On this West Virginia Week, Earth Day was Monday. We’ll hear from a hydrologist about the state’s rivers. We’ll learn more about why two leading candidates for governor are trading accusations in ads over transgender youth. And we’ll visit a community in southern West Virginia affected by contaminated water.
On this West Virginia Week, Earth Day was Monday. We’ll hear from a hydrologist about the state’s rivers. We’ll learn more about why two leading candidates for governor are trading accusations in ads over transgender youth. And we’ll visit a community in southern West Virginia affected by contaminated water.
We’ll also talk about what’s next for opponents of new federal power plant rules. We’ll find out who Sen. Joe Manchin, D-W.Va., has endorsed to be his successor in the Senate. And we’ll learn when a long-delayed controversial natural gas pipeline proposes to begin operating.
Curtis Tate is our host this week. Our theme music is by Matt Jackfert.
West Virginia Week is a web-only podcast that explores the week’s biggest news in the Mountain State. It’s produced with help from Bill Lynch, Briana Heaney, Chris Schulz, Curtis Tate, Emily Rice, Eric Douglas, Jack Walker, Liz McCormick and Randy Yohe.
The state Department of Environmental Protection has filed a motion in federal court to intervene in a proposed settlement to limit mining pollutants in streams.
At the heart of the issue is the Guyandotte River and the alleged failure of the DEP to administer water testing and limits for ionic toxicity in 11 state streams that affect 100,000 people. As a result, conservation groups filed a lawsuit.
The state Department of Environmental Protection has filed a motion in federal court to intervene in a proposed settlement to limit mining pollutants in streams.
At the heart of the issue is the Guyandotte River and the alleged failure of the DEP to administer water testing and limits for ionic toxicity in 11 state streams that affect 100,000 people. As a result, conservation groups filed a lawsuit.
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has proposed to settle the lawsuit by agreeing to establish specific water quality standards for mining runoff. Environmental groups celebrated the settlement and said it will restore aquatic life and the health of the streams.
“The consent decree comes after decades of advocacy and legal action by the Sierra Club and its partners to compel the EPA to fulfill its obligations under the Clean Water Act,” the Sierra Club said in a statement.
However, on April 22, the DEP filed a motion to have a seat at the table, which possibly could change the direction of the proposed settlement. In the motion the DEP said its interest could not be adequately represented by existing parties in the lawsuit, i.e. the EPA.
“As the primary regulator of water quality in the State of West Virginia, the WVDEP is flummoxed as to why it has been kept in the dark regarding a proposed settlement which must have been months in the making,” DEP said in the motion.
The state organization also said it was “astounded” that the EPA had not mounted a defense against the allegations made by the environmental groups in the lawsuit.
State leaders have also questioned the EPA’s proposed settlement, including U.S. Sen. Joe Manchin D-W.Va.
“If the EPA has any legitimate water quality concerns, they should have worked with the West Virginia Department of Environmental Protection,” Manchin said in a statement. “Which knows our waterways better than the federal government ever will. Instead of collaborating with the state, it appears the EPA colluded with environmental groups to enter into a ‘sue and settle’ agreement that bypasses the regulatory process and expands federal authority without any accountability.”
The three environmental groups on the lawsuit are the Sierra Club of West Virginia, the Highlands Conservancy, and the West Virginia Rivers Coalition.
The proposed settlement is open for comments from the public until April 29.
On this West Virginia Morning, an experimental apple orchard in the state is helping to fight pollution, improve food scarcity and some hope even heal veterans. Briana Heaney has the story.
On this West Virginia Morning, an experimental apple orchard in the state is helping to fight pollution, improve food scarcity and some hope even heal veterans. Briana Heaney has the story.
Also, in this show, our Mountain Stage Song of the Week comes to us from co-founder, artistic director and former host of Mountain Stage, Larry Groce. Groce is joined by the Mountain Stage House Band in this 1991 performance of “Turn! Turn! Turn!”
West Virginia Morning is a production of West Virginia Public Broadcasting which is solely responsible for its content.
Support for our news bureaus comes from Shepherd University.
Our Appalachia Health News project is made possible with support from Marshall Health.
West Virginia Morning is produced with help from Bill Lynch, Briana Heaney, Chris Schulz, Curtis Tate, Emily Rice, Eric Douglas, Jack Walker, Liz McCormick, and Randy Yohe.
Eric Douglas is our news director. Chris Schulz produced this episode.
Listen to West Virginia Morning weekdays at 7:43 a.m. on WVPB Radio or subscribe to the podcast and never miss an episode. #WVMorning
The U.S. Department of Commerce has granted West Virginia $1.2 billion for affordable broadband services. More than 300,000 West Virginia households were underserved by broadband in 2023.
Spotty internet access has long proven an issue for the mountainsides of West Virginia.
In 2023, more than 300,000 households across the state were unserved or underserved by broadband coverage. This month, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) found that coverage in the Mountain State ranks second-worst nationally, besting only Alaska.
But a new federal grant aims to address current gaps in coverage, ensuring that every household can receive broadband internet services.
On Thursday, the National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) granted West Virginia more than $1.21 billion for high-speed internet services based on a plan first announced in 2023.
The funding comes from the $42.45 billion Broadband Equity, Access, and Deployment (BEAD) program — part of the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act that President Joe Biden signed into effect in 2021.
These funds will go toward the creation of new broadband internet infrastructure in regions with low internet download and upload speeds.
West Virginia residents can anticipate improvements to their internet services between one-and-a-half and five years after funds are distributed, according to Evan Feinman, BEAD program director.
Specific timelines vary from region to region based on “proximity to existing infrastructure,” he said during a virtual press briefing Thursday.
State grants were determined based on current broadband coverage needs, and were finalized through a collaboration between state and federal officials, Feinman said.
This meant coordinating with the West Virginia Department of Economic Development’s Office of Broadband.
After an initial figure for the state’s grant was set by NTIA in 2023, state officials had to develop specific plans for how grant dollars would be spent, according to Kelly Collins Workman, the office’s director.
This included crafting a five-year plan for how improvements would be implemented, plus strategies for promoting digital equity across the state, she said.
When the “historic opportunity” to participate in the BEAD program came along, Collins Workman said her office “poured our heart and soul” into the application process “to secure $1.2 billion for our state.”
“We jumped in with both feet,” she said. “We worked as hard as we could, as fast as we could.”
Mitch Carmichael, cabinet secretary for the department, said the collaboration was crucial to expanding economic resources for West Virginians.
“When we connect people in every corner of our state — and every hill and every valley and every region — the world becomes a better place,” he said.
Carmichael emphasized that changes provided by the program would be sweeping. “This program will reach every address. Every single address,” he said.
The BEAD grant comes during a particularly tenuous moment for affordable internet services nationally, as funding for a federal internet subsidy program used widely in West Virginia is set to lapse this month.
Since 2021, the FCC has provided broadband internet subsidies to low-income households nationwide through the Affordable Connectivity Program (ACP).
More than 127,000 West Virginia households rely on the program for support. But a renewal of the program’s funding has failed to receive bipartisan support in Congress, despite pushes from Democratic lawmakers.
Feinman said ACP’s goals differ from those of the BEAD program. Where ACP provides households financial support to afford internet services, BEAD creates infrastructure so that it is possible to access the internet in the first place.
Still, Feinman said the two programs have overlapping missions, and that NTIA officials were “disappointed” by the program’s imminent expiration.
“A kid who grows up in a house with a reliable internet connection has a higher GPA, [and is] more likely to go to postsecondary education,” he said. “Elderly folks can age in place safely. There’s such tremendous benefits to having folks get online.”
Feinman said that the existence of subsidy programs like ACP gave way to the development of new broadband infrastructure programs like BEAD.
With more residents able to afford internet services, companies were encouraged to spread their infrastructure projects nationally, he said. This includes the rural and low-income communities targeted by programs like BEAD.
“The program going away is going to make it more expensive to build these networks,” Feinman said. “That said, we are still going to be able to get them to every single West Virginia home and business.”
While ACP’s renewal struggled to receive bipartisan support on the Senate floor, state officials’ praise for the BEAD program stretched across the aisle.
Sen. Joe Manchin, D-W.Va., said that the BEAD program has provided important resources to residents across West Virginia. In a Thursday statement, he renewed his commitment to ensuring the state can “deliver broadband service to every West Virginia family and business.”
Likewise, Sen. Shelley Moore Capito, R-W.Va., said in a Thursday statement that the new grant would “better connect homes, businesses and classrooms across the state.”
“While there is still a long road ahead to getting more West Virginians connected, we are well on our way,” she said.
In Pineville, West Virginia, a town of 500, residents filled up the front rows of the county courtroom recently. They came to hear the latest legal update on a battle some have been fighting for generations – securing clean water. Bobby Lee Keen and his wife Patsy attended the hearing. “How come they have people living like they’re in a third world country in the United States of America?” asked Bobby Keen.
In Pineville, West Virginia, a town of 500, residents filled up the front rows of the county courtroom recently. They came to hear the latest legal update on a battle some have been fighting for generations – securing clean water. Bobby Lee Keen and his wife Patsy attended the hearing.
“How come they have people living like they’re in a third world country in the United States of America?” asked Bobby Keen.
The Keens have lived in their house for 20 years, but they have never had clean drinking water. They say the only way they can drink the orange water that comes out of the faucet is by using it to make coffee.
Keen said the water quality has gotten worse in the last year, and he and his wife have had stomach issues and rashes. Other residents have reported similar symptoms.
And they’re not sure what could be causing it. Regardless, Keen believes one thing to be true.
“There’s something getting in that water,” he said.
One of the three places along the creek where water started coming out, and with it, a white stringy slime.
Courtesy of David Stover
A year ago, down the street from the Keens’ house, water started flowing out of the ground in the middle of a field, forming a pool. All that water led to a mold infestation in a nearby property owner’s house. The water had a rotten egg smell and white stringy slime.
Who Is Responsible?
Just below the surface of that pungent pool is an old mine, previously owned by the now-defunct Pinnacle Mining Company.
The West Virginia Department of Environmental Protection (EPA) tested the water and said that the results indicated that it had been polluted by the abandoned mine.
Nicolas Zegre, a Mountain Hydrologist at West Virginia University (WVU), said holes like the one in Pineville are known as artesian wells. They naturally push water from aquifers to the surface.
“When you start mining, the geologic layers, the below ground layers,” Zegre said. “You’re fundamentally changing how water is going to flow through the earth.”
Now, the pool of smelly, murky water has become a steady stream that flows into Indian Creek.
The DEP ordered Pinnacle to remedy the situation. When Pinnacle failed to act, it took the company to court.
There is one major problem here. Pinnacle Mining Company no longer legally exists. As part of its bankruptcy, the company’s assets and liabilities were sold. But to whom?
“That’s the million dollar question,” Matt Hepler, a scientist with Appalachian Voices, said.
Court documents show Pinnacle was, at least in part, bought by Bluestone Mining Resources and is owned by Gov. Jim Justice. However, Justice said Bluestone is not responsible.
Justice answered this question: “Many people along Indian Creek in Wyoming county are sounding the alarms about water contamination possibly coming from a mine that your company purchased, and now owns. As both the governor and the owner of said company is there anything you are planning on doing for these folks so that they can have clean drinking water?” by saying he is not responsible.
Photo Credit: WV Governor’s Office
“I’m all for them having good clean drinking water. But you can’t, you can’t blame me on this one,” Justice said at one of his regular press briefings. “The companies that we have are so distantly involved in this, it’s unbelievable. You know, the DEP is working on the issue.”
Hepler said this fits into a bigger context of the mess that ensues after a coal company goes bankrupt.
“They can’t even figure out, they’re arguing who that new owner is. So they’re not even sure. They’re just pointing fingers at each other,” Hepler said.
Which raises another big picture question.
“Who gets left holding the liability when these coal companies go out?” Hepler asked.
Will The Problem Be Fixed?
In court on April 4, the presiding Wyoming County Judge Derek Swope demanded the companies figure out who is responsible by their next court date in May.
Outside the courthouse, community members said they felt disappointed. Richard Altizer has been delivering water bottles to some of the residents affected by the water crisis. He and others were hoping the courts would have ordered Bluestone and Alpha Metallurgical Resources to cease all operations until they fixed some of the problems associated with Pinnacle’s abandoned mine.
Disappointed residents, some affected by the water crisis, leave the court room.
Photo Credit: Briana Heaney/West Virginia Public Broadcasting
“If that judge were to order that mines and the gas companies shut down until that is fixed they’d be out there tomorrow fixing it,” Altizer said.
In their lawsuit, the DEP and the man whose house was flooded, are asking for injunctive relief. They don’t want money for the damaged property or the health issues the water has caused, they only want what has been broken to be fixed. But residents are frustrated by what they say is a year of inaction.
“Now that the mine gets to operate, and the gas wells keep doing what they’re doing, everything’s hunky-dory with the poor people down here. And it’s frustrating,” Altizer said. “But like I said, we still got legal rights.”
The community is considering a class action lawsuit.
Richard Altizer has been delivering water bottles to community members paid for through crowd funding sites and city officials.
Photo Credit: Briana Heaney/West Virginia Public Broadcasting
Is The Water Toxic?
In the meantime, the question looms, is the water safe?
Grace Denver, an expert on water and its connection to people’s lives, works at WVU’s Center For Resilient Communities. She affirmed what residents have been saying about their everyday use of the water from contaminated wells.
“That can result in huge GI issues, skin rashes,” Denver said. “It can even lead to longer-term things like cancer and things like that.”
Patsy Keen brought photos with her to court in hoping to show someone involved in the legal process what the water was doing to her skin while she was routinely showering in it.
Photo Credit: Briana Heaney/West Virginia Public Broadcasting
Even though the DEP found the mine was the source of the contamination, it said the water quality passes all mine reclamation standards. But members of the community are skeptical. Terry Fletcher, with the DEP, said the agency is doing everything within its power to take on the issue.
“I know, there’s been kind of a narrative pushed out there that we’re only testing for one to two, three to four things when we’re testing for dozens and dozens of parameters,” Fletcher said.
But Hepler from Appalachian Voices said the tests that the department has done so far might not show the true water condition.
“Now when you test the water column, which is just to say test the water without any of that slime in it,” Hepler said. “The water has been coming back fine, according to West Virginia DEP standards.”
Hapler believes the water does pass mine reclamation standards, as well as Clean Water Act standards, but he said that even still that doesn’t translate to the water being safe.
And there is another set of data that is being ignored, said WVU’s Grace Denver.
“Community members are experts of their own lives,” Denver said. “And so I think like their lived experience of knowing, like recognizing the smell, noticing the color change in their community, and recognizing also if any rashes are appearing, or if they’re feeling funky, I think that is scientific knowledge. And I think that we should be taking these observations from the community a lot more seriously.”
For Bobby Keen, whose faucet still has orange water coming out, he said he isn’t angry at anyone, he just wants his family and community to have access to safe water.
**Editor’s Note: A previous version of this story said even though the DEP found the mine was the source of the contamination, it said the water quality passes all mine reclamation standards. It has been changed to: Even though the DEP found the mine was the source of what residents believe is contaminated water, it says the water quality passes all state water quality standards.
Two deer tested positive for chronic wasting disease in Harpers Ferry National Historical Park, marking the disease’s first documented occurrence in the park.
Two white-tailed deer have tested positive for chronic wasting disease (CWD) in Harpers Ferry National Historical Park, marking the first time the disease was detected in a West Virginia national park.
CWD affects several deer, elk and moose species across North America, and is fatal to infected animals, with no known cure or treatment.
There have been no reported instances of CWD infecting humans, but the World Health Organization advises against the consumption of CWD-infected animals.
All venison from the deer infected with CWD was destroyed, according to a Tuesday press release from the National Park Service (NPS).
NPS said it detected the instances of CWD during ongoing efforts to reduce deer populations “to protect and restore native plants, promote healthy and diverse forests and preserve historic landscapes.”
Similar deer population reduction efforts are being conducted in Maryland, Virginia and Washington, D.C., according to NPS.
In March, three white-tailed deer tested positive for CWD in Maryland’s Antietam National Battlefield and Monocacy National Battlefield, located less than 20 and 25 miles away, respectively.
This also marked the disease’s first documented occurrence in either battlefield, according to NPS.
CWD can cause “drastic weight loss, stumbling, listlessness and other neurological symptoms, though it can take more than a year for these symptoms to present, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
“The NPS will continue to participate in monitoring of collected deer for CWD and will destroy venison testing positive for CWD,” NPS said. “If you see sick or dead wildlife, avoid contact with the animal and notify a National Park Service employee as soon as possible.”
