Union Carbide has asked a federal judge to reject the proposed penalty, as well as Courtland’s proposed injunction under the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act.
Union Carbide has asked a federal judge to reject a proposed settlement over a landfill site in South Charleston.
Last year, U.S. District Judge John T. Copenhaver Jr. ruled that the Filmont Landfill in South Charleston was an illegal open dump under federal law and that Union Carbide violated the Clean Water Act by failing to seek a permit for the site.
Union Carbide has asked Copenhaver to reject the proposed penalty, as well as Courtland’s proposed injunction under the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act.
That injunction would mean the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency would supervise the cleanup of the site.
Union Carbide is working with the West Virginia Department of Environmental Protection on a voluntary remediation plan. The company says Courtland’s proposal would delay the cleanup of the site.
Union Carbide cited testimony from David Carpenter, a licensed remediation specialist, that the voluntary program under DEP could get the site remediated by the end of 2026.
Carpenter testified that Courtland’s proposed injunction would extend the process by five to eight years.
The EPA’s program, the National Contingency Plan, is meant for sites that pose an imminent danger to the public, Carpenter said, and that the Filmont Landfill was not such a site.
A landfill that discharges stormwater into navigable U.S. waterways must seek a permit under the Clean Water Act. Filmont is adjacent to Davis Creek, a tributary of the Kanawha River.
As many as 90 postal workers could have their jobs affected by the downgrading of a West Virginia mail facility. This figure is higher than union representatives anticipated.
As many as 90 postal workers could have their jobs affected by the downgrading of a West Virginia mail facility — a figure notably higher than union representatives previously anticipated.
The United States Postal Service (USPS) announced Tuesday that it would carry out plans to transfer outgoing mail processing from the Charleston Processing and Distribution Center to facilities in Pennsylvania.
The decision followed months of deliberation, as well as intense pushback from union workers and state officials concerned with the fate of West Virginia’s only full USPS processing center.
Tim Holstein, vice president of the Charleston-based American Postal Workers Union Local 133, has been an outspoken opponent of the downgrade.
He said union workers worried that more employees would be impacted than the USPS initially estimated. “Multiple members could possibly be relocated or moved out of state, possibly uprooting families and lives,” he told West Virginia Public Broadcasting in February.
When the final report came out on Tuesday, Holstein said workers’ fears were actualized.
In January, the USPS released an initial report that estimated changes to the facility would bring a net decrease of 24 postal workers.
At a first glance, that number is similar to the net decrease of 23 postal workers from the final plans released in April. But the final report also included a breakdown omitted from the initial report.
This laid bare the full extent of changes in store for workers, Holstein said.
Forty-one career employees — 28 career mail processing clerks and 13 career maintenance workers — could be transferred out of the Charleston facility.
In calculating a net decrease, the USPS offset this number with employees gained at the Pittsburgh-area facilities. But Holstein said transferring facilities is not a simple process, and that it might not be a viable option for some employees.
“It’s very difficult to uproot your family and your life, especially if you’ve lived in a particular area, and move to another place that has a higher cost of living,” he said.
The report also said that 25 postal support employees and 24 mail handler assistants could lose their positions. These are non-career roles, which lack the protections of career positions and can be terminated by the USPS.
Positions At Stake
Position
Number Of Workers Affected
Eligible To Be Laid Off?
Mail Processing Clerks
28
No
Postal Support Employees
25
Yes
Mail Handler Assistants
24
Yes
Maintenance Workers
13
No
According to the United States Postal Service, a total of 90 workers at the Charleston Processing and Distribution Center could have their positions affected in the months ahead. Graphic Credit: Jack Walker/West Virginia Public Broadcasting
Together, that means a total of 90 career and non-career workers could be impacted through transfers and layoffs, respectively.
Holstein said that by providing just one number — the net decrease — the USPS misrepresented changes to the facility. The net figure was nearly four times lower than the cumulative number of positions impacted.
In an email to West Virginia Public Broadcasting, USPS Spokesperson Susan Wright did not address these claims.
However, she wrote that numbers included in the initial report were based on USPS estimates at the time.
Wright also wrote that “all bargaining employee reassignments will be made in accordance with the respective collective bargaining agreements.”
Still, Holstein said that the release of the final report reignited concerns over USPS transparency among workers.
While the net employee decrease was included prominently on the report’s third page, the full breakdown was included pages into the report, with terms and figures Holstein described as convoluted.
Hours after the report came out, Holstein said he had to pull out a pencil and perform arithmetic to fully grasp the number of positions affected by the downgrade.
“Once you get deeper into the math, you’re finding out that they’re using a net combined number that makes it more palatable for the public … in hopes that we’re not going to start digging into the numbers,” he said.
Union representatives were not alone in expressing disapproval of the final plans. Sen. Shelley Moore Capito, R-W.Va., released a statement Tuesday expressing concern over how many workers could be impacted.
“I am disappointed that USPS has decided to move forward with plans to shrink the role of the Charleston facility,” she said. “It is also very disappointing to see the number of jobs impacted by these changes has grown from USPS’s initial findings.”
While the USPS describes their plans as final, Holstein said he and fellow workers will continue to challenge them within the boundaries of their positions.
“The fight is not over,” he said. “Until we start to see a relocation or the non-career employees let go, we’re still on the fight. We’re still going to give it 100 percent.”
Tim Holstein said he had to do handwritten arithmetic to understand the full extent of staff changes at the Charleston Processing and Distribution Center. Photo Credit: Tim Holstein/American Postal Workers Union Local 133
Amid controversy surrounding the potential closure of West Virginia’s only mail processing center in South Charleston, the Senate unanimously passed a resolution expressing their support of the center’s preservation.
A controversial plan to move West Virginia’s only mail processing center to neighboring Pennsylvania brought a storm of backlash for the United States Postal Service (USPS).
The fallout in late 2023 led USPS officials to suggest instead downsizing the South Charleston center, and moving select operations out of state. But lawmakers are critical of the idea because of the economic opportunities the center currently provides.
On Friday, the West Virginia Senate unanimously passed Senate Resolution 16, which expressed support for the center’s preservation in Kanawha County.
Sen. Eric Nelson Jr., R-Kanawha, said that the center’s location in West Virginia reduces shipping times for West Virginia, and provides important employment opportunities for West Virginia families.
“We’ve talked about so many economic benefits of new jobs here in the last three or four years,” Nelson said during the Senate’s legislative session on Friday. “Well let’s talk about job retention: 800 jobs and their families and those that they touch.”
The USPS will host a meeting at the Charleston Coliseum and Convention Center on Jan. 30, where it will accept public comments on current plans.
Nelson encouraged fellow lawmakers to attend the meeting and show their support for local postal workers.
GreenPower will get $18.5 million from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to build 47 electric school buses at its South Charleston plant.
GreenPower Motor Company will receive a federal grant to build electric school buses for nine West Virginia districts.
GreenPower will get $18.5 million from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to build 47 electric school buses at its South Charleston plant.
The award is part of nearly $1 billion in nationwide investment in clean school buses under the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act of 2021.
GreenPower recently delivered its first electric buses to four West Virginia counties.
The 47 buses will go to Kanawha, Lewis, Calhoun, Clay, Grant, Harrison, Monongalia, Cabell and Mineral counties.
More funds are available for schools to replace diesel-powered buses. The EPA is accepting applications for its 2023 Clean School Bus Rebate program until Jan. 31.
As part of its ongoing lawsuit against Union Carbide, the Courtland Company asked U.S. District Judge John T. Copenhaver Jr. to collect soil samples at UCC’s Filmont Landfill in South Charleston.
A federal judge has denied a company’s request to inspect and test property owned by Union Carbide.
As part of its ongoing lawsuit against Union Carbide, the Courtland Company asked U.S. District Judge John T. Copenhaver Jr. to collect soil samples at UCC’s Filmont Landfill in South Charleston.
This week, Copenhaver denied the request, siding with UCC. UCC had argued that Courtland would have access to the data it has collected as part of its voluntary remediation of the site, under the supervision of the West Virginia Department of Environmental Protection.
The trial is now in its penalty phase. In September, Copenhaver ruled that UCC violated the federal Clean Water Act by not having permits for stormwater discharge and that the landfill was an illegal open dump. UCC could face fines of $64,618 per day per violation.
The parties participated in an 18-day bench trial last year in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of West Virginia, where Copenhaver is a senior judge.
Union Carbide, now part of Dow chemical, operated the Filmont landfill from the 1950s to the 1980s. The property borders Davis Creek, a tributary of the Kanawha River, and Courtland’s property in South Charleston.
Both companies may have to pay remediation costs, but only UCC faces potential civil penalties.
The case has been active since 2018. The general public had no knowledge of the Filmont Landfill until Copenhaver unsealed documents the following year that revealed its existence.
According to testimony in the trial, a handful of local officials and the state DEP were previously aware the landfill existed and was possibly contaminating soil and water in the area.
The next phase of the trial could take place early next year.
On Wednesday, the company delivered smaller Nano Beast buses to Kanawha, Clay, Cabell and Monongalia counties.
GreenPower delivered its first four school buses to West Virginia school districts on Wednesday.
Fraser Atkinson, CEO of GreenPower, notes that the school bus we’re boarding got 170 miles out of a single charge, exceeding its advertised range of 140 miles.
GreenPower will begin building more of these buses, called the BEAST (Battery Electric Automotive School Transportation), in South Charleston in January.
On Wednesday, the company delivered smaller Nano BEAST buses to Kanawha, Clay, Cabell and Monongalia counties.
Taking a ride, the first thing you notice about the Nano BEAST is how quiet it is. No roaring diesel engine, transmission or exhaust.
The bus is so quiet, company officials say, that the classroom behavior of special needs students has improved because of it.
Instead, the fuel comes from a lithium iron phosphate battery, the same kind now used in Teslas.
The biggest power consumption other than running the bus? The heater.
“The traction motor, the drive motor is number one, of course, and the heaters are number two,” Atkinson said. “The AC draws very little in the summer.”
What about those mountains in West Virginia? Atkinson explains that with the right kind of driver training, the downhill portion of the trip can actually put power back into the battery.
“The other thing is that you use the brakes a whole lot less than a traditional vehicle,” he said. “And with really good drivers it can be literally a third of the usage of brakes compared to the equivalent.”
Right now, the battery is a big-ticket item. A battery pack for the bus can cost $20,000 and last for about 10 years. Atkinson says the cost will come down.
“So if that trend continues, in five years, the batteries will cost a whole lot less,” he said. “Then in 10 years, they’ll be a fraction of what they are now.”
The charging infrastructure has a way to go. Kanawha County took delivery of its first bus Wednesday, but it doesn’t have a charger yet. It’s been ordered, Superintendent Tom Williams says.
The Mega BEAST could solve that. GreenPower will begin manufacturing it in South Charleston and California next year. Its battery will be capable of 300 miles on a single charge. The company calls it the longest range on the market.
With that kind of range, a field trip from say, Wheeling to Charleston might not be that remote.
