More pollution may make it to streams in the state after the House of Delegates passed a Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) rule package Wednesday.
The Engrossed Committee version of House Bill 2233 contains a change to permitting standards.
Del. Bob Fehrenbacher, R-Wood, voted in favor of the bill. He says the bill still puts multiple hurdles in front of entities that would discharge pollutants into rivers and streams.
He said companies would have to first put in an application to the DEP to change the category from A to something less.
“There’s a public comment period, followed by review by the DEP, followed by review by the federal EPA,” Fehrenbacher siad. “Then, frankly, it has to come back to the legislature as an emergency rule, at which time we could say, ‘Yes, we support this, or no, we do not’”
Del. Evan Hansen, D-Monongalia, introduced an amendment that would have changed the bill back to its original form, and thrown out the amendment that allows certain companies to apply for a permit to increase pollution into some streams.
“My amendment will bring it back to the original version,” Hanson said.
He said that Chemours, a chemical manufacturer, has been lobbying for many years to have this permitting process added. Fehrenbacher used to be employed by Chemours as a chemical engineer.
Del. Clay Riley, R-Harrison, urged legislators to vote no to the Hansen’s strike-and-insert amendment.
He said the bill won’t affect sources that are currently being used for drinking water.
“In accordance with the Clean Water Act, designated uses cannot be removed,” Riley said. “If there’s a public water withdrawal for public water supply on that stream, they can’t be changed.”
But Hansen said those are the wrong questions to be asking. While the bill may align with current EPA standards, it ultimately could lead to more pollutants in West Virginia rivers and creeks.
“The important question is on whether this bill, as it comes to us today, will this allow for more toxic pollution to be discharged into our rivers and streams? In fact, I will predict that in this debate today, nobody will contradict that statement,” Hansen said.
He said the pollutants are toxic to human and aquatic health.
“Category A is all about protecting human health. It’s all about those pollutants that are dangerous to people, and those pollutants are carcinogens. They cause cancer. It’s in black and white. It’s in the rule. It even has a footnote for the carcinogen. So you could go check yourself. I counted about 39 carcinogens that this bill will impact,” Hansen said.
Del. Sean Hornbuckle, D-Cabell, said that with the state already struggling to maintain clean drinking water, it should not be rolling back environmental protections.
“In my talks with those folks down there, and I’m sure the gentleman from the 36th could contest whether it was McDowell, Mingo, Mercer, Wyoming, Logan, they couldn’t even drink water. That water had black, orange, yellow sludge in it, no clean drinking water. And so again, any measure that this body can take to protect our drinking water, we need to act upon that,” Hornbuckle said.
The amendment failed, and the engrossed committee version of the bill passed. The next day, the full bill passed the House.
Richard Altizer is one of many residents in southern West Virginia that hails from a community that has largely lost access to clean drinking water.
He said his community has been facing multiple environmental issues that have harmed residents’ health. He said he has not had any help from the DEP.
“I’ve showed them to people, they don’t seem to care,” Altizer said. “The DEP broke their own regulations when they just piped it right into Indian Creek, which got into people’s wells. We have another community right around the corner that their wells were sunk, that nobody done anything about it. They had to spend thousands of dollars to redraw their wells and buy new filter systems, and now coal starting to come through their water again.”
Due to mining in the area, murky, slimy, and orange water has been coming out of the ground and flowing into nearby creeks and streams. Those streams, and creeks eventually meet with the Tug Fork and Guyandotte River which flow to the Ohio River.
He says with this ongoing crisis, it’s a major blow to have environmental regulations rolled back even more by legislators.
“I don’t know how any congressman can wake up in the mornings and decide that we’re going to pollute a river today,” Altizer said. “I just think to me that’s not a leader.
“A leader wakes up other mornings and asks, How can I make life better for people?” Alitzer said.
While that community is still looking for answers, this bill is headed to the Senate for consideration. The Senate has the ability to change the bill, or pass it as is.
