Below:

• Action Alert- Call House Speaker Delegate Tim Miley to Restore Essential Water Bill Provisions!

 Action Alert – House Finance guts several essential provisions of Water Bill

Call House Speaker Delegate Tim Miley now to get essential parts of it restored!

Phone: (304) 340-3210
tim.miley@wvhouse.gov

Put back individual NPDES facility permits to protect our water!

Monday evening, the Finance committee removed this requirement from S. B. 373, giving discretion to the DEP secretary.

·         Freedom Industries had been issued a “general” NPDES (National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System) permit, even though none of the “exclusions” under the Clean Water Act’s multi-sector industrial permit appeared to apply.

·         Had an individual permit been issued for Freedom, it would have received an extra level of scrutiny and analysis because 1) it would have been put out for public notice and comment, and 2) the WVDEP could have included site-specific requirements.

·         Requiring individual permits for facilities located within Zones of Critical Concern would provide this extra level of scrutiny.

Ask Him to amend individual NPDES permits back into SB 373!!

Other Deficiencies in the Finance version are:

• Commission to study Chemical Safety Board recommendations have been cut out
• Removed medical monitoring requirement
• Two new exemptions to definition of Above ground Storage Tanks (ASTs)
• ASTs no longer have to annually provide key info to downstream public water systems; instead, the frequency will be up to DEP
• Coal facilities are exempt from DEP fees related to compiling inventory of potential significant contaminant sources
• Early warning chemical detection system removed for WVAW system in Charleston

All of these help protect citizens and clean water ask to take these items back to the version that passed Judiciary.

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