Water Quality Goes Mainstream
Challenge to balance waterways’ use with environmentally sound
practices in news
Morgantown Dominion Post Editorial
2 August 2010
Our newspaper’s pages runneth over with stories about water quality.
Last week, we published at least four such significant stories.
In Preston County, rumors were swirling around about plans to build a
disposal site for residual brine from drilling operations, while a
public hearing in Kingwood is set to discuss pollution limits in the
Cheat River watershed Tuesday.
Here in Monongalia County, a federal agency hosted an open house on an
environmental impact statement it will use to rewrite rules for
protecting streams and a recent survey of fish in Dunkard Creek shows
many species have reappeared there nearly a year after a massive fish
kill.
Though opinions vary on what these stories indicate or suggest, one
thing is apparent: Water quality has become an increasingly important
and complicated issue that’s no longer just the province of government
agencies, industries and environmentalists.
This issue has gone mainstream. While the concerns of many about water
quality still boil down to what comes out of the tap, for many others
their interests go much further. And these interests are more often
than not competing for use of this resource, and West Virginia is
becoming increasingly aware of its value. A value that must continually
be balanced with the needs of mining, other industries, developments,
communities and for recreation, while ensuring the quality of our water
supplies remains environmentally sound. That may sound simple enough,
but it’s about as challenging as monitoring a drop of dew’s progression
into the torrents that spill through the Morgantown Lock and Dam. One
issue we think threatens this balance is the impact of Marcellus shale
natural gas drilling in our state. Although there are efforts afoot to
address this form of drilling — legislation narrowly failed in the
Legislature last spring — it remains a top concern. However, by and
large, the approach to most water quality issues should be simply
communicating and educating all sectors about how best to restore
overly polluted waterways while not allowing others to become so. We
maintain that commerce on our waterways can coexist with recreational
boaters. That anglers can continue casting along rivers that support
industry. Water quality literally has a trickle-down effect that not
only affects everyone’s livelihood, but everyone’s quality of life, if
not life itself. This issue has by no means run its course in our
pages. If anything, water quality has just begun to make headlines.