Gas Industry May Fight DEP Water Quality Plan
The Associated Press
7 October 2010
By The Associated Press
MORGANTOWN, W.Va. (AP) - The Department of Environmental Protection is
likely to get opposition from the gas industry next year as it tries to
sell lawmakers on standards for pollutants called total dissolved
solids in West Virginia waterways.
At the West Virginia Water Conference in Morgantown on Thursday,
attorney David Yaussey said the DEP's current recommended limit for
salts, chlorides and other dissolved solids is too strict. The 500
milligrams per liter threshold is stricter than what the Environmental
Protection Agency recommends, he argued, and essentially treats both
small streams and large rivers the same way - as public drinking-water
sources.
Yaussey, whose clients include the West Virginia Oil and Natural Gas
Association, said a level of 1,000 milligrams per liter or higher
"would be more appropriate."
But panel moderator Stephanie Timmermeyer, who ran the DEP for more
than five years, said she would have to disagree.
"Even if it is not a source of drinking water now," she said, "it could
be at some point in the future."
Scott Mandirola, head of DEP's Division of Water and Waste Management,
defended the proposal that was recommended earlier this year and is
currently circulating for public comment.
Regulators are particularly concerned about the concentration of solids
during the low water-flow period from July to October, he said. When
there is less volume in a waterway, pollution becomes more
concentrated, and total dissolved solids can harm aquatic life.
Dissolved solids come from a variety of sources, including coal mines.
They make water taste and smell bad.
They became an issue after Pennsylvania residents complained about the
quality of water in the Monongahela River. The anxiety intensified
after a massive fish kill last year on Dunkard Creek, a stream that
runs for 43 miles along the Pennsylvania-West Virginia border.
Investigators concluded that golden algae killed the fish, but
dissolved solids created conditions that helped that algae bloom
flourish, choking off oxygen to countless fish, mussels, salamanders
and other aquatic life.
Although the Monongahela has gotten the most attention, Mandirola said
it is behind four other waterways - some of which are public drinking
water sources - with significant levels of dissolved solids.
Dunkard Creek, the West Fork River, the Coal River and the Tug Fork
River all had higher levels than the Mon, Mandirola said.
"That's why we're going for a statewide standard as opposed to a Mon
River standard," he said. "... We're trying to be protective to keep
West Virginia waters suitable for consumption by citizens and industry."
Surface waters, he noted, are the main source of drinking water for 1.2
million people, or 67 percent of West Virginia's population.
Although Mandirola acknowledged the debate will really begin when
lawmakers take up the rules during their next session, "we wouldn't
have proposed it in standards if we didn't think it was a significant
concern."
To not act on the threat, he said, "would be irresponsible."