UPDATED: http://www.charlestondailymail.com/...
The sweet smell of licorice is lingering in the March air as once again, our chemical industry is careless with crude MCHM. This time the feds are out investigating the Diversified Services this evening, where the Freedom Industries sent some of their material after the January leak. And folks wonder why we need a new law.
Good news is that this is downstream of the Elk River water intake for West Virginia Water.
Delegate J.B. McCuskey, R-Kanawha County asked this question to support adding early monitoring for chemical spills back to the state law proposed here in WV to respond to the Crude MCHM spill into the Elk River in January 2014.
The House passed a provision that would require West Virginia American to install an early warning monitoring system that could alert plant operators to the presence of contaminants in source water.
That requirement had also been in an earlier version of the bill, but was removed by the Finance Committee after West Virginia American gave lawmakers an information sheet arguing that the required technology was not feasible, too onerous and expensive.
If the requirement does, in fact, prove unfeasible, the water company must report back to the legislature by next year with suggested alternatives.
link
The Spill Bill to regulate storing chemicals in above ground storage tanks has pased a unanimous vote in the House of Delegates late last night. I would like to think that the bill is better. It is not over until it is over, since it now has to have differences ironed out with the Senate version of the bill and pass by Saturday night, when the legislature leaves town.
The approved bill mandates that there be long term followup of the health if those exposed to the chemical crude MCHM. This provision kept being put in and taken out, since some suggested there was no need to actually legislate that this study be performed. However this became a key rallying cry for folks and it was returned to the final bill.
Unfortunately, a provision to permit citizens to sue their water company, nearby chemical tank-owners, the Bureau for Public Health or the DEP to enforce the provisions of the bill was stripped from the final bill.
For more details, read on below the "yellow boy" squiggle.
The bill requires annual inspection of above ground storage tanks and funds the inspection through a fee imposed on the tank owners. They don't want to double charge those with gasoline and oil tanks that already pay some fees, but they did remove fee exemptions for coal companies (you think!). Now every state water company needs to have a spill response plan. They need to have either a second intake or several days of emergency tank storage if possible.
The bill exempted chemical companies from FOI inquiries to protect "Homeland Securities". Like Terrorists are the problem here and not the under regulated, inept corporations.
And in other water pollution news, Alpha Natural Resources Inc. will pay a $27.5 million fine and spend about $200 million to implement wastewater treatment systems under a proposed settlement with the U.S. government over toxic discharges from its mines in five states, including West Virginia. All these discharges are just since 2006. http://www.bloomberg.com/...
And the coal companies are still trying to avoid EPA regulating mountaintop removal stream destruction since a judge ruled against the Bush 2008 rules link.
SO the abundant water of the mountains of Appalachia remain under threat from many sources, but folks are starting to wake up to the real threats.
5:08 PM PT: