The Waters - and the People - of West Virginia Are Unsafe Again

This is one of those bits of news that sends my cynicism meter into the stratosphere. On Monday, the West Virginia House Judiciary Committee passed, by a 13 to 12 vote, SB 423. This bill will undo the chemical tank safety legislation that was passed last year after a coal-cleaning chemical from a tank owned by Freedom Industries spilled into the Elk River and poisoned the drinking water for 300,000 West Virginians, some of whom had to rely on bottled water for weeks. Schools were closed, and many businesses, such as restaurants, lost business.

The bill would give West Virginia’s Director of Homeland Security and Emergency Management more power to withhold from the public information on the chemical tanks in the state. I don’t know about you, but that certainly makes me feel more secure. The bill also reduces the number of tanks administered by last year’s safety law from around 50,000 down to about 12,000. State mandated inspections will be cut back under this bill, and information concerning hazardous materials stored near drinking water intakes will be blocked from the public. The bill has already passed the West Virginia Senate. Governor Tomblin’s signature is almost a certainty.

Ken Ward at the Charleston Gazette has more detail of the story here, and you can read his Coal Tattoo blog about it here.

How is a fiasco like this possible? Is it that the folks in West Virginia are too distracted by driving their kids to school and getting themselves off to work that they don’t have the time or energy to care about the water they drink? Or have all those chemicals in the water affected the memories of all those people who had to go to the store just so they could have water to drink last year?

Bryan T. McNiel, in his book Combating Mountaintop Removal: New Directions in the Fight Against Big Coal, says that West Virginia best resembles a third world country, one in which an outside industry extracts resources and, in order to do so, has all of the state, the political leaders and the populace, under its thumb. Even if you were to ignore the endemic poverty of West Virginia, the poorest state of the union, or the manner in which the coal industry keeps its message in the minds of the folks of the Mountain State—going so far as to inject itself into the classrooms of Appalachian schoolchildren—this latest turn by the elected officials in Charleston would be proof enough that McNiel is correct in thinking of West Virginia as the banana republic that rests somewhere between Pennsylvania and Kentucky.

I guess that it will be impossible to find out how this came about. Did this legislation come about only recently, the result of renewed backroom deals between politicians and the coal companies? Or had the fix been in from the start? That SB 373 was only a sham, a dog and pony show of politicians doing what’s right for the state of West Virginia and the people who live there, while they knew full well that months hence, possibly even a year later, that SB 373 would die and the laws to protect the water would be as flimsy as a rusted 50-year-old storage tank held together by duct tape and earnestly crossed fingers.

            I don’t think we’ll find out either way. Oh, and by the way, we still do not know about the toxicity of 4-Methylcyclohexane Methanol, the licorice smelling substance that fouled the waters of the Elk River.

Troubled waters again for West Virginia

Coal Miners Rally in Pittsburgh

Two days of public hearings began today in Pittsburgh on proposed rules by the EPA that would set more stringent standards for the emissions of CO2 from coal-burning power plants. These rules are being proposed to stave off global warming. Similar hearings were held earlier this week in Atlanta, Denver, and Washington, D.C., but these hearings in Pittsburgh, right in the middle of the coal-rich Appalachians, attracted a great deal of attention from the coal industry and its political supporters.

            Yesterday the coal industry held a rally. Called an affordable electricity and energy jobs rally, the gathering included Pennsylvania Governor Tom Corbett, West Virginia Governor Earl Ray Tomblin, and labor leaders. The rally was attended by hundreds of West Virginia coal miners.

            Tomblin, an unabashed supporter of the coal industry, spoke at the rally in support of the coal companies and against the proposed new power plant rules. Now, before going much further, let me give credit to Tomblin, who, as he spoke at this rally, did not deny the connection between burning coal and warming up the world. He did, however, have a pretty harsh critique of the Environmental Protection Agency. He described the proposed carbon rules as “unreasonable restrictions” and “ideological policies” that would eliminate jobs in the coal region. He also used a race-to-the-bottom argument that reducing the emissions of U.S. power plants would raise electricity rates and send manufacturers overseas to countries that don’t govern their power production so well or don’t govern it at all.

            I don’t claim that Tomblin or other politicians’ concern for jobs is insincere. It is nonetheless interesting to me how well their concern for the employment of their constituents dovetails with the concerns of industry.  Back when the auto industry and the steel industry decided to move operations overseas and allow America’s industrial belt to crumble and turn into the rust belt I don’t recall a great number of politicians pontificating on the concern to keep Detroiters or Pittsburghers in their jobs.

 

When did politicians hold rallies to keep jobs in Detroit and Pittsburgh?

As I said above, I give credit to Tomblin for not denying climate change. And I guess in a weird way I have to give credit to Nick Casey, the former chairman of West Virginia’s Democratic Party who is now running for Congress. He doesn’t deny climate change either. But in a meeting with some of West Virginia’s largest lobbying groups he said that global warming is not a problem to be addressed by West Virginians. “It’s not our problem,” he said, because global warming is an international issue.

            Excuse me, I hope the quality of my writing doesn’t suffer as I keep pounding at the keyboard, but right now my head is spinning. Nick Casey is saying global warming is not a West Virginia problem because the problem belongs to the whole world. Well, well, well. I’m not even sure where to start with this. It is true that as the seas rise and the oceans grow more and more acidic West Virginia will not be immediately affected. The amount of warming that the Mountain State experiences may not be as great as what is expected in other places. So Casey could be right that global warming may not be a big problem for West Virginia. But, as a state with a lot of coal and natural gas, it is, undeniably, their responsibility.

            And my head still spins.

            

West Virginia Governor Tomblin Meets With EPA Administrator McCarthy, Maddening Irony Ensues

Gov. Tomblin criticizes ‘unreasonable’ EPA rules

The above link takes you to Ken Ward’s Coal Tattoo blog in which he reports on the meeting between West Virginia governor Earl Ray Tomblin and EPA Administrator Gina McCarthy. In the same meeting in which the two discussed the poison water crisis in southern West Virginia, Tomblin complained about the Environmental Protection Agency’s “unreasonable” rules.

            Tomblin’s comments about unreasonableness concerned the agency’s greenhouse gas regulations and not regulations on chemical containers and toxic spills in rivers, but even still the irony meter must have gone off the charts while the governor spoke to the Washington official.

West Virginia: Where the Water and Politics Are Both Hard to Swallow

In the big playpen for King Coal that is known as West Virginia the old pattern of political and governmental support for the coal industry continues, all the while residents and those concerned about the environment are disfranchised.

            This just in: Two weeks ago, West Virginia governor Earl Ray Tomblin unveiled proposed legislation in response to the chemical spill in the Elk River that had occurred earlier in  January. The day before, the governor had a meeting “with the stakeholders” according to an email from Jason Pizatella, governor Tomblin’s Deputy Chief of Staff.

            The only problem is that the meeting of “stakeholders” included business lawyers and industry lobbyists, and no one from the environmental community had been invited for their input to the proposed legislations.

            Don’t you think that is an oversight?

            Donald S. Garvin, the chief lobbyist for the West Virginia Environmental Council, said that his organization had not been included in the meeting concerning the proposed legislation. “Neither I nor anyone else I know of in the environmental community knew about that meeting,” he told Ken Ward of the Charleston Gazette yesterday. Needless to say, the bill, which was later passed by the West Virginia Senate, now lists a number of different types of chemical storage tanks that would be exempt of environmental oversight.

            Considering the hand-in-glove relationship West Virginia's political leaders have with the coal companies, this shutout toward the environmental community is unsurprising. It is wholeheartedly wrong and almost virtually guarantees that the 4-methylcyclohexane methanol flowing into the Elk River will not remain the last such unfortunate disaster. If this bill passes, the safety of West Virginian’s water will remain tenuous and at the mercy of King Coal.

            Ken Ward has many more details of this story here.

Schools are still flushing their pipes almost a month after the spill in the Elk River and a lot of southern West Virginia and residents are still using bottled water.

With a "Trickle" of Drinking Water, Questions Remain in Elk River Chemical Spill

OK, so the latest word is that, after four days, most of the residents in southern West Virginia are still without water due to the chemical spill in the Elk River. There is a “trickle” of water to some residents and business, but most folks are still high and very dry from this industrial disaster. In the meantime there are a few things that have been pointed out.

            Pointed out by the Huffington Post is the immense oversight made by the Sunday morning talking heads shows, the ones with George Stephanopoulos, David Gregory, and other well-dressed and well-spoken folks. Apparently, one of the greatest disasters to affect health and the environment since the BP oil spill received zero airtime during these political talk shows.

 

Amount David Gregory and George Stephanopoulos and the other talking heads  mentioned the chemical spill that deprived 300,000 West Virginians of their drinking water

More than 300,000 people without drinking water is a big story. And there are implications for the rest of the country. Are there other chemical storage places for chemicals that could potentially foul the water in other states? What responsibility doe the state have? What responsibilities are to be born by the federal government in such a matter? It seems that Cokie Roberts could have something to say about this.

            Maybe it’s just that this happened in West Virginia. Mountaintop removal has seriously altered much of the landscape and affected the lives of tens of thousands, yet the news coverage of this crisis has remained slim over the decades.

            Aljazeera reminds us that there is a long history of coal operations polluting the wells and streams of the Mountain State. Wilson Dizard, the author of “Coal mining’s long legacy of water pollution in West Virginia” in Aljazeera America, tells us that the coal industry has been fouling streams and wells for years and years. In his story Vivian Stockman of the Ohio Valley Environmental Coalition says that for years and years the coal companies have been pumping chemical-laden wastewater directly into the ground. Once there, it can spread to other parts of the water table and poison wells.  “All this waste is going underground for years, and then one day people start noticing their well water turning sometimes orange, sometimes black. The water stinks,” says Stockman. “For more than a century, the coal industry has had pretty much free rein to do whatever it wants.”

            And once again some of the best coverage of the incident and its ramifications has been done by Ken Ward of the Charleston Gazette. As he points out in his Coal Tattoo blog, governor Ray Tomblin and the coal companies are trying to distance the coal industry from the incident by insisting that the spill is a “chemical company incident” and not a “coal company incident.”

            Ward also points out that the West Virginia took no steps to create a program that would have prevented chemical accidents like this spill, even after a team of federal experts urged the state to do so after an industrial explosion and fire killed two workers in Institute, West Virginia in 2008. And what is that stuff that poured into the river anyway? It seems that no one is certain.

W.Va. Gov. Tomblin Easing Up On Coal Rhetoric?

W.Va. Gov. Tomblin easing up on coal rhetoric?

A great deal of what this blog concentrates on is how we think of the environment and how institutions, business, and industry try to influence our thinking on the world we live in, you might say it looks at where the rhetoric meets the rhododendron.

            In the above link, Ken Ward, in his blog Coal Tattoo, noticed a slight change of tone in West Virginia governor Earl Tomblin’s State of the State address yesterday. Although still harping on the EPA’s “misguided policies on coal,” Tomblin goes on to say that, “we should remind ourselves a challenge doesn’t always lead to confrontation. Last summer I sat across the table from EPA Administrator Gina McCarthy and shared our story. We have been hit hard. But with planning and perseverance I believe the obstacles can be overcome.”

            Wow. No mention of a “war on coal” or other such inflammatory rhetoric. Might it be that Tomblin is gently trying to let the folks of West Virginia know that the easy coal has already been mined? That he is hinting that there is less and less of a future for coal in the Mountain State? We shall see. It will be interesting to listen to what Senator Manchin has to say about coal and mining in the near future.

Update on Mountaintop Removal From the Charleston Gazette: Mountaintop Removal Protester Still In Jail

Mountaintop removal protester still in jail  - News - The Charleston Gazette - West Virginia News and Sports -

Here’s some of the latest news for Appalachia and mountaintop removal. Longtime community and environmental activist Mike Roselle has wound up in jail again, charged with trespass and disorderly conduct for leaving a container of dust from mountaintop removal on the porch of the West Virginia governor’s mansion.

            Roselle insists that the governor, Earl Ray Tomblin, should have the material tested, as scientific studies show that residents who live near mountaintop mines are at greater risk of illness and premature death.

UPDATE 12/4/13: I guess this is an update to an update. Anyway, having served more time than any conviction for his alleged crimes, Mike Roselle has been released from jail on a personal recognizance bond. Details of this event can be found at this story by Ken Ward in the Charleston Gazette. As Ward points out, Governor Tomblin, despite scientific evidence that indicates a link between mountaintop removal and increased health risks to residents who live nearby these massive mines, has not shown any interest in the studies and has refused to meet with folks like Roselle who want to discuss the issue with him.