Ohio will begin testing some public and private water systems for the presence of toxic nonstick, fluorinated chemicals, broadly called PFAS.
In a press release issued Friday, Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine announced the state’s environmental and public health agencies will analyze drinking water systems located near places with known contamination. That includes near firefighting training sites and some manufacturing facilities.
PFAS chemicals were used in flame-retardant foam sprays and in the manufacture of nonstick and stain-resistant products.
“Right now, we just don’t know if these chemicals have a widespread presence in Ohio’s water supply or not, and I’ve asked the directors of both the Ohio EPA and Ohio Department of Health to develop a plan to find out,” DeWine said. “This is important for both the protection of our natural resources and for public health, which is why we must more fully evaluate the prevalence of PFAS in our water.”
Two per- and polyfluoroalkyl chemicals — PFOA and PFOS — have been linked to negative health effects. A medical study of more than 70,000 people exposed to PFOA, or C8, dumped by DuPont’s Washington Works plant in Parkersburg, linked exposure to the chemical with multiple health problems from cancer to reduced immune function.
The so-called “forever chemicals” persist in the environment and have been found in numerous water systems in the Ohio Valley.
Under DeWine’s order, the Ohio EPA and ODH have until Dec. 1 to develop an “action plan.” According to the release, the plan will contain a response strategy for working with communities and private well owners if “high levels” of PFAS chemicals are found.
Dan Tierney, press secretary for DeWine, said more details on where testing will occur, what chemicals will be included and what constitutes “high levels” of contamination will be determined by Ohio EPA and ODH. The agencies have also been asked to monitor new research and developments in the science, he said.
The U.S. EPA is currently evaluating if and how best to regulate PFAS chemicals. The agency has received criticism from some federal lawmakers for not moving fast enough. The agency in 2016 set a health advisory level of 70 parts per trillion for PFOA and PFOS in drinking water, however a report from the federal government’s Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry (ATSDR), found the chemicals can endanger human health at levels many times lower than that.
Some states have gone further. New York, New Jersey and Vermont, among others, have adopted drinking water standards for some PFAS chemicals lower than the EPA. In recognition of the widespread contamination of PFAS chemicals, some states, including Michigan, have conducted statewide testing.
Sampling of more than 1,700 public water systems in Michigan showed 90 percent of systems were not contaminated. Seven percent had PFAS below 10 ppt and three percent had levels between 10-70 ppt. Two systems exceeded EPA’s 70 ppt health advisory.
An analysis by the Environmental Working Group suggests up to 110 million Americans could have PFAS in their water. EWG reanalyzed data from private firm Eurofins Eaton Analytical, which conducted water sampling for the EPA’s third Unregulated Contaminant Monitoring Rule, or UCMR.
While contamination levels measured between 10-90 ppt were reported, the Eurofins data showed 28 percent of the water utilities it tested contained PFAS chemicals at concentrations at or above 5 ppt. The percentage of samples with PFAS detections nearly doubled when the laboratory analyzed down to 2.5 ppt, according to EWG.
The nearly two-month blockade of a Kentucky railroad track is coming to an end as unpaid coal miners end their protest in order to take new jobs, start classes, or move away from their coal-dependent communities.
When coal company Blackjewel abruptly declared bankruptcy in July, it left some 1100 Appalachian coal miners in Kentucky, Virginia, and West Virginia without pay. On July 29, five miners blockaded a train full of coal preparing to leave a Blackjewel facility in Harlan County, Kentucky. The miners’ rallying cry was “No Pay, No Coal.”
But after 59 days on the tracks, the protest is coming to an end.
Felicia Cress is married to a former Blackjewel miner, and has been at the protest since the first day.
“This happened because we got shafted, which happens all the time,” Cress said. “You got these rich people that s*** on these poor people, and people just overlook it.”
She said even though her family has to move on, the relationships forged through the protest will stay with her.
“It was a bad situation that made us come together, stay there day and night, through the rain, through the blazing sun,” she said. “We have now friendships, you know, we have a bond.”
Felicia’s husband is currently looking for work. She said her bank has threatened to foreclose on her home unless she finds money for her mortgage payment by Saturday.
Hundreds of Blackjewel miners in Kentucky and Virginia have still not been paid. But the protesters can claim some important victories.
West Virginia miners received owed wages earlier this month. The protest drew international attention, helped win miners a portion of their back pay, and highlighted the state’s failure to collect bond payments from companies like Blackjewel, as the law requires.
The train load of coal the miners blocked will remain where it is until a ruling from a West Virginia bankruptcy judge. That ruling is expected in October.
Two West Virginia lawmakers — a Republican and a Democrat — held a video conference Tuesday with middle and high school students across the state about a topic that’s not often given much attention in West Virginia: Climate change.
Democratic Del. Evan Hansen of Monongalia County and Republican House Speaker Roger Hanshaw of Clay County took questions from students about how climate change is affecting West Virginia and what lawmakers are doing to address it.
The webinar was part of a weeklong series of events and climate protests coinciding with the United Nations Climate Action Summit in New York Monday and a Global Climate Strike demonstration Friday. Hansen, an environmental scientist, is one of a handful of lawmakers, largely from the northern part of the state, who have pushed for action on climate change by the Legislature.
More than 30 classrooms and individual participants dialed in to speak with Hansen and Hanshaw who cordially answered questions from the Capitol in Charleston. Students posed a wide variety of queries to the lawmakers ranging from, “What can we do in school to make our Earth a better place?” to “How can West Virginia be a leader in climate change?”
The first question was from Mary Ellen Cassidy’s sixth grade class at Wheeling Country Day School. Students wanted to know what Hansen and Hanshaw deemed to be the “biggest environmental problem” facing humanity. They also wanted to know what problem they thought would affect society the most down the road.
Hanshaw, who has a PhD in chemistry and is a practicing attorney whose clients have included natural gas companies and gas lobby groups, answered first.
“I believe that it’s one that we’re going to … you may not think about immediately, but it’s our increased reliance on technological devices,” Hanshaw said. “And that’s a topic that may not seem immediately linked to the environment until you think about sort of the chemistry of electronic devices, and how do we power batteries.”
Hansen said ensuring West Virginia has clean water is a top challenge for the state.
“You know, we’re here to talk about climate change, and I think that’s the biggest global challenge that we face right now,” he added.
Searching For Common Ground
Throughout the video conference, ideological differences between the two scientists emerged.
While Hansen often invoked the scientific community’s understanding of climate change to answer questions, Hanshaw offered students a window in the ways lawmakers balance science and other competing interests when considering how to make public policy.
“One of the most challenging things that governments do — and it’s probably, again, true at every level of government, from city councils all the way to sovereign legislatures and sovereign states, to the Congress of the United States to the U.N. — is balanced competing interests,” Hanshaw said. “So, things that might seem obvious come with incredible consequences that sometimes haven’t been thought through.”
As Speaker of the House, Hanshaw helps set policy priorities in the Legislature. He alluded that current policy proposals to address the climate crisis, such as the Green New Deal, a sweeping idea that calls on the U.S. to transition away from fossil fuels such as coal and natural gas by 2030 and would offer billions in public works programs and aid, may have unforeseen consequences in West Virginia.
“So for us in West Virginia, the fossil industries are very important,” he said. “They fund the public school systems in many of our counties, and an abrupt, a rapid, transition away from that industry, or our reliance on it [has] the potential for devastating effects on local economies.”
“We have an opportunity now, if we participate in those discussions and negotiate well, where we can actually get millions of dollars invested back into West Virginia communities that are hardest hit,” said Hansen, referring to policy proposals that would address climate change. “We’re losing coal, and the[re is a] need for it to be a ‘just transition,’ so that we just don’t need coal miners and their families hanging.”
Some consensus around reforming the state’s laws around solar seemed to emerge. Hanshaw said he supported proposals to install solar arrays on abandoned coal mines. A bill Hansen sponsored last session that would have done that died in committee. West Virginia currently offers no incentives for investments in solar energy, and ranks 49th in the nation in installed solar capacity.
Justice Factor
Policy action to address climate change in West Virginia will be a tough sell without the support of Gov. Jim Justice. The governor went on Fox Business Monday evening and discussed the recent climate demonstrations that brought millions of young people from around the world into the streets demanding action.
“It’s a terrible shame,” Justice said as footage of protesting young people played. “It is just unbelievable that we have gotten to this level. And I don’t really blame the kids, I blame our leaders because they are misinformed.”
Meanwhile, if action isn’t taken to curb the use of fossil fuels and reduce greenhouse gas emissions, scientists expect temperatures to continue to rise, extreme weather to worsen, including droughts and floods. Rising seas will displace millions of people. In Appalachia,research showsthe region will largely become warmer and experience more intense rainfall, which could stress infrastructure and leave the regionvulnerable to flooding like was seen in 2016.
In his interview with Fox, Justice lambasted the Green New Deal and stoked fears that it would abruptly end the use of coal and natural gas.
“If you just cut off coal and cut off gas today, I mean, in 60 days we would have a total meltdown in this country,” he said.
Justice also said that despite the state’s reliance on extractive industries, “we have pristine air and pristine water.” A study released this week analyzed health-based violations of the federal law that protects drinking water. It found 36 of the state’s 55 counties among the top third worst-offending U.S. counties.
Students Weigh In
Credit Glynis Board / WVPB
/
WVPB
Wheeling Country Day School sixth grade teacher Mary Ellen Cassidy and her class participated in a climate webinar hosted by Dels. Evan Hansen and Roger Hanshaw on Sept. 24, 2019.
Inside Mary Ellen Cassidy’s classroom at Wheeling Country Day School, students watching the climate webinar were excited to speak directly to the people making the laws.
They were also worried about what a transition away from fossil fuels would look like.
“What will the people’s jobs be like?” asked student Victor Slack. “Will they put in solar panels for living after that?”
Other students expressed concerns about not taking action.
“So, we know if we don’t move away we know that Antarctica, in Alaska, and most of the cold places, are starting to melt,” said student Miriah Lane. “And the water level is rising. So, maybe it would rise too high, or maybe it would get too hot.”
West Virginia lawmakers are expected to discuss renewable energy at an upcoming interim meeting in November.
WVPB Assistant News Director Glynis Board contributed to this report.
A group of fourth and fifth grade students at Morgantown Learning Academy — a private, non-profit elementary school located in Monongalia County — are sitting at two picnic benches surrounded by a forested canopy on a recent Thursday. This isn’t a special field trip. Every Thursday, students spend part of their classroom time outside with Mountain Stewardship & Outdoor Leadership, or Mountain SOL.
Two streams — Lemon Creek and West Run — meander nearby the outdoor classroom. After a lesson on the basics, the students split into small groups, grab plastic probes the size of TV remotes and hop down into the creeks to take measurements.
“I think there’s a difference in opening up a science textbook and learning about water quality and looking at maps of a watershed,” Hannah Spencer said. Spencer is an instructor with and co-founder of Mountain SOL, an outdoor education program based in Morgantown.
“When you can go outside and be in your own watershed … I think it really brings it down to, to the level of ‘Hey, I have an impact here. And, you know, this is part of my responsibility, and I need to take care of it,’” she said.
Credit Jesse Wright / WVPB
/
WVPB
Hannah Spencer, co-founder and instructor at Mountain SOL, sits with some of her students Sept. 13, 2019, at Morgantown Learning Academy in Morgantown, W.Va.
Mountain SOL has partnered with Morgantown Learning Academy since 2014. Every week, teachers from Mountain SOL take every student out of their brick-and-mortar classrooms and into the woods.
The program reaches 200-300 students annually between its in-school programs at MLA and afterschool programs open to anyone between second and 12th grade. During afterschool programs, students learn outdoor skills like setting up shelters and building fires. In-school classes are shaped around the state-mandated learning standards.
“My favorite thing to say is that you can’t protect anything until you love it,” said Jen-Osha Buysse, co-founder and director of the program. “Mountain SOL is all about learning from a place of fun and adventure, and connecting new experiences and learning with coming from a place of passion.”
Buysse said she wanted to create a place where kids — and adults — could find joy in learning and caring for themselves and others in nature. The mountains of West Virginia, where she raised a baby, were an ideal place to create that space. The program was also shaped by Buysee’s experience spending two summers with the Huaorani people in Ecuador.
“I was absolutely floored by the level of responsibility that these young people showed, as well as the kindness, love, and teaching skill embodied by their elders,” she said. “I wanted to create a space in which we could inspire and trust young people in some of the same ways.”
Credit Jesse Wright / WVPB
/
WVPB
Mountain SOL student Hannah McKinstry builds a shelter in the woods during a Sept. 13, 2019, class.
Students are encouraged to take the lead outside. Kids are also given unstructured time to explore the natural world around them.
A study published in February found “particularly strong” evidence that experiences of nature boost academic learning, personal development, and environmental stewardship. In reviewing a series of studies on the impacts of nature-based learning, researchers found widespread evidence that experiences with nature boosted test scores, graduation rates, self-discipline and physical activity. Stress levels decreased and enjoyment of learning grew.
“It is time to take nature seriously as a resource for learning – particularly for students not effectively reached by traditional instruction,” the authors wrote.
Eighth-grader Braedyn Hill has participated in Mountain SOL programs for several years. He said every class is interactive.
“Every day is like its own separate adventure. You rarely get anything that’s the same,” he said. “It’s just having fun and enjoying yourself, but still getting the knowledge and information that you need to know to progress on in life.”
Credit Jesse Wright / WVPB
/
WVPB
Students in the Mountain SOL program help each other practice knot-tying Sept. 13, 2019, during a class on land the program leases from Morgantown Learning Academy.
Morgantown Learning Academy’s 12-acre campus is well-suited to incorporate outdoor education with its hiking trails, outdoor classroom and garden. Administrative Director Eve Ammons Ward said while the ethos of Mountain SOL is a great fit, it’s not without a few challenges.
“We bring a lot of mud inside,” she said, laughing. Experienced Mountain SOL parents often carry a “survival kit” in their cars, complete with trash bags to more easily deal with muddy kids.
Ammons Ward added that changes in student behavior are immediate and translate inside the classroom. Mountain SOL and MLA expanded their partnership this year to offer a forest-based pre-Kindergarten program called Little Acorns.
“Kids are more focused,” she said. “They’re ready to work, they’re ready to be engaged with their inside part of their education as well.”
Environmental groups have reached a settlement agreement with a petrochemical company in Ohio to beef up air pollution controls at a proposed petrochemical plant along the Ohio River.
Thailand-based PTT Global Chemical America and South Korea-based Daelim Industrial Co. have proposed building a multi-billion dollar ethylene cracker plant on a 500-acre tract of land in Belmont County, Ohio, just a few miles from Moundsville, West Virginia.
The plant would crack apart ethane — which is produced during natural gas fracking — into smaller molecules used in plastics and chemical manufacturing. The plant would produce an estimated 1.5 million tons of ethylene annually.
An air permit issued by the Ohio Environmental Protection Agency last December allowed the plant to emit 400 tons of volatile organic compounds and produce the equivalent carbon dioxide emissions of putting about 365,000 cars on the road annually.
The settlement signed Monday requires the company to use technology to find pollution leaks and repair them. The company would also install a weather station on site and create a website available to the public with emissions data.
In a statement, environmental groups praised the improvements, but remained opposed to the plant, which would be the second such facility in the region. About 30 miles northwest of Pittsburgh, Shell Chemical’s Monaca cracker plant is under construction. It’s slated to produce 1.6 million tons of ethylene each year and permanently employ about 600 workers when done, according to the company.
“This agreement will help protect local communities from dangerous air pollution should this facility be built, and we’ll continue to fight to ensure that it never comes to that,” said Sierra Club Organizer Cheryl Johncox.
Federal Support
A final investment decision by the project developer has not been made. Proponents envision the Ohio Valley as the next hub for plastics and petrochemical production, which they argue could drive investment and jobs to the region.
The Marcellus and Utica shale formations located in the Ohio Valley contain high levels of natural gas liquids, or NGL, which can be separated from their cousin methane to become valuable feed stocks for plastic and chemical production. A2017 U.S. Department of Energy report found U.S. NGL production in the region is projected to increase over 700 percent in the 10 years from 2013 to 2023.
“Federal efforts are strong and continue to gain momentum,” Steven Winberg, DOE’s assistant secretary for fossil energy, told the Joint Committee on Natural Gas Development. “We also recognize that others are doing a lot and we believe that together we can make this Appalachian petrochemical renaissance happen for the benefit of the industry, the region and the country.”
In addition to concerns over air pollution, those opposed to a petrochemical buildout in the region point to climate concerns. Areport released earlier this year by a coalition of environmental groups estimates production and incineration of plastics in 2019 will add more than 850 million metric tons of greenhouse gases to the atmosphere, or equal to the pollution of building 189 new coal-fired power plants.
The report projected by 2050, emissions from the entire plastics life cycle could account for as much as 14 percent of the earth’s entire remaining carbon budget.
An earlier version of this story incorrectly stated how many environmental groups were part of the challenge. It is three, not four.
