West Virginia Department of Environmental Protection Story Archives

W.Va. Receives $30 Million To Revitalize Coal Communities

This year, nearly $30 million in federal funding will go toward projects that revitalize West Virginia’s coalfield communities and repurpose abandoned mine lands across the state.

In an effort to repurpose abandoned mine lands, state officials have granted millions of dollars in federal funding to community development projects on former West Virginia coalfields.

The funding was secured in the latest round of the Abandoned Mine Land Economic Revitalization (AMLER) Program. Since 2016, the program has provided federal dollars to community and economic development projects that rehabilitate coalfields, as well as the towns surrounding them.

West Virginia has hundreds of abandoned coal mining sites, with an estimated 173,000 acres of land across the state abandoned before 1977 alone.

For 2024, West Virginia was granted just under $30 million through the U.S. Department of the Interior’s Office of Surface Mining Reclamation and Enforcement (OSMRE), which oversees the program.

This year’s funding marks the most West Virginia has received since 2016, the first year of the program.

With OSMRE’s final approval still pending, West Virginia officials said that this year’s funding would be divided between 10 different economic development initiatives across the state.

Projects selected for funding by state officials this year include a cattle processing facility in Brooke County, a sports park in Marion County and a heritage center in Ohio County.

Announced Thursday, the following projects were tapped for AMLER funding this year by the West Virginia Department of Environmental Protection, the West Virginia Department of Commerce, the West Virginia Department of Transportation and the Governor’s Office:

Chief Logan Resort and Recreation Center, Logan County: $6,800,000
West Virginia Farm Foods, Brooke County: $4,000,000
City of Thomas Water Improvement Project, Tucker County: $3,000,000
Cleanwater RU2 Process Project, Kanawha County: $2,950,000
Ashland Resort Tourism Park, McDowell County: $2,993,500
Liberty Station Lodge & Tavern, Mercer County: $2,421,968
Opal Smith Highwall and Roanoke Center Expansion, Lewis County: $2,406,739
Gravity Adventure Park, Kanawha County: $2,163,954
Wheeling Heritage Center, Ohio County: $2,011,172
Baxter VFD Sports Park, Marion County: $600,000

Agencies Investigating Dust Cloud In Eastern Panhandle

The West Virginia Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) is investigating the appearance of dust clouds across multiple counties in the state’s Eastern Panhandle.

Inspectors were mobilized to collect samples and identify potential sources after receiving reports late Thursday night.

The source has not been identified and no shelter in place advisories have been issued for the area.

“We have staff on site who are coordinating with our state and local partners to identify the material and any potential causes,” said DEP Division of Air Quality Director Laura Crowder.

The DEP is working with the Berkeley County Office of Emergency Services and the state Department of Agriculture to collect additional samples and have them analyzed.

Samples will also be taken to the West Virginia Geological and Economic Survey in Morgantown to determine if the cause of the dust is related to recent dust storms in the Midwest.

The West Virginia Department of Agriculture, West Virginia Emergency Management Division and the Berkeley County Sheriff’s Office are also investigating the situation.

Union Carbide, DEP Agreement To Lower Emissions In Institute

The West Virginia Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) has signed an agreement with Union Carbide Corporation to further reduce ethylene oxide emissions at its facility in Institute, Kanawha County.

Scott Mandirola, deputy cabinet secretary for the DEP said this agreement establishes new requirements above and beyond state and federal regulations.

“The new regulations are expected to identify and fix leaks 50 to 1,000 times lower than what was required by current regulation,” Mandirola said.

The agreement also requires a site-specific screening program for railcars containing ethylene oxide in its service.

Mandirola said Union Carbide will continue to work with the DEP and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to develop improved monitoring for ethylene oxide emissions around the facility.

“The West Virginia Department of Environmental Protection conducted a short term ethylene oxide air monitoring project in 2022,” said Mandirola. “Which sampled seven sites in and around the chemical facility in Institute in South Charleston over four 24 hour periods.”

A public meeting on the final report will be held Thursday, March 2, from 6-8 p.m. at the Wilson Union Hall on campus at West Virginia State University.

The agency’s final report on the project is now available on the DEP’s website.

State Preparing To Expand Dilapidated Properties Project

The state is preparing to expand its dilapidated properties program.

In late September, Gov. Jim Justice announced $9.2 million for 21 communities participating in the pilot Dilapidated Properties Program.

Just two months later, the state is sending out a survey to all 55 counties and 168 municipalities looking to expand the program and help more communities remove abandoned structures.

“It’s a program that’s been established to assist communities, municipalities and counties all over West Virginia, and dealing with the issue of abandoned and dilapidated structures and properties in their own communities,” said Ed Maguire, the environmental advocate for the West Virginia Department of Environmental Protection (WVDEP).

He said the program’s aim is to help revitalize communities by repurposing a limited local resource.

“Structures that had been built historically are concentrated on the rare percentage of the landscape that’s actually flat you can build on,” Maguire said. “There’s not been anybody to come along with the funding to enable those structures to be removed so that then that flat ground could be made available for new use by others.”

Maguire pointed out that efforts to address dilapidated structures, in West Virginia and nationally, have existed before the West Virginia Legislature passed Senate Bill 368 in 2021, which authorized the WVDEP to develop a statewide program. In particular, he points to the complicated process of using funding that has federal components.

“Bottom line, we’re providing funding to them,” Maguire said. “The communities will go out, get their own bids, or have the properties taken down, and then we will reimburse them for their expenses.”

Local communities should respond to the survey by 5 p.m. on Friday, Jan. 6, 2023.

“We’re going to go through the process to do the inventory work and additional screening to add more communities for an expanded program,” Maguire said. “This is not a short term, one year kind of a deal. This could take millions of dollars over a number of years, but we’re off to an effective, good start and pretty excited.”

Weekend Tire Collection Events Set In W.Va. In June

Four weekend tire collection events are being held around West Virginia in June.

The Department of Environmental Protection said two events will be held June 4 at Lincoln County High School in Hamlin and at Leslie Equipment in the Webster County community of Cowen. There are other collections June 11 at the Kenton Meadows Warehouse in the Braxton County community of Gassaway and on June 18 at Erickson Field in Parkersburg.

Individuals can dispose of up to 10 tires per person. The tires must be off the rims and only car and light truck tires will be accepted, the DEP said in a news release.

A list of other tire collection events can be found on the DEP website.

Abandoned Mine Land Development Grants Available In W.Va.

Federal funding is available for economic development projects along abandoned mine lands in West Virginia.

The state Department of Environmental Protection’s Office of Abandoned Mine Lands and Reclamation is taking applications for part of $35 million in grant funding for such projects.

The DEP says projects must be located on or near mine sites that stopped operations before the 1977 signing of the Surface Mine Control and Reclamation Act.

A map of such known sites is available on the DEP’s website along with the grant application and other resources. Completed applications are due by June 20.

Projects must be approved by the U.S. Office of Surface Mining, Reclamation and Enforcement. A state advisory committee is responsible for determining project eligibility and advancing recommended projects to the federal level, the DEP said.