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 Charleston Metro Area ranked among the nation’s cleanest cities for ozone pollution in a report released Wednesday.
The Charleston Metro Area ranked among the nation’s cleanest cities for ozone pollution in a report released Wednesday.
The American Lung Association released its annual “State of the Air” report, which grades exposure to unhealthy levels in the air quality.
“It grades exposure to unhealthy levels of ground-level ozone, air pollution, which you and I might think of a smog, annual particle pollution, which we might think of as soot, and short-term spikes in particle pollution over a three-year period,” said Aimee Van Cleave, the advocacy director for the American Lung Association in West Virginia.
While the Charleston Metro Area earned an A grade, the Wheeling Metro Area earned a B grade, its best result for year-round particle pollution.
“It’s doing really well,” Van Cleave said. “So we’re finding really positively that folks in West Virginia are breathing some of the cleanest air in the country.”
The report looked at levels of ozone, or smog, the air pollutant affecting the largest number of people. Cities are ranked based on the area’s worst county’s average number of unhealthy days.
The Charleston metro area had zero unhealthy days per year. The Wheeling metro area had an average of 0.3 unhealthy days per year.
While West Virginia scored well, the rest of the nation did not. The report found that nearly four in 10 people live in places with unhealthy levels of air pollution.
Van Cleave said exposure to particle pollution can lead to lung cancer, asthma episodes, heart attacks, strokes, preterm births and impaired cognitive functioning later in life.
“We can encourage folks to go to airnow.gov, where you can see if you are having a poor-quality day, and then you can take precautions such as rolling up your car windows, not exercising outside, putting your air conditioner on recirculate,” Van Cleave said. “And then of course, taking extra precautions for children and people with lung disease.”
Van Cleave said climate change is making air pollution more likely to form and more difficult to clean up. She said people should check the air quality in their area before exercising outside and take action by signing a petition.
“What we’re asking folks to do to improve air quality, there are a number of things including calling on the EPA to set long overdue, stronger national limits on ozone pollution,” Van Cleave said. “Folks can also just look at the air quality in their area and make personal choices like biking or walking rather than using the car, those kinds of things.”
Appalachia Health News is a project of West Virginia Public Broadcasting with support from Marshall Health.
The EPA’s proposed consent decree would settle a lawsuit filed this month by environmental groups in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of West Virginia.
The U.S Environmental Protection Agency has proposed a settlement to a federal lawsuit over water pollution from coal mining.
The EPA’s proposed consent decree would settle a lawsuit filed this month by environmental groups in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of West Virginia.
It establishes total daily maximum loads for ionic toxicity in the lower Guyandotte watershed.
Ionic toxicity, dissolved mineral salts that result from surface mining, can impair aquatic life.
The West Virginia Rivers Coalition, the West Virginia Highlands Conservancy and the Sierra club filed the lawsuit on March 18. It named Adam Ortiz, the EPA Region 3 Administrator, as a defendant.
Attorneys general from West Virginia and Kentucky filed a lawsuit against the EPA over new air quality standards. They allege the standards burden manufacturing and infrastructure projects.
Attorneys general from West Virginia and Kentucky have sued the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) over a recent policy that raised air quality standards nationally.
Filed Wednesday, the lawsuit claims that adjusting to the new standard would financially burden manufacturing and infrastructure projects. EPA officials have said the new policy reduces major public health risks.
Controversy grew in February after the EPA lowered the maximum concentration for particulate matter in the air by 25 percent, requiring companies to reduce their levels of air pollution.
Particulate matter refers to particles invisible to the naked eye, like some forms of soot and smoke. When inhaled, these particles can cause eye, nose and throat irritation, blood abnormalities and even lung damage.
The EPA has stated that raising air quality standards will reduce these health risks and the costs associated with them.
EPA officials have already stated that all 55 counties in West Virginia already meet the new air quality standards. Some regions with major industrial activity, like parts of Pennsylvania and Ohio, might not.
But in a press release Wednesday, Morrisey said the new measure marks an EPA attempt “to advance [President Joe] Biden’s radical climate agenda.”
The new rule is being enforced by the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), a federal agency tasked with monitoring financial markets and watching for financial fraud. Companies are now being asked to estimate their potential greenhouse gasses to the SEC.
“How is the company supposed to know if greenhouse gas emission will affect its finances?” he said. “How many trucks are going to be too many? How much coal to use versus natural gas or other forms of energy?”
The lawsuit was filed on behalf of 24 states in the D.C. Circuit of the U.S. Court of Appeals.
Wednesday’s lawsuit also listed EPA Administrator Michael Regan as a defendant. Beyond the lawsuit, EPA intervention in state air pollution standards stands on shaky ground.
Last month, members of the U.S. Supreme Court heard arguments against another EPA policy from representatives of several different states, including West Virginia.
Some have said that the justices are poised to overturn that policy, which cracks down on the emission of air pollution across state lines. This could mark the thirdSupreme Court case lost by the EPA recently.
The EPA proposes a revision to its Mercury and Air Toxics Standards to lower emissions of nickel, arsenic and lead from coal-burning power plants.
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has proposed stricter standards on non-mercury metal pollution, and one West Virginia power plant may not meet the new requirements.
According to the agency, most West Virginia power plants can meet the new standard. However, the Mon Power Harrison Power Station in Harrison County may have to be upgraded.
The updated rule is under interagency review, according to the EPA. When implemented, power plant operators will have three to four years to comply.
Hannah Catlett, a spokeswoman for Mon Power, said the company reviews all new and proposed rules for operational impacts.
“As proposed, we do not currently believe that this rule change will have a material impact to the operations of the Harrison Station,” she said.
Those included Appalachian Power’s Philip Sporn plant in Mason County, the Kanawha River plant in Kanawha County and the Kammer plant in Marshall County.
The EPA estimates the original rule led to a 90 percent reduction in mercury emissions from coal plants by 2021.
The revised rule would reduce filterable particulate matter, including non-mercury metals, by 67 percent.
According to the agency, emissions of mercury and non-mercury metals can cause fatal heart attacks, cancer and developmental delays in children.
A bill that would restrict “rolling coal” — a form of protest in which drivers release thick clouds of smog from there vehicles — advanced in the West Virginia Senate on Monday, but not without pushback from some lawmakers.
A controversial bill that would prohibit “rolling coal” on roadways advanced in the West Virginia Senate Transportation and Infrastructure Committee on Monday — but not without pushback from some lawmakers.
Rolling coal refers to modifying diesel fuel in a motor vehicle in order to pollute the air with thick, dark smog. For years, rolling coal on highways has served as a display of allegiance to the coal industry in spite of mounting environmentalist pushback.
Elsewhere in the United States, lawmakers have restricted the form of protest in light of environmental, health and safety concerns associated with emitting a pollutant into the air.
Now, West Virginia legislators are considering their own restrictions on the practice. The West Virginia Senate is actively reviewing Senate Bill 436, which would render the contentious form of protest a misdemeanor.
The bill reached the Senate Transportation and Infrastructure Committee on Monday, where discussions focused on the safety risk associated with reduced visibility on West Virginia roads.
Sponsored by Sen. Jack Woodrum, R-Summers, the bill penalizes deliberately selling, making or using diesel additives to produce “visible smoke emissions.” It would apply to all motorized vehicles on public roadways, but not on private land.
The bill passed through the committee Monday but drew pushback from senators who described it as a crackdown on pro-coal West Virginians, or an unnecessary piece of legislation to focus on.
Rolling coal refers to the deliberate emission of thick, black smog from a motor vehicle. Credit: toa555/Adobe Stock
Sen. Robert Karnes, R-Randolph, was an outspoken critic of the bill during Monday’s meeting. Karnes alleged the pending law would suppress some West Virginians’ right to protest.
“People who are doing this rolling coal are simply expressing their support for West Virginia’s coal industry,” Karnes said. “This is an attack on people who support our coal industry.”
“We may not like that particular statement,” he continued. “But they have a right to express their political views.”
Others who voted to advance the bill said that, regardless of their own perceptions of the protests, the law would not mark a clear enough suppression of coal supporters’ rights to preclude it from further consideration.
“I don’t see this as an anti-coal bill,” said Sen. Glen Jeffries, R-Putnam.
Regardless, members of the committee agreed to scale back penalties for those who violate the law.
Under an earlier draft of the bill, repeat rolling coal offenders could face up to six months imprisonment. The committee deemed this excessive, and amended the bill so that violators would only incur fines up to $500.
With the committee’s approval, the amended bill will now return to the Senate where lawmakers will determine whether to send it to the House of Delegates.
