Water Quality Standards Story Archives - West Virginia Public Broadcasting

Bill For Air, Water Quality Rules Heads To Full House

The House Judiciary committee passed a rules bundle Tuesday afternoon, revamping air and water quality rules for the state.

The 10 rules will arrive as one bill in the full House of Delegates with a favorable recommendation from the committee for passage.

Among those rules is 47 CSR 02 for water quality standards, which was the subject of a public hearing Monday involving more than 30 participants. Most speakers opposed this legislation.

This water quality rule adopts roughly 24 out of 94 recommendations for pollutants that the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency first made in 2015.

Nearly half of those 24 rules strengthen regulation. The other half weaken it.

“We are a science-based organization whenever possible, particularly with water quality standards,” said Scott Mandirola, deputy cabinet secretary for the West Virginia Department of Environmental Protection, in testimony to the House Judiciary committee.

According to Mandirola, the recommended new rule for water quality standards involved input from an advisory group of stakeholders, including the West Virginia Manufacturers Association and the West Virginia Rivers Coalition.

That advisory group is still evaluating more than 30 other recommendations from the EPA that the Legislature will consider during a different session.

Mandirola also told committee members Tuesday that the EPA gets the final say on whether West Virginia can implement these rules, should the full Legislature pass the bill into law.

“They’re going to go through what we proposed, what we ended with and why, and we’ve got to justify how we went through that process scientifically,” Mandirola said. “If they don’t approve of our changes, those changes do not go into effect, even though they may be state law.”

Parts of this rule for water quality standards would allow for more carcinogens, which either cause cancer or are suspected of causing cancer, in West Virginia waterways.

House Judiciary committee members rejected a request from Del. Chad Lovejoy, D-Cabell, to scrap those recommendations and stick to the state’s existing, more stringent regulation of carcinogens.

“I don’t think that it’s good policy to take affirmative action to increase the amount of carcinogens,” Lovejoy said.

Republicans who opposed Lovejoy’s amendment said they believed the process that was used to come up with these rules was rooted in science.

“The EPA still has to adopt our rules,” said Del. Steve Westfall, R-Jackson. “No matter what’s in this bill or how it passes, if they don’t like it, they don’t approve it and we have to go back.”

The bundle’s nine other rules update wastewater regulation and air quality standards.

The legislation moves onto the full House of Delegates next, where lawmakers will consider sending the bundle to the Senate.

Emily Allen is a Report for America corps member.

W.Va. House Judiciary Committee Holds First Public Hearing Of 2021 On Water Quality Bill

Legislation in the House of Delegates would update water quality standards by adopting a quarter of recommended rules for pollutants that the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency created in 2015.

Representatives for companies regulated by these rules, like the West Virginia Manufacturers Association, say House Bill 2389 is “scientifically defensible” and reasonable.

Meanwhile, environmental advocates argue that the bill is an incomplete effort, incorporating several new rules that would weaken existing water quality standards and ignoring dozens of other EPA recommendations to increase regulation.

“We’re really shifting the burden onto our public water systems to treat for a higher levels of toxins and carcinogens in our water,” said Angie Rosser, executive director of the West Virginia Rivers Coalition. “That cost, eventually, for that treatment, gets passed on to customers. So we are paying the price for the cost of relaxing standards that benefit polluting industries.”

Rosser was one of several advocates who spoke to the House Judiciary Committee Monday, during the first virtual public hearing of the 2021 legislative session.

The committee heard from watershed organizations, environmental lobbyists, religious leaders and tourism businesses Monday morning, who participated in the hearing. They argued that House Bill 2389 would endanger public health, putting thousands of West Virginia residents at risk for more harmful water pollutants.

“In a state blessed with beautiful rivers and plentiful fish, where we are encouraging tourists to come and enjoy our waters, shouldn’t we try to make our waters cleaner and safer so that residents and tourists can safely eat the fish out of our rivers?” asked Autumn Crowe, treasurer for the Greenbrier River Watershed Association.

Speakers, many of whom have ties to the West Virginia Rivers Coalition, also said the bill could discourage people from visiting and living in the state.

“As a guide and as a white water rafting company owner, I know what clean water means to this state,” said Paul Breuer, who created the Mountain River Tours for white water rafting, one of the four founding groups behind Adventures on the Gorge. “Tourism is growing. This beautiful state can handle a lot more tourists, if they know the water is clean.”

The bill addresses 24 out of 94 recommendations for water pollutants the EPA made under the Obama administration in 2015.

The West Virginia Department of Environmental Protection approached the West Virginia Legislature in 2018, with requests to adopt at one point more than 50 of the EPA’s suggestions.

Upon objections from representatives for groups regulated by this bill, like manufacturers and coal companies, the Legislature passed Senate Bill 163, giving the DEP until April 2020 to come back with new recommendations.

Jason Bostic, vice president of the West Virginia Coal Association, defended the process that led to the legislation. He described a working group of lawmakers and industry representatives, all of whom he said studied the original recommendations from the EPA before deciding what to include in new bill.

“I think it’s also critical that West Virginia consider the appropriateness of any proposal from the federal Environmental Protection Agency before adopting federal standards wholesale, as some would advocate,” Bostic said.

The House Judiciary committee is the first to hold a virtual public hearing this year. Not only do temporary pandemic-related House rules allow for online hearings, but they also allow committee chairs to deny requests for hearings, based on resources, staffing and timeliness.

Normally, committee chairs are required by House rules to offer public hearings on legislation, as they’re requested.

There were at least 30 participants Monday from all over the state, all of whom delivered two-minutes statements. At one point, legislative staff reported more than 100 viewers of the event on YouTube.

Emily Allen is a Report for America corps member.

State Oil And Gas Office Faces Budget Shortfall, Anticipates Layoffs

The state agency tasked with regulating oil and gas permitting, inspections and the plugging of abandoned wells is facing a major budgetary shortfall and is expecting to cut staff by more than 35 percent.

James Martin, director of the Office of Oil and Gas for the West Virginia Department of Environmental Protection told members of the DEP Environmental Protection Advisory Council Tuesday that permit requests from the industry were down substantially this year. The Office of Oil and Gas receives the bulk of its funding from permitting fees.

“It’s going to be a big change for us,” Martin said. “I’ve never really experienced this, certainly during my time in state government nothing to this kind of degree.”

Martin said the office is expecting to cut staff “across the board” from roughly 40 to about 25 employees. That cut includes inspectors, he said.

The revenue shortfall is tied to a decline in new drilling activity. Last year, Martin said the agency had between 35 and 40 permit requests. In March and April the office saw just six and five permits, respectively. The oil and gas industry has been hit hard by the coronavirus pandemic.

Angie Rosser, director of the conservation group, the West Virginia Rivers Coalition, said the agency’s current financial challenges highlight why the Office of Oil and Gas needs to diversify its funding stream.

Last year, the Legislature failed to pass a series of bills that would have funneled more money toward the office.

Water Quality Standards

The advisory council, which was created by statute in 1994 to help advise the DEP on program and policy development, also voted to create a new subcommittee that will spend the next year reviewing the science surrounding a multi-year battle to update the state’s water quality standards.

The rules govern the amount of pollution that can be discharged into the state’s streams and rivers. WVDEP first proposed revising the human health criteria in the state’s water quality standards in 2018. The agency proposed updating standards for 60 pollutants in line with 2015 suggestions made by the U.S. EPA. Two-thirds of the updates limit the amount of certain chemicals that can be discharged into rivers and streams. One-third allowed more pollution to enter rivers and streams

The proposal sparked controversy, most notably pushback from the West Virginia Manufacturers Association. In 2019 the Legislature adopted a bill that required WVDEP to hold off on updating the standards until 2021 and go back to the drawing board.

This April, the agency said it would adopt 24 of the EPA’s proposed updates. That includes weakening some standards. Environmental groups asked the agency to strengthen all pollution criteria.

Laura Cooper, assistant director of the WVDEP’s Division of Water and Waste Management, told the council on Tuesday the agency is moving forward incrementally with the updates in the hopes it will ameliorate some of the previous controversy that plagued the water quality standards.

The new subcommittee would address the 70 remaining human health criteria. It would consist of WVDEP staff and members of the advisory council would meet monthly for one year and review the latest science on human health criteria.

“We’d engage in discussion, give open feedback to each other and listen to each other and discuss and really come up with what West Virginia sees as the policy that we want moving forward and be able to recommend something to the secretary by May of next year,” Cooper said. “Again, this is not an open ended thing. It’s just one more year to look at these with detail.”

Rosser, with the West Virginia Rivers Coalition, said the idea that WVDEP would continue to study the human health criteria after looking at the issue for years seemed like a stall tactic.

“We put a lot of resources and money to fully participate in these three years of public input and now we’re being asked to participate in another year,” Rosser said. “It puts us at a disadvantage. We don’t have the resources to hire additional staff to do this.”

WVDEP Releases Draft Water Quality Standards Update

The West Virginia Department of Environmental Protection this week released a long-awaited plan to update the state’s water quality standards.

The rules govern the amount of pollution that can be discharged into the state’s streams and rivers.

The agency first proposed this revision of human health criteria in the state’s water quality standards in 2018. WVDEP originally proposed updating standards for 60 pollutants in line with 2015 suggestions by the U.S. EPA. Two-thirds of the updates made it so less of certain chemicals could be discharged into rivers and streams and one-third loosened pollution levels.

The proposal sparked controversy, most notably pushback from the West Virginia Manufacturers Association. The state Legislature in 2019 adopted a bill that required DEP to hold off on updating the standards until 2021 and go back to the drawing board.

The agency’s new proposal, released this week, would adopt 24 of EPA’s proposed updates. That includes weakening some standards. Environmental groups asked the agency to strengthen all pollution criteria.

The proposal is open for public comment. And a virtual public hearing is scheduled for May 19 from 6 p.m. to 8 p.m.

WVDEP to Hold Public Meeting on Water Quality Standards

The West Virginia Department of Environmental Protection is holding a public meeting Tuesday to collect and share information about the revision of human health criteria in the state’s water quality standards.

The meeting will be held from 2 to 4 p.m. Tuesday, May 14 at DEP’s headquarters in Charleston in the Coopers Rock Training Room.

According to the agenda, the purpose of the meeting is for agency officials to present information, answer questions and take public input about the revision of human health criteria in the water quality standards.

The rules govern pollution discharge into the state’s streams and rivers.

DEP’s proposed updates to the state’s water quality standards sparked controversy during the 2019 legislative session.

After more than a year of public comment and deliberation, the agency last summer proposed updating standards for 60 pollutants in line with 2015 suggestions by the U.S. EPA.

After much debate, the Legislature ultimately adopted a bill that contained no changes to the water standards. The move was supported by many of the state’s manufacturers.

W.Va. House Energy Committee Passes Stripped-Down Water Quality Standards

A West Virginia House committee on Tuesday, Feb. 19, voted down an amendment that would have restored the state’s water quality standards to the version originally proposed by state environmental regulators last summer.

The House Energy Committee rejected an amendment by Del. Evan Hansen, a Democrat representing Monongalia County, that would have re-inserted 60 proposed human health water quality standard updates into the state rules that govern pollution discharge into the state’s streams and rivers.

The Water Quality Standards rule within SB 163, formerly SB 167, has been embroiled in controversy since lawmakers first considered it in the Senate Rulemaking Review Committee in late November.

At the behest of the West Virginia Manufacturers Association, the committee agreed to remove 60 updates to human health standards that the West Virginia Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) had proposed.

Since then, the 60 updates were added back in by the Senate Energy, Industry and Mining Committee and then removed again by the Senate Judiciary Committee.

The full Senate passed a committee substitute created by the Judiciary Committee on a 20-12 vote earlier this month. Under the committee substitute, the updates were removed and a two-year timeline was established in which DEP must propose updates to the rule’s human health criteria.

The bill states DEP must propose updates to the human health criteria in the rule before April 1, 2020 and put them out for public comment. The agency will submit the proposed updates for consideration by the 2021 legislative session.

The House Energy Committee Tuesday afternoon took up the committee substitute after two brief recesses to get the correct bill language in front of the lawmakers.

Failed Amendment

The committee heard testimony from DEP, West Virginia University Public Health Professor Michael McCawley and industry representatives.

In his line of questioning with DEP Deputy Cabinet Secretary Scott Mandirola, Hansen, a recently-elected delegate from Morgantown and environmental scientist, highlighted the years-long process the agency underwent before proposing its original draft rule in July.

Under the federal Clean Water Act, each state must write its own water quality standards rules, but receives guidance and final approval from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. In 2015, the EPA released 94 updated human health criteria.

After review, the DEP proposed adopting 60. Two-thirds of the updates made it so less of certain chemicals could be discharged into rivers and streams and one-third loosened pollution levels.

State environmental regulators began contemplating EPA’s updates in late 2015. The process included multiple public comment opportunities.

“Since 2015, we had, our water quality standards program has looked at those to try to figure out [sic] what variables changed in each of the compounds to determine the changes that were made,” Mandirola said.

Hansen also asked Mandirola about how the agency deals with regulating some pollutants set at levels within the water quality standards that make them hard to detect during testing.

Manufacturers have expressed concern they may not be able to comply with DEP’s proposed updates to human health criteria because some may set pollutant levels so low they cannot be detected through testing.

Mandirola noted that under the current water quality standards, some pollutant levels are set to levels that cannot be detected by a lab and the agency has a protocol in place to deal with them. He said, under the proposed updates, some pollutant levels would also be hard to detect.

“If you’re asking are some of the criteria currently below the limit of detection, and are some of the updates will they also still be below detection, yes,” Mandirola said.

The Dow Factor

Hansen also asked Mandirola about a spreadsheet DEP put together analyzing some of Dow Chemical’s permits issued under the current water quality standards rule. The company, which operates at three facilities in South Charleston, had previously expressed concern about the updates when the rule was being debated in the Senate.

Mandirola said the agency reviewed “a couple of permits” issued to Dow to see the impacts of the proposed changes. He said with the exception of a few phthalates, which were broken out from one category into five separate chemicals in the new proposed updates, it appears Dow’s current permits would sufficiently allow the company to comply with the proposed changes to the rule.

“We identified a few other compounds that could potentially be issues, but the majority of the 60 compounds we didn’t see a glaring issue with,” Mandirola said.

A lawyer speaking on behalf of Dow Chemical told the committee the company was unable to send a representative to testify and she could not answer questions, but would take written questions to the company and provide answers at another date.

Hansen’s amendment drew fierce opposition from some in the committee.

House Energy Committee Vice-Chairman Del. John Kelly, a Republican from Wood County, said adding the 60 proposed updates back into the rule was not necessary because most states across the country haven’t adopted EPA’s 2015 updates.

He listed a series of trade associations and companies that he said opposed the rule, including the West Virginia Manufacturers Association, West Virginia Coal Association, West Virginia Chamber of Commerce, Chemours, DuPont, Dow Chemical, Mountain State Carbon and Westlake Chemical.

“This amendment is a job killer,” said Del. Eric Porterfield, a Republican from Mercer County.

In his closing remarks before the committee voted on his amendment, Hansen expressed frustration that the company that was previously vocally opposed to the updated water quality standards wasn’t present to take questions before the House Energy Committee.

He noted adopting the updated human health criteria, as DEP has recommended, is keeping with the most up-to-date science.

“Some of these rumors that are floating around that this is going to kill jobs or rumors that these are going to cause certain facilities to move out of the valley we have nothing on the record — It’s just rumors right now,” Hansen said. “And it’s unfortunate because we had an opportunity to get something on the record today, but I was told I couldn’t ask those questions. I have to submit them in writing, and we need to get the answers after we vote. And I don’t think that’s right.”

SB 163 now heads to the House Judiciary Committee before being considered by the entire body.