.

One other person was injured and taken to Ruby Memorial Hospital in Morgantown.

Water safety instruction will be given this weekend at New River Gorge National River.

The National Park Service and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers are offering their annual safety program on Saturday and Sunday. Water safety activities are free and offer the chance for anyone to learn how to be safe during recreational activities around water.

State authorities say a 44-year-old shuttle car operator has been killed at a mine in southern West Virginia.

The Office of Miners' Health, Safety and Training says Luches Rosser of Man, West Virginia, was operating a locomotive when the incident occurred after 11 p.m. Thursday at the Pinnacle Mining Co. mine in Wyoming County.

The State Historic Preservation Office says a natural gas pipeline project across Ohio hasn't honored an agreement to pay for harm done to historic properties.

The Repository in Canton reports the Rover Pipeline agreed to pay $1.5 million annually for five years but hasn't made the first payment, which was due two months ago. The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission has jurisdiction over the project and has been asked to handle the dispute.

Stargazers are being invited to watch the sky over central West Virginia this weekend.

The fourth annual Calhoun Stargaze is set for Friday through Sunday at the Calhoun County Park in Grantsville. The park is known for its pitch-dark conditions for favorable nighttime viewing.

Lawmakers from coal-mining states are pushing to extend health benefits for more than 22,000 retired miners and widows whose medical coverage is set to expire at the end of April. Last December, West Virginia Sen. Joe Manchin and other coal-state Democrats won a four-month extension that preserves benefits through April 30. With lawmakers returning to the Capitol following a two-week recess, Manchin says the time for extensions is over and that more than a partial fix is needed.

The CEO of the nation’s biggest public utility said Tuesday that the agency isn’t going to reopen coal-fired power plants under President Donald Trump, who has promised a comeback for the downtrodden coal industry.

Tennessee Valley Authority CEO Bill Johnson said he thinks very little will actually change for the federal utility under Trump.

Critics say DuPont has spent too little on testing Ohio and West Virginia residents for contamination from a chemical used to make Teflon, while paying millions to a lawyer overseeing the testing program.

The Columbus Dispatch reports DuPont spent about $860,000 on testing over a 2 ½-year period for contamination from the chemical used to make Teflon at its Washington Works plant, along the Ohio River.

Wildlife officials are asking West Virginians to let them know when they see timber rattlesnakes as part of a scientific project to determine their current distribution in the state.

According to the Division of Natural Resources, rattlesnakes are a critical part of healthy forest ecosystems and hunt mice and chipmunks, helping reduce the human risk of contracting Lyme disease and other diseases spread by the small mammals.