Superfund National Priorities List Story Archives - West Virginia Public Broadcasting

Judge Reverses School Closure Less Than Three Weeks Before Classes Resume

A Wetzel County circuit court judge has reversed the closure of Paden City High School, first ordered by the county superintendent under health concerns in June.

A circuit court judge has blocked the closure of a Wetzel County High School.

In June, Wetzel County Superintendent of Schools Cassandra Porter ordered the closure of Paden City High School (PCHS) under West Virginia Code § 18-4-10(5), citing conditions detrimental to health, safety or welfare of students.

On Wednesday, Wetzel County Circuit Court Judge C. Richard Wilson reversed the closure and prohibited Porter from closing the school after a petition for injunctive relief was filed by faculty, staff, parents and Paden City community members.

In his order, Wilson said groundwater contamination exists throughout Paden City from drycleaning chemicals including perchloroethylene (PCE). This contamination has led the city to use air strippers to filter PCE out of municipal water, as well as adding Paden City to the federal Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) list of Superfund sites in 2022.

However, Wilson stated in his order that no evidence of PCE being present in indoor air at concentrations above allowable EPA standards was presented to the court. In the order, Wilson cites testimony from Douglas Snider, an expert for the petitioners, that the highest sampling of PCE in indoor air in PCHS was reported at 0.02 parts per billion.

The order also states the EPA did not recommend the closure of the school and that its closure prompted an update to the agency’s website stating that “results consistently indicate there is no unacceptable risk to students.”.

Wilson went on to note that during the 2023-2024 school year, the Wetzel County Board of Education held public meetings to discuss the merger of PCHS with Magnolia High School. The board voted 5-0 to not close PCHS in September 2023.

Porter testified that the school closure was temporary, but that she did not know when the school would reopen and that “conditions at PCHS ‘could be’ detrimental to the health and safety of the population.” Wilson also cited that Porter “conceded during her testimony that she did not have any such testing or evaluation conducted at Magnolia High School.”

Wilson concluded that Porter did not have the statutory authority to close PCHS, and that the closure of the school “may jeopardize and threaten its students with eligibility to play in sports and be members of a marching band.”

PCHS was ordered to re-open immediately and be kept open “as if it never closed” with” all teachers, staff and faculty to be reinstated.” Wilson also ordered the West Virginia Secondary Schools Activities Commission to allow Paden City students to participate in activities normally.

The first day of school for Wetzel County Schools is Aug. 19.

It Took 41 Years To Add A Union Carbide Landfill To EPA Database. Why?

Five years after the site’s existence became publicly known as part of a federal lawsuit, it remains unclear who dropped the ball in failing to list the site as required by federal law.

After Congress passed the landmark Superfund law in December 1980, Union Carbide and other companies were required to report hazardous waste sites to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency by the following June.

Union Carbide’s Filmont landfill in South Charleston, then an active industrial waste disposal site, was not added to the EPA Superfund database until October 2022, more than 41 years later.

Five years after the site’s existence became publicly known as part of a federal lawsuit, it remains unclear who dropped the ball in failing to list the site as required by the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation and Liability Act – the longer name for Superfund.

“Both the state and the EPA have some culpability here for ignoring this problem for such a long time,” said Pat McGinley, a law professor at West Virginia University who specializes in environmental cases.

The U.S. District Court for the Southern District of West Virginia last September ruled that the landfill was an illegal open dump and that Union Carbide violated the Clean Water Act by failing to ask for a stormwater discharge permit for the facility.

Senior Judge John T. Copenhaver Jr. will soon decide how much Union Carbide, a subsidiary of Dow Chemical, will pay in civil penalties. The plaintiff in the case, Courtland Company, has asked for a judgment of $1.4 billion and that the EPA supervise the cleanup, rather than the West Virginia Department of Environmental Protection.

Union Carbide has asked Copenhaver to dismiss Courtland’s proposals.

Despite the quiet addition of the Filmont site to the Superfund database less than two years ago, the EPA, the WVDEP and Union Carbide have said it is not a Superfund site.

To be sure, it is not on the National Priorities List, which includes 1,300 of the most polluted places in the country – 11 are in West Virginia.

But Kelly Offner, a spokeswoman for EPA’s Region 3, which includes West Virginia, said it could qualify based on a future assessment.

“It’s in the hands of the state for now, but the option to exercise EPA resources and oversight through the Superfund program is there,” she said. “We generally consider a site a Superfund site once it’s utilizing EPA resources/oversight and on the (National Priorities List).”

Offner said that the agency does not have an immediate plan to conduct its own investigation.

For now, the site is part of WVDEP’s Voluntary Remediation Program. Union Carbide is paying for the work, including a licensed remediation specialist, David Carpenter, who testified in the Courtland lawsuit against adding the site to the National Priorities List.

Filmont was in operation from the 1950s to the 1980s, according to court documents and testimony.

WVDEP and some local officials knew about the Filmont landfill’s existence as far back as 2009, but there was no public mention of it until Courtland filed its first of four lawsuits in 2018.

And even then, it would be another four years before the site was added to the Superfund database.

McGinley said he sees a pattern of inaction on multiple levels.

“There’s a lot of history here of government inaction. And EPA is the agency of the ultimate resort here. I mean, they’re supposed to be reviewing what state agencies, how they carry out their responsibilities under federal law,” he said.

EPA, For Now, Defers To State Officials On Union Carbide Landfill Cleanup

Union Carbide is working with the West Virginia Department of Environmental Protection (WVDEP) on a voluntary remediation of the Filmont landfill. The site is the subject of an ongoing federal lawsuit over water pollution and was listed by EPA as a Superfund site.

This story has been updated to clarify the nature of the relationship between WVDEP and a licensed remediation specialist who is paid under contract by Union Carbide.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) said it is letting state officials supervise the cleanup of a South Charleston landfill and has no immediate plans to conduct an investigation of the site.

It was not, though, placed on the National Priorities List, which includes 1,300 of the nation’s most contaminated places, 11 of which are in West Virginia.

An adjacent property owner, Courtland Company, is seeking a $1.4 billion civil penalty against Union Carbide in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of West Virginia. It also seeks an injunction that requires EPA supervision of the cleanup.

Senior Judge John T. Copenhaver Jr. has yet to rule on Courtland’s proposals. Union Carbide has asked Copenhaver to dismiss them.

Last September, Copenhaver ruled that the Filmont site was an illegal open dump under the Resource Recovery and Conservation Act and that the company violated the Clean Water Act by not seeking a wastewater discharge permit for the facility, which operated for three decades.

Filmont is adjacent to Davis Creek, a tributary of the Kanawha River.

At the time, Mike Callaghan, an attorney for Courtland, called the ruling a “David versus Goliath victory.” At its peak, the company employed 12,000 workers in West Virginia, making it one of the state’s largest.

Though some state and local officials knew about the landfill for more than a decade, its existence wasn’t publicly revealed until 2019 after Courtland first sued Union Carbide.

Union Carbide, a subsidiary of Dow Chemical, has said the site poses no imminent or substantial harm to the environment or human health. Union Carbide did not respond to a request for comment.

Terry Fletcher, a spokesman for the WVDEP, said the inclusion of Filmont in the Superfund database does not affect the ongoing voluntary remediation of the site. He added that the agency is coordinating with the EPA.

Kelly Offner, a spokeswoman for the EPA’s Region 3, which includes West Virginia, said the agency added Filmont to the Superfund Active Site Inventory in 2022, working with DEP.

She said the EPA has no immediate plans to conduct a preliminary assessment of the site.

“The EPA will continue to support the WVDEP on their site investigation,” she said.

The WVDEP is working closely with Union Carbide.

David Carpenter, a licensed remediation specialist who testified that WVDEP could complete the work faster than the EPA, works for a company called ERM. His work on the Filmont remediation is paid for by Union Carbide under contract with the state. He also testified that the Filmont site does not meet the criteria to be placed on the National Priorities List, which the EPA oversees.

Additionally, WVDEP project managers who perform oversight of the remediation work are paid by Union Carbide.

Fletcher said the arrangement is required by state law. He said the structure ensures that the financial burden of the remediation is kept off taxpayers, while keeping the Voluntary Remediation Program viable.

EPA Lists Union Carbide South Charleston Landfill As Superfund Site

An ongoing case in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of West Virginia will determine whether Union Carbide, a subsidiary of Dow Chemical, will pay civil penalties.

This is a developing story and may be updated. The original story misstated the number of National Priorities List sites in West Virginia. It has been corrected.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has listed a closed Union Carbide landfill in South Charleston as a Superfund site, joining some of the most contaminated places in the country.

An ongoing case in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of West Virginia will determine whether Union Carbide, a subsidiary of Dow Chemical, will pay civil penalties.

Courtland, a property owner that sued Union Carbide, is seeking a $1.4 billion civil penalty against the company over pollution resulting from the dumping of toxic material. Courtland also has sought an injunction from the court that would put the cleanup under EPA supervision.

The Courtland and Union Carbide Filmont sites are directly beside Davis Creek and close to where the creek enters the Kanawha River.

Illustration by Eric Douglas

Last year, Senior Judge John T. Copenhaver Jr. found that the site, called the Filmont landfill, was an illegal open dump under federal law. He also found that Union Carbide violated the Clean Water Act by failing to seek a stormwater discharge permit for the facility.

Copenhaver dismissed two of Courtland’s four lawsuits against Union Carbide.

Last month, Union Carbide asked Copenhaver to reject the civil penalty and the injunction.

The company has said it’s pursuing a voluntary remediation with the West Virginia Department of Environmental Protection that would achieve the same goals as an EPA-supervised cleanup and would take less time to complete.

Pat McGinley, a law professor at West Virginia University who specializes in environmental law, said the Superfund listing could affect the outcome of the case.

“It brings EPA into the process of determining the appropriate remedial action,” he said, “obviously not what the defendant prefers.”

In a court filing dated April 30, Mike Callaghan, an attorney for Courtland, noted that the Superfund listing did not place the Filmont site on the National Priorities List. That list currently includes 1,340 of the most polluted sites across the country. Eleven are in West Virginia.

However, Callaghan noted that the EPA intends to conduct a preliminary assessment on the site, where Union Carbide had dumped various contaminants from the 1950s to the 1980s.

“Counsel is further exploring the significance of this site being listed under EPA’s Superfund Site Information and the impacts that may have on this litigation,” Callaghan wrote.

The Superfund program was created by Congress in 1980 after one of the most famous toxic sites in U.S. history, the Love Canal neighborhood in Niagara Falls, New York.

West Virginia Public Broadcasting has asked Union Carbide, the EPA’s Region 3 office and the WVDEP for comment.

Hearings Set To Determine If Paden City Utility Are Distressed Or Failing

The Public Service Commission (PSC) of West Virginia will hold public comment and evidentiary hearings Jan. 11, 2024, to determine whether the City of Paden City and Paden City Municipal Water Works is a distressed or failing utility.

The evidentiary hearing begins at 10 a.m. at the Paden City Municipal Building, 208 W. Main, Paden City. A public comment hearing will be held that same day at the same location beginning at 5:30 p.m.

The PSC opened proceedings on Nov. 3 into complaints about Paden City’s water and sewer systems. The preliminary investigation revealed that for years residents have dealt with contaminated water from a chemical called Tetrachloroethylene or PCE that is commonly used in dry cleaning. The United States Environmental Protection Agency added the Paden City Groundwater site to the Superfund National Priorities List, a list of hazardous waste sites eligible for remedial cleanup funding, in 2021. The EPA considers PCE as likely to be carcinogenic to humans.

According to PSC documents, two of the utility’s three air strippers – used to remove PCE from water – failed in 2018 and 2019. Although one of the strippers was repaired, levels as high as 21 parts per billion (ppb) of PCE have been recorded, above the federal maximum of 5 ppb.

The PSC filings detail a more recent incident in 2023, when a bypass valve for the air stripper failed, allowing a large percentage of water to bypass the air stripper unit and enter the finished water system.

The city filed a response on Nov. 20 that it is not a distressed utility and is not in “continual violation” of statutory or regulatory standards. It also said it took proper steps to remove PCE from its distribution system. This includes applying for emergency funding through USDA Rural Development as well as an application with the Emergency and Imminent Community Water Assistance Grants Program after excessive PCE levels were detected in 2018.

Both systems serve customers in Wetzel and Tyler counties. The City of Paden City is a municipal utility that provides service to 1,262 sewer customers; and Paden City Municipal Water Works provides water service to 1,204 customers.

Honeywell, Olin To Pay To Clean Up Superfund Site Near Moundsville

The EPA and the West Virginia Department of Environmental Protection reached a settlement with the two companies.

Two chemical companies will pay for the cleanup of a Superfund site along the Ohio River.

Honeywell and Olin will pay at least $8 million to clean up a contaminated site south of Moundsville, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency said on Tuesday.

The EPA and the West Virginia Department of Environmental Protection reached a settlement with the two companies. The actual cleanup cost could be more, the EPA said.

Mercury and chloromethane are the primary contaminants in the soil and groundwater at the site, and the cleanup will contain and remove it.

The Hanlin-Allied-Olin Superfund site is named for the various companies that operated there for the past 70 years. Allied is now part of Honeywell.

The site was added to the Superfund program’s National Priorities list in July 1999. Superfund sites are federally designated abandoned or uncontrolled hazardous waste sites.