|
Archived Water Issues:
October 2006
August 2005
April 2004
November 2003
|
 |
|
 |
| The Center has helped protect pristine waters like the one pictured here in the Greenbrier River watershed from needless pollution by working to fully enforce the antidegradation provisions of the Clean Water Act. |
|
|
| |
|
Fish Abnormalities in the Potomac
Discovery of male bass that are producing eggs has made the South Branch of the
Potomac River near Moorefield the latest example of an emerging national problem
of hormones, drugs and other man-made pollutants that appear to be interfering
with the chemical signals that make fish grow and reproduce. Researchers fear
that the pharmacological soup that has led to these abnormalities will impact
drinking water and recreational users of the State's waters. Unlike most other
areas where endocrine disruption has occurred, the South Branch problem is
widespread and downstream from relatively undeveloped areas. This has
investigators perplexed and looking at agricultural or atmospheric sources as
the cause of the problem. The Center is working to provide legally mandated
protections to the South Branch and is monitoring the progress of the
investigation. Major results of this research are expected from the United
States Geological Survey before the end of the year.
Antidegradation
Last year the Center prevailed in a precedent setting legal challenge of EPA's approval of West Virginia's illegal antidegradation plan. The Center must now work to assure that the WVDEP complies with the court ordered changes. As a result, we recently appealed a water discharge permit issued by the WVDEP to Green Valley Coal Company (GVCC) that would expand pollution discharges from a coal refuse facility in Hominy Creek, a native brook trout stream and a State Water of Special Concern. The permit does not comply with Clean Water Act antidegradation permitting requirements and allows GVCC to increase its pollution without considering the socioeconomic impacts on the citizens in the area. While more egregious than many, the case is also typical of the way WVDEP has used a loophole in its own guidance to circumvent valid antidegradation review. The work we are doing in West Virginia on the Clean Water Act's antidegradation policy will have important implications for its implementation nationwide.
 |
| 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. |
|
|
|
|
|
|
Acid Mine Drainage
For two and a half decades citizens have fought long and hard through comment, litigation and negotiation for full enforcement of provisions of the federal Surface Mine Act that prohibit the permitting of mining operations where acid mine drainage is anticipated. This long and successful struggle resulted in a policy forbidding the DEP to issue mining permits likely to create acid mine drainage. In an act that will undermine this important victory and in bold defiance of the law, the DEP recently permitted a Mettiki Mining Company longwall mine that will discharge acid mine drainage into the Potomac watershed. The Mettiki permit represents a return to the irresponsible permitting practices of the past that allowed thousands of miles of streams throughout the region to be killed by acid mine drainage. The Center has filed an appeal of the DEP's authorization of Mettiki's mine, and hearings are ongoing. These hearings will involve the testimony of many DEP officials, expert witnesses and coal company officials.
The importance of this challenge cannot be overstated. Defeating this permit is crucial to protecting our streams. It is the test case for upholding the prohibition on authorizing permits that will lead to acid mine drainage. If we lose, we are certain the Bush administration will not comply with its duty to rein in the DEP. And so, unless we win this case, the issuance of the Mettiki permit will be the first domino in a reaction that may lead to the issuance of scores of new permits and the creation of significant new sources of acid mine drainage for the first time in many years.
|
| |
 |
| High quality streams like this one are often the most severely impaired by air deposition of mercury. As mercury accumulates in fish tissue, fish consumption must be limited or stopped to avoid mercury poisoning. Acid rain caused by power plant emissions also devastates high quality headwaters. |
|
|
| |
|
Mercury
West Virginia's Fish Consumption Advisory Committee has alarming new data indicating dangerous levels of mercury in fish which should result in statewide fish consumption advisories. Fish from some of the state's highest quality streams - Shavers Fork, Dry Fork, and the North and South Forks of the South Branch of the Potomac - are among the most severely affected. The assumption is that most of the mercury is coming from air deposition from coal fired power plants but Center staff also found over 350 permitted water pollution discharges with mercury concerns. Despite EPA recommendations, WVDEP has failed to include all of the streams with mercury-laden fish on the state's 303(d) list of impaired streams. Since "listing" a stream triggers assessment of the sources of pollution and leads to clean-up plans, it is one of few ways to attack the problem and furnish safe fish as a food source for West Virginians and others who fish the state's streams. The Center is writing comments and will take other necessary steps to insist that all waters with fish consumption advisories be listed on the West Virginia list of impaired streams.
This is a new strategy for fighting mercury pollution that will, if successful, limit mercury air emissions from coal-fired power plants and mercury-laden water discharges.
|
|
