Environmentalists Urge Tougher Water Standards
Charleston Gazette
19 July 2010
By Ken Ward Jr.
CHARLESTON, W.Va. -- Environmentalists said Monday evening that a new
water quality standard proposed by West Virginia regulators isn't
nearly stringent enough.
Don Garvin, lead lobbyist for the West Virginia Environmental Council,
said the standard for total dissolved solids (TDS) pollution in state
rivers and streams isn't as stringent as what is recommended by the
U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.
Garvin also outlined other steps that he said the state Department of
Environmental Protection should have taken as part of its latest
proposed changes to state water pollution limits.
"This is just not enough," he said during a DEP public hearing on the
proposal, slated for submission for review by lawmakers during next
year's regular session.
Garvin urged DEP to also consider adding language to require state
permits for large-scale water withdrawals from state streams and
adopting an EPA proposal for limiting the electrical conductivity of
waterways.
The DEP proposal for TDS, unveiled in late May, would set a legal limit
for total dissolved solids in waterways of 500 parts per million. It
would apply in-stream to waterways statewide, making it more stringent
than the existing standard in Pennsylvania, which applies a standard of
500 parts per million only at the intake pipes for public drinking
water systems.
But Garvin said the federal EPA recommends an even tougher standard of
250 parts per million, and that the state DEP has given no clear reason
for not adopting the federal recommendation.
Environmental groups and industry are closely watching the DEP action
on dissolved solids, which are made up of various salts -- such as
chlorides and sulfates -- that are dissolved in water. At high enough
levels, such pollutants can be dangerous to aquatic life and can make
water used in drinking supplies taste and smell bad.
DEP officials have considered the proposal for more than a year
already. Their studies were prompted by TDS problems that brought
complaints about unpleasant odors and tastes in drinking water drawn
from the Monongahela River in the fall of 2008.
Last fall, a massive fish kill in Dunkard Creek along the Pennsylvania
border was blamed at least in part on TDS pollution.
High levels of TDS can come from a variety of sources, including
coal-mining discharges. Some citizen groups have become increasingly
concerned about TDS from the disposal of fluids from large-scale oil
and gas drilling in the Marcellus Shale formation.
West Virginia currently has no TDS limits in its water quality
standards.
At Monday's public hearing, Morgantown City Councilman Don Spencer said
his council had passed a resolution supporting DEP taking action to put
a TDS limit in place.
Ted Armbrecht, a member of the state Environmental Quality Board, urged
DEP to move more quickly to limit nutrients like nitrogen and
phosphorous that he said are adding to the pollution problems in the
Chesapeake Bay.
Armbrecht said West Virginia political leaders and regulators need to
realize that clean water can be a major economic development tool.
"Water is the resource of the 21st century, and we have it," Armbrecht
said.
Lew Baker of the West Virginia Rural Water Association said that DEP's
proposal for a TDS standard is a "blunt instrument" and that the agency
would be better off adopting specific standards for irons that make up
dissolved salts, such as bromide.
Several industry officials attended Monday's meeting. They did not
publicly voice their views on the DEP's proposals.
Previously, industry members of the DEP Advisory Council pushed a
recommendation that the agency weaken its TDS standard by having it not
apply only at the intake of public water supplies.
DEP spokeswoman Kathy Cosco said her agency would consider that
recommendation as part of its review of other public comments.
Reach Ken Ward Jr. at kw...@wvgazette.com or 304-348-1702.