WV Legislature to Examine Regulating Water Quality Standards
West Virginia Public Broadcasting
31 December 2009
By Ben Adducchio
Monongalia County Delegate Barbara Evans Fleischauer plans to
reintroduce a bill this session regulating the amount of total
dissolved solids in the state’s waters.
In September, a fish kill wiped out the aquatic life in Dunkard Creek,
a stream that meanders between West Virginia and Pennsylvania.
State officials say toxins from a golden algae bloom were the culprit.
The golden algae is foreign to the Mid-Atlantic states.
“The conditions that cause these things to bloom is high saline water.
They are in salty water, but they have a real wide range of
conditions,” said Frank Jernejcic, a biologist with the West Virginia
Division of Natural Resources.
“We measure salinity by conductivity, which we can measure very easily.
On Dunkard Creek, we have very high conductivities of the water.”
Jernejcic says it is difficult, if not impossible, to determine how the
golden algae came to Dunkard Creek.
“The golden algae may have been in the stream for a number of years. We
have never investigated it, we’ve never sampled for it,” he said.
“What we have learned is that they could actually be deposited from
airborne currents, they could have come from anywhere by the air, and
they could have been in the stream for a long time until the conditions
were just right.”
The kill eliminated the creek’s mussel population and at least 20
species of fish.
High levels of total dissolved solids called TDS contributed to the
high conductivity.
In West Virginia, there is no standard regulating how much TDS can be
in the stream.
People quickly asked questions about how the water grew so
salient. Delegate Barbara Evans Fleischauer is one of them.
“What the concern is the TDS level creates the conditions for golden
algae. We’ve never had golden algae in the state of West Virginia,” she
said.
“In fact, it’s never been in any of the Mid-Atlantic States until this
particular stream. You have to say why Dunkard Creek? Why not any other
place?”
During the 2009 session, Fleischauer introduced a bill that would set
standards.
It failed, but in 2010, Fleischauer says she will resume the charge.
“We are going to have a much more emphatic drive to get it through the
House and through the Senate,” she said.
“We hope to have different groups, both in industry, because we know we
need to have some consensus on the bill to get it to pass.”
Fleischauer’s bill will establish water quality standards for total
dissolved solids at 500 milligrams per liter. This is the standard in
nearby Pennsylvania.
The bill would also ensure all discharges within any West Virginia
stream would comply with the TDS standard.
Information would also be collected regarding all water withdrawals
from streams.
“We think that it’s reasonable to adopt a standard of 500 and also to
regulate the amount of water that is taken out of our streams and
rivers and the amount of fluid that is put back into it,” Fleischauer
said.
Dunkard Creek Watershed Association President Betty Wiley agrees.
“What we need to do is number 1, get legislation to solve this
problem,” she said.
“You have to clean up the water. In order to have clean water, you have
to have a law, and enforce the law.”