waste management Story Archives - West Virginia Public Broadcasting

DEP Halts Drilling Waste Disposal in Bridgeport

West Virginia regulators want to know how drilling sludge rejected by a landfill in Pennsylvania wound up in a landfill in Bridgeport.

Department of Environmental Protection spokeswoman Kelley Gillenwater says the agency ordered the Meadowfill Landfill to stop accepting the sludge until the agency determines why the Arden Landfill in Chartiers, Pennsylvania, rejected it.

The sludge came from a Range Resources natural gas drilling operation in Pennsylvania.

Range Resources spokesman Matt Pitzarella says the Pennsylvania landfill found the waste contained radioactive materials slightly above background levels. He says the levels weren’t unsafe.

Waste Management owns both landfills.

Waste Management spokeswoman Lisa Kardell says a new West Virginia law requiring radiation monitoring of drilling waste at landfills doesn’t go into effect until Jan. 1, 2015, allowing the Bridgeport site to collect the waste.

Judge Allows Hurricane Landfill Probe to Proceed

A Putnam County judge has ordered a Hurricane landfill where wastewater from a Charleston chemical spill was dumped to produce documents sought by the city of Hurricane in its investigation.

Circuit Judge Phillip Stowers ruled Friday that Hurricane has a right to protect its citizens under the state home-rule law. The Charleston Gazette reports Stowers still must decide how much power the city has in the investigation it launched last month into the Disposal Services landfill owned by Waste Management.

More than 40,000 gallons of wastewater mixed with sawdust from the cleanup of the Freedom Industries site in Charleston is being stored at the landfill.

The dump refused to allow Hurricane to complete its investigation. Landfill attorneys say they don’t believe Hurricane had the authority for the investigative order.

State DEP Asked to Void Chemical Wastewater Dumping Permit

The state Department of Environmental Protection is being asked to void a permit that allowed wastewater to be transported from the site of a Charleston chemical spill to a Putnam County landfill.

The Charleston Gazette reports the county and the city of Hurricane made the request last week.

Hurricane Mayor Scott Edwards says he wasn’t told about Waste Management’s plan to dump the material mixed with sawdust at the Disposal Services landfill. The water contains traces of the crude MCHM that spilled Jan. 9, contaminating 300,000 people’s drinking water for days.

Putnam County Commission President Steve Andes says an injunction will be sought if DEP does not comply.

DEP spokeswoman Kelley Gillenwater said in an email that all regulatory requirements have been met, and there is no cause to rescind the permit.

DEP seeks comment on a watershed management plan

The state Department of Environmental Protection is putting together a plan to manage pollutants in a northern West Virginia watershed. This plan will have a key role in the health of the waterways.

The plan is called a Total Maximum Daily Load plan; it establishes limits for how much pollutants can be in streams listed as impaired. These pollutants include: total iron, chlorides, and dissolved aluminum. DEP’s TMDL’s program manager Dave Montali says it takes time to develop plans like this one.

“Universally across our state, we have bacteria; water quality impairment is fairly common. We also have sediment related problems from iron, basically everywhere we monitor. In the Mon watershed, we have some legacy mine drainage issues,” he said.

This particular watershed stretches from the Fairmont area up to the Pennsylvania state line. There are several hundred streams in the watershed. Montali says this particular TMDL plan addresses tributaries of the Monongahela River, but not the mainstem itself.

“Water quality in a watershed, in a community, affects everybody. It affects their health, it affects their economic growth, it affects population,” said Timothy Denicola.

Timothy Denicola works with the Friends of Decker’s Creek. Decker’s Creek is one of the water bodies in the Mon River Watershed. He says TMDL plans play vital roles in the long-term life of an aquatic community.

“The TMDL is the tool or the template by how we maintain healthy aquatic communities. It is the means by which a healthy ecosystem is maintained in a watershed and subwatersheds,” said Denicola.

The agency is now taking public comments on the plan. Public comments are accepted until the 16^th. The DEP will submit its final draft proposal on TMDLs to the Environmental Protection Agency, following the end of the public comment period.