Environmental Quality Board Story Archives - West Virginia Public Broadcasting

Jefferson County Rockwool Facility Reaches Stormwater Permit Resolution

Danish insulation company Rockwool’s Jefferson County facility has reached a resolution with the nonprofit Jefferson County Foundation over two stormwater permit appeals the agency filed with the state’s Environmental Quality Board.

The appeals were filed by the foundation in response to permits granted in 2020 and 2021. The nonprofit said the permit applications for an Industrial Stormwater Permit (WVG611896) were inaccurate and incomplete.

The plant’s construction has been a source of concern for local activists who have argued that runoff from the facility could contaminate the area’s surrounding groundwater and air.

Some of the requests stated in the initial appeal included revisions that Rockwool’s property must be treated as a severe stormwater hotspot, an inventory of the types of materials handled and requiring the company to have a mandatory groundwater monitoring program.

Rockwool has committed to additional studies, inspections and drainage improvements as part of the resolution, according to a joint release.

“The Foundation and co-appellants appealed Rockwool’s stormwater permits because we were concerned that the DEP’s permitting process and Rockwool’s resulting permits were not adequately protective of the waters of the Eastern Panhandle of West Virginia and surrounding region,” Jefferson County Foundation President Christine Wimer said in the release. “After several years of litigation, and with the changes Rockwool has voluntarily agreed to make to its stormwater handling system, we feel the water protections are significantly improved. We would like to thank Rockwool for respecting our concerns and working with us to resolve these matters.”

“At Rockwool, we are constantly looking for ways to improve and upgrade our facilities as part of our deep-rooted commitment to environmental protection,” Rockwool Public Affairs Manager Paul Espinosa added. “We greatly appreciate how the Foundation worked with us in improving what was already a state-of-the-art stormwater handling system at our Ranson facility. For more than 80 years, Rockwool has partnered with the communities in which we operate, and we look forward to continued collaboration with the Foundation in the future.”

West Virginia Public Broadcasting reached out to both parties for further comment, but neither were able to comment because of their settlement agreement.

Commercial production at Rockwool’s facility in Ranson began in July of 2021.

W.Va. Officials: Water Regulations Hard to Enforce

West Virginia environmental officials say the state lacks a strong program to deter falsification of coal company water samples.

The Charleston Gazette reports that Department of Environmental Protection officials made that observation Thursday at a regulatory board hearing. The state Environmental Quality Board did not rule on an appeal by Appalachian Laboratories Inc., which lost its Clean Water Act certification after an employee pleaded guilty to falsifying water quality samples.

DEP laboratory auditor Tommy Smith said the agency doesn’t conduct field inspections to determine if water quality samplers are acting appropriately, which makes the sort of misconduct that took place in the Appalachian case hard to detect.

Scott Mandirola, director of DEP’s Division of Water and Waste Management, acknowledged that regulations should be modified.

DEP Environmental Quality Board to Hear Concerns About Lochghelly Waste Permit/Site

On Thursday the DEP Environmental Quality Board is expected to hear arguments from Tom Rist and the Rist Law Office is representing the Natural Resource Defense Council, WV Surface Owners’ Rights Organization, Plateau Action Network, and citizen Brad Keenan.

The groups are concerned about the permitting process of an underground injection well as well as the oil and gas waste disposal site in Fayette County.

According to a press release, the appeal challenges the DEP’s revocation order of a UIC permit issued for Danny Webb Construction, Inc. Back in March the permit for the well was revoked by the DEP. The groups say that while the revocation noted the problems, the issue is not directly addressed and no deadline was given.

The groups believe that the wells, are a hazard to public safety and fail to protect fresh water resources. The stream adjacent to the well site is a tributary of Wolf Creek, which flows into New River. Critics worry this could affect the drinking water of Fayetteville and surrounding areas.

A separate environmental group Downstream Strategies analyzed data of samples taken near the site. The data revealed that compounds of oil and gas waste that were found in the pits were also found around the site, but was inconclusive.

During the permit renewal process, the DEP said the company was allowed to accept waste. The groups disagree and say the operation of the well violates both state and federal law including the West Virginia Water Pollution Control Act and Groundwater Protection Act.

The hearing is scheduled for 11:00 a.m. Thursday at the West Virginia DEP office in Charleston.

West Virginia Official: People Are Inhaling Formaldehyde

By now, you’ve probably heard of crude MCHM, the chemical that spilled into the Elk River in early January contaminating the drinking water of 300 thousand West Virginians.

And may be you’ve even heard of PPH, the second chemical contained in the leaky tank at the Freedom Industries site.

But almost three weeks after the leak, how much do we really know about these chemicals?

Scott Simonton, vice chair of the West Virginia Environmental Quality Board, told a Joint Commission on Water Resources Wednesday, they still don’t know much, and they certainly don’t know enough.

Simonton said one of the biggest questions is what happens to these chemicals when they begin to react with the environment.

What happens when they mix with chlorine in the water treatment facility?

What happens when they mix with soaps or detergents in your home?

What happens when the human body metabolizes them?

Those questions, he says, don’t have answers.

But Simonton is starting to find the answers to some of those questions as he tests the water quality throughout the West Virginia American Water distribution system in the Kanawha Valley.

The testing is funded by a Charleston law firm, Thompson Barney LLC, which is also representing businesses that lost money because they couldn’t use water for days.

“Our concern was these breakdown products. We know for example that methanol can break down into formaldehyde,” he told the commission.

“Formaldehyde is a known human carcinogen. That’s important and so we thought, ‘wow, we should be looking for formaldehyde.’ Sure enough we have found formaldehyde in the water system.”

Test results were positive for the water at the Vandalia Grille in downtown Charleston.

Simonton said formaldehyde is most dangerous and most toxic when inhaled. Formaldehyde often leads to respiratory cancers. State health officials and representative of West Virginia American Water have refuted Simonton’s research on the matter, calling his remarks “mileading” and “unfounded.”

“We don’t know what the concentration of it is in air, but I can guarantee you that the citizens of this valley are at least in some instances breathing formaldehyde,” he said.

“They’re taking a hot shower, this stuff is breaking down to formaldehyde in the water system and they’re inhaling it.”

The new revelations and new information Simonton provided the commission is something Senate Majority Leader Senator John Unger said shocked him and his fellow lawmakers.

“The testimony today was quite disturbing and I think the entire commission was kind of put back quite a bit because that’s not the information we’ve been hearing as far as the news media,” Unger said, “and what he was testifying today was the hard truth and it definitely was difficult.”

Simonton told the commission the information state officials released in the days during the chemical leak, information about when the water was safe for use and consumption, he can’t find what evidence they had to back it.

“What concerns me is the information they were giving out as if they did know. They were saying ‘go ahead and drink it, it’s okay, it’s safe now.’ Well, we heard both on Friday from the Chemical Safety Board and from Dr. Simonton that it’s not safe to drink,” Unger said.

“I think that’s where the disappointment is that these authorities are saying things without the proper science to back it up.”

Unger said by allowing people to continue to consume and use the water without having that evidence could possibly be exposing more people to the chemical.

Tuesday, Senators passed Senate Bill 373 creating new regulations for similar above ground storage facilities and called it step one in preventing future water contamination, but Unger said figuring out the health effects, that has to be part of step one as well.

“We need to do it simultaneously. We need to be moving forward. The whole idea of Senate Bill 373 was to make sure that this doesn’t again anywhere in West Virginia,” he said. “Now we have to look at what do we do in response now that it’s happened and this is an ongoing situation that’s unraveling as we get more and more information and how do we help those people that have been exposed to it, which is all of us here in Charleston and the Kanawha Valley.”

Going forward, Unger said lawmakers will rely on the medical community to monitor and figure out ways to treat anyone exposed to the chemical.

His commission hopes to hear from the Department of Health and Human Resources on monitoring in the next week.