May 19 WV-DEP Water Quality Standards Public Meeting
West Virginia Environmental Council Action Alert
5 May 2010
The West Virginia Department of Environmental Protection’s Water
Quality Standards Program is having a public meeting to discuss issues
related to the agency’s "Triennial Review" of the state’s water quality
standards.
The meeting will take place Wednesday, May 19, from 1:30 PM to 3:30 PM
in the Coopers Rock conference room of the Department of Environmental
Protection, located at 601 57th Street SE, Charleston, WV.
Staff from the Water Quality Standards program will discuss proposed
updates to legislative rule 47CSR2 “Requirements Governing Water
Quality Standards” which will include changes to the criteria for iron,
total dissolved solids, nutrients and other parameters to protect the
state’s waterways.
The "Triennial Review" of a state's water quality standards is a
requirement of the federal Clean Water Act. This is the first
meeting the agency has held on these proposals since they were first
discussed at a preliminary meeting almost a year ago. At that
time DEP Office of Water and Waste Management personnel said they were
considering weakening the standard for mercury pollution because West
Virginian's don't eat much fish caught in West Virginia waters.
They also said they were considering weakening the standard for iron in
Category B-2 "trout waters".
They also discussed the problem of "nutrients" in state rivers and
streams (nitrogen and phosphorous), but had no water quality standards
in mind for those pollutants at that time. The final issue
discussed was a possible statewide water quality standard for "total
dissolved solids" (TDS), which is primarily comprised of sulphates from
mining operations and chlorides from a variety of sources, including
oil and gas drilling operations.
Following the May 19 meeting, DEP will announce its proposed rule
changes and will hold a public comment period and public hearing on
those proposed changes.
Quite frankly, this is a woefully inadequate method of developing
regulatory policy designed to protect the state's invaluable water
resources. The agency has not had any further public discussion
about these water quality standards for almost a year. When water
quality rules were developed by the Environmental Quality Board,
monthly meetings were held to discuss the proposed changes. It
appears that DEP, now that it has the rulemaking authority, has decided
it wants only minimal input from the public or the polluters.
However, this is the hand the Legislature has dealt us. So if you
have concerns about the state's water quality standards, I encourage
you to attend the meeting on May 19.
Donald S. Garvin, Jr.
WVEC Legislative Coordinator