DEP to Weigh Water Protection Changes

By Ken Ward Jr.

kward@wvgazette.com

State regulators promised Thursday to closely examine industry complaints about a rule that protects all West Virginia streams as if someone uses them for drinking water.

Department of Environmental Protection officials said that the rule is among several they will examine during a triennial review of state water pollution standards.

DEP officials, though, cautioned industry lobbyists not to expect any proposed changes until perhaps 2008.

“If we can improve the situation, we want to do so,” said Karen Watson, a DEP lawyer. “We’re going to give it our best shot.”

Watson said that DEP wants to learn more about the burden that industry officials say the rule creates.

“We’re going to look at it very carefully to see if there might be a better way that still protects the uses we have to protect,” Watson said. “We can’t promise you’ll see anything this year, but we’re going to keep working on it.”

The drinking water rule was among several potential changes that DEP officials announced Thursday they would consider as part of their agency’s first-ever triennial review.

Until this year, state water quality standards were written – and reviewed every three years – by the Environmental Quality Board. In response to industry complaints about the board, lawmakers this year transferred that job to DEP.

The triennial review is required by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency as part of its federal Clean Water Act oversight of West Virginia water pollution enforcement.

On Thursday, DEP held a public meeting to update lobbyists and citizens on its water standards review.

Several dozen industry officials attended, but only one citizen representative, Don Garvin of the West Virginia Environmental Council, made it to the meeting. The DEP meeting was scheduled for the same time as an environmental board appeals hearing that involved the West Virginia Rivers Coalition.

Lisa McClung, director of the DEP Division of Water and Waste Management, said that her agency probably would not fill a new position to lead the water standards work until January or February. DEP took over the job from the EQB as of July 1.

McClung also said that DEP is already behind schedule to review the standards and hold preliminary discussions with the public. The long-term goal is to finalize any DEP proposed changes next year for review by lawmakers during the 2007 session.

“We’re a little bit behind,” McClung said. “We are on a very tight timeline this time around.”

McClung said that DEP plans to propose changing the state’s rules on bacteria from one that measures fecal coliform to one that measures E coli. In public comments submitted to DEP, all sides seemed to agree on the change, McClung said.

Pat Campbell, a DEP assistant water director, said that the agency does not plan to move ahead with a coal industry request to weaken the state’s limit on the toxic metal selenium.

Campbell said that DEP would continue its own fish sampling for selenium around the state, but would wait for EPA to finalize any changes in the federal selenium limit before seeking a state amendment.

“A lot of people were probably looking for that to move quicker,” Campbell said. “Right now, the mindset is there is so much costly science involved that we are going to have to wait for EPA to act.”

Campbell said that DEP expects EPA to soon approve another coal industry request that weakened West Virginia’s limit on aluminum.

DEP will continue to study the state’s mercury water pollution limits and may propose changes as part of the triennial review, Campbell said.

Information about DEP’s water quality standards program is available online at http://www.dep.state.wv.us/ item.cfm?ssid=11&ss1id=747.

To contact staff writer Ken Ward Jr., use e-mail or call 348- 1702.