Wednesday was “E-Day” at the state capitol, as environmental interest groups gathered in the rotunda. Even so, the testimony of a lobbyist from the West Virginia Environmental Council went largely ignored in an Energy, Industry and Mining Committee meeting.
The bill under consideration would allow coal companies until July 1, 2012—more than two years after the current deadline—to comply with selenium standards established by the state Department of Environmental Protection.
Selenium is a naturally-occurring element that ends up in rivers and streams when rock and soil from mountaintop removal sites are discarded.
In small amounts, it is harmless, but some studies have found that it is toxic to aquatic life and humans in larger amounts. State officials have found fish samples taken from Mud River, close to a large surface mine site, exhibiting deformities.
Secretary Randy Huffman says the does not support the bill extending the selenium deadline. He says the department has already granted one extension to the coal industry.
“There’s a lot of work going on right now, a lot of research going on right now and I hope for the sake of the streams and the rivers and for the sake of the coal companies that they are able to meet that deadline of April 2010,” Huffman said. “Because that’s when we intend to begin to enforce the law on them.”
But the bill has support from 20 of the Senate’s 34 senators, many of whom were at the Energy, Industry and Mining Committee today. First, the committee heard testimony from Don Garvin of the West Virginia Environmental Council.
“This is not a recommendation from the DEP, this is not a recommendation from the legislative rulemaking review committee,” he said. “This issue did not go through rulemaking. The Clean Water Act requires a 45 day public notice and comment period for any proposed water quality standard rule change.”
One of the problems with a 2010 deadline, according to Jason Bostic of the West Virginia Coal Association, is that coal companies aren’t completely convinced that selenium is toxic in the amounts found in West Virginia rivers.
“We have research where selenium discharges exceed the recommended standard,” he said. “And we have not observed in this state the impacts that were observed in the original research on selenium.
“And that is generally true across this country. There is real doubt as to whether or not the impacts that were observed in the original studies apply to other areas of the country or in different settings. Especially to free-flowing water versus impounded water.”
Though the coal industry has been working on the issue for eight years and invested millions of dollars, Bostic says there is still no solution of how to avoid releasing selenium into the state’s waterways.
Even so, he says newer mines are permitted to comply with the proposed selenium standard.
“This is a legacy problem,” Bostic said. “These were mines that were designed, permitted, and operated before we understood selenium was a problem.
“On newer mining operations that are being developed, we believe we can handle the geology in such a way that we can keep the selenium material off the water table and off the water column.”
Because there is no technology to physically separate selenium from the pieces of mountains, an increasingly strict standard could cause the state’s massive mountaintop removal mines to be scaled down.
Bill Price is the environmental justice organizer for the Sierra Club.
“It would certainly be an issue that would impact on mountaintop removal coal mining,” he said. “I guess the state needs to take an interest in this and decide whether or not its streams are as important as its coal.”
Senator Mike Green is the chairman of the Energy, Industry and Mining Committee. He says the bill also recommends that DEP conduct a study on selenium to determine its effects. The deadline for the study is January 2010.
“At this point, I have not seen any of those studies that say what the impact of selenium is on aquatic life in the streams,” Green said. “I think we’re doing the best we can to make sure we’re good stewards of the state’s waterways and whatever recommendations come out from this year-long study, rest assured that we will do the best we can to implement those to protect the environment in the state of West Virginia.”
The bill passed through Green’s committee, but still has to clear the Judiciary Committee before making it to the floor.
At least one senator who didn’t sponsor the bill says, barring further information, he will be voting against it. After the floor session, Sen. Randy White spoke to a group of environmentalists about preserving the state’s water resources.
“Better to be safe than sorry,” he said. “I don’t want generations down the road condemning us or damning us for what we do today. I want them to be thankful that maybe we did take a reasonable and slow approach to certain issues and especially the environment. Because what we do today future generations have to live with.”
For now, Senate Bill 461’s large number of sponsors on both sides of the aisle indicate that mining companies will have more time to conform to state requirements.