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Archived Water Issues:
October 2006
August 2005
April 2004
November 2003
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Fish abnormalities in the Potomac
A group of state and federal agencies in charge of evaluating declines in bass populations and fish kills in the Potomac Headwaters released a report at the end of February identifying serious water quality problems. In the Cacapon River and the South Branch of the Potomac skin lesions from undetermined causes were found in up to 57 percent of the fish collected in some locations. They also found a condition called intersex (infertility caused by growth of egg tissue in male testes caused by excess estrogen or endocrine disrupting substances in the environment) in as high as 80% of some groups of the male small mouth bass collected. The fish may well be the canary-in-the-coal-mine for human health concerns and drinking water intakes of Petersburg, Moorefield and Romney. Likely sources in the Potomac include runoff from cattle manure containing hormones given to the cattle and poultry manure which is naturally high in estrogen, as well as pesticides, herbicides, and sewage treatment plants. WVDEP has so far failed to place the Potomac Headwaters on the WV list of impaired streams for the skin lesions and intersex. In not doing so, WVDEP has shut off potential sources of funding for impaired streams that would help identify the source of the problem. Center staff has already had preliminary discussions with DEP on the matter and will work to force the DEP to list these streams as impaired.
Buffer Zone Rule
The Center has filed an important permit appeal of Coal Mac's Phoenix 4 Mine on behalf of the West Virginia Highlands Conservancy challenging the WV Department of Environmental Protection (WVDEP)'s failure to enforce the Surface Mining Act's stream buffer zone law, selenium water quality standards and the Surface Mining Act's reforestation requirements. Perhaps most critical is the attempt to enforce the stream buffer zone rule. In reaction, the Bush administration, recognizing that a victory for us in this action would significantly reduce the size of mountaintop removal mines, has proposed to change the federal buffer zone regulation. This is at least the third regulatory change that the Bush administration has proposed in response to the Center's work. Additionally, as a result of this case, West Virginia has already conceded that it must change its permitting practices by requiring more stringent safeguards to eliminate selenium pollution in the State's streams and rivers. Selenium is extremely toxic at high levels.
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| Coal mining has left a legacy of pollution in central Appalachia. Acid mine drainage destroys aquatic life and makes water unfit for human consumption and many industrial uses. Tremendous amounts of iron cause streams to run red. In West Virginia alone over 500 streams are impaired by acid mine drainage. |
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Acid Mine Drainage
In June 2004 the Center filed a challenge to the Mettiki "E" Mine permit on behalf of the West Virginia Rivers Coalition, Trout Unlimited and the West Virginia Highlands Conservancy that has very broad implications for the creation of acid mine drainage (AMD) throughout the region. For the first time, and with support of the Department of the Interior's Office of Surface Mining, the WVDEP issued a permit that it knows will create perpetual acid mine drainage. If this permit is not overturned, it will likely mean that the coal currently unmineable in the region will be mined. In WVDEP's approval of this new permit it has upended both state and federal policy to deny permits where the production of AMD is expected. Furthermore, this action has negated decades of citizen concern, comment, litigation and negotiation to prevent any further AMD destruction of our region's waters. Working with citizen groups concerned about this permit, the Center will continue to monitor other WVDEP permitting actions that will create AMD and will file appeals of permits when appropriate.
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Illegal
discharge of pollutants
A new significant court action is
being prepared objecting to the unpermitted discharge of pollutants
at mountaintop removal mine sites in violation of the Clean Water
Act.
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