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This article originally provided by
The
Charleston Gazette
Enviro board member criticizes attack on
selenium
Environmental Quality Board member
Bill Gillespie says too much was made over the dangers of
asbestos, DDT and Red Dye No. 2.
And now, Gillespie says, citizen groups are wrongly
launching a similar crusade over selenium runoff from West
Virginia strip mines.
In mid-August, Gillespie quietly issued a “minority
report” to explain his vote on a preliminary matter in a
case over coal industry selenium pollution.
“Although the ‘End-Is-Nigh crowd’ currently treats
selenium toxicity as established facts, involved scientists
believe the long-term forecasts are ambiguous and sketchy
and that the benefits of doing something about it rapidly
are by no means clear,” Gillespie wrote.
Gillespie drew his conclusions before the board heard any
evidence about selenium’s potential dangers, or about
selenium water quality violations from Southern West
Virginia strip mines.
Gillespie, former director of the state Division of
Forestry, sent his six-page opinion to other board members
and Gov. Joe Manchin, but not to the coal companies and
citizen groups involved in the case.
On Friday, board lawyer Wendy Radcliff provided copies to
the other parties. In a memo, Radcliff said that Gillespie’s
actions “resulted in an inappropriate ex parte
communication.”
Now, environmentalists are considering asking Gillespie
to step down from the case, which is scheduled for a full
hearing in mid-November.
“I think this is going to be very interesting and
probably very difficult,” said board Chairman Ed Snyder.
“I’m certain that’s something that is going to be
discussed.”
On Monday, Gillespie said he did nothing wrong, and said
he had not prejudged the selenium case.
“There’s probably no better environmentalist around than
me,” Gillespie said.
Gillespie also repeated his view that selenium from strip
mines is not a serious issue that needs action by
regulators.
“I don’t think it poses an imminent problem,” said
Gillespie. “I have driven along those same streams and I see
nothing wrong with them.”
Gillespie issued his opinion based on an Aug. 9 hearing
in which coal operators asked the board to throw out a legal
challenge to selenium water quality waivers for dozens of
strip-mine permits. He sent out his opinion separately from
the board’s majority ruling, which was not issued formally
until Sept. 5.
Selenium is a naturally occurring element that is found
in many rocks and soils. In very tiny amounts, it is an
antioxidant and is needed for good health. But in only
slightly greater amounts, selenium is highly toxic.
The Manchin administration has moved to give the coal
industry three more years to fix violations of the state’s
water pollution limit on selenium discovered in a 2003
federal study. Earlier this year, the state Department of
Environmental Protection extended selenium compliance
deadlines for 80 mining operations around the state.
In May, the West Virginia Highlands Conservancy, the Ohio
Valley Environmental Coalition and Coal River Mountain Watch
appealed the DEP actions to the Environmental Quality board.
Industry lawyers argued that the groups don’t have standing
and cannot bring appeals of multiple permits in one combined
case.
A majority of the board voted not to dismiss the cases
outright, and to hold a full evidentiary hearing.
Gillespie said the full hearing would be a waste of time.
“My analysis of the situation is that selenium poses no
more danger now than it has been posing the last 58 or so
years on the streams in the areas and so the urgency being
insisted upon by the plaintiffs is not needed,” Gillespie
wrote.
Gillespie also said that other board members were wrong
to bend over backward to try to give citizens their day in
court.
“Citizens did not bring this case,” Gillespie wrote. “It
was brought by well seasoned, hard-nosed, grant-driven
environmental lawyers (Appalachian Center for the Economy
and the Environment — ACE) who should be forced to dot every
‘i’ and cross every ‘t’ as should every party to the matter.
“ACE, too, is very powerfully political,” Gillespie
wrote.
Gillespie said that he believes many “widely circulated
statements [about selenium’s potential dangers] are
supposition instead of proven fact.
“In considering [selenium] one needs to remember that
mercury in tuna caused quite a panic some years back,”
Gillespie wrote. “The situation was magnified by a
non-critical press as a way of attracting larger budgets for
[the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency] and public
health.
“Then someone thought to run tests on tuna stored at the
Smithsonian for more than 100 years and these were found to
have more mercury in them than the ones currently being
caught that caused the panic,” he wrote. “Mercury had always
been in the ocean, man was just catching up with what was in
his surroundings.”
Gillespie listed controversies about the pesticides DDT
and Alar, the chemical dioxin and asbestos as overblown
public health concerns.
“There are at least a dozen others,” he wrote. “How about
Red Dye No. 2?”
To contact staff writer Ken Ward Jr., use e-mail or
call 348-1702.
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