CHARLESTON, W.Va. (AP) - Industrial plants would be allowed to discharge more pollution into West Virginia waterways, under legislation approved Wednesday by the state House.
The proposal adopted 63-37 would authorize the Department of Environmental Protection to calculate water pollution limits for cancer-causing and other chemicals using an average-flow figure - called the “harmonic mean” - rather than low-flow waterway volume now used to calculate dilution and determine allowable discharge amounts. That would allow larger discharges from individual sites.
Backers say overall water quality standards would remain the same.
“This bill doesn’t lower the water quality standards of the state of West Virginia,” said Delegate Roger Hanshaw. The Clay County Republican urged passage, saying it would give the DEP flexibility to adjust individual discharge permits in line with neighboring states while leaving the overall standards for drinking water sources intact.
Hanshaw said he’s been told the likeliest areas to see economic development from the change are unused or partially used brownfields sites along the Ohio and other rivers.
The change has long been sought by the West Virginia Manufacturers Association, which says it will help redevelopment of vacant industrial properties. Association President Rebecca McPhail says opponents of the bill fear change.
“They wouldn’t be asking for it if it didn’t allow more discharges into the water,” said Delegate Mike Pushkin, a Charleston Democrat. “That is why the industry lobbyists are asking for it.”
Pushkin said protecting clean water itself is about economic development, including the tourism that the state’s rivers can attract but will lose unprotected and known for pollution. He voted against the bill, saying West Virginians need to stop believing “the tired old lie” that their economic development must come at the expense of their health and safety.
The West Virginia Rivers Coalition opposes the change, and another in the legislation to allow overlapping “mixing zones” of discharges from multiple sites. The environmental group said the bill would remove essential protections from toxins in the state’s drinking water.
The bill would prohibit overlapping mixing zones within a half-mile upstream on a river of a drinking water system’s intake.
The bill now goes to the state Senate, where a companion measure was introduced earlier.
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