People’s Public Hearing Participants to Legislators: Protect Our Water!

By Morgan King, WV CAG Climate and Energy Program Manager

The West Virginia Environmental Council, West Virginia Citizen Action Group, Sunrise Movement Huntington, the West Virginia Rivers Coalition, the West Virginia Highlands Conservancy, Friends of the Cheat, the WV Surface Owners’ Rights Organization, From Below: Rising Together for Coalfield Justice, American Friends Service Committee-WV, and the WV Center on Budget and Policy held a People’s Public Hearing on SB 592 at the West Virginia State Capitol outside of the House of Delegates on Monday, March 17, 2025 to speak out against weakening drinking water quality protections that could facilitate another water crisis. This hearing coincided with the WV Environmental Council’s annual Environmental Day (E-Day). SB 592 would remove upwards of 1,000 oil, gas, and coal tanks from inspections mandated under current law via the Aboveground Storage Tank Act.

Created in response to the 2014 water crisis when MCHM, a chemical used to clean coal, leaked into the Elk River, the drinking water source for over 300,000 people, the Aboveground Storage Tank Act regulates storage tanks to prevent another water crisis of this scale. Yet, over the past decade the legislature has attempted to gut it time and time again, and has succeeded. The latest attempt, SB 592, passed the Senate on Friday, March 14th (click here to see how your Senators voted). Most concerning is that SB 592 would deregulate the very type of coal chemical storage tanks that caused the drinking water crisis in 2014.

“SB 592 now seeks to dilute tank protections even more and, to add insult to injury, it adds coal chemical tanks, the same type of tanks that caused the 2014 water crisis, into those exempted from additional scrutiny,” said Gary Zuckett of West Virginia Citizen Action Group.

“We know that 38 percent of all confirmed leaks reported to the DEP are coming from tanks located in zones of critical concern. This shows that the regulatory process in place must be maintained to protect our drinking water, not weakened,” said Lucia Valentine, lobbyist for the West Virginia Environmental Council.

“We must do everything in our power to protect clean drinking water for every single person and living being in West Virginia. Anything less is an obvious failure of government leadership,” said Olivia Miller, program director of the West Virginia Highlands Conservancy. “Removing independent inspections for tanks in zones of critical concern, the areas closest to drinking water intakes, is a recipe for another disaster. If we allow this short-sighted deregulation to pass, we risk history repeating itself and contaminating hundreds of thousands of West Virginians drinking water with highly toxic chemicals that pose serious health risks.”

“We are faced with Senate Bill 592, the latest attempt to deregulate industry in West Virginia. This is happening as West Virginians are dealing with the catastrophe of a failed regulatory regime every day. Instead of weakening what little protections we have, West Virginians need our representatives to stand up for us and expand protections and regulations of aboveground storage tanks,” said Tyler Cannon, Coordinator of the West Virginia Climate Alliance.

“The people have spoken year after year against weakening this Act, and year after year, industry comes back in its relentless pursuit of profits.” said Honey May, Chapter Director of the West Virginia Sierra Club. “People are writing and calling and showing up despite the legislature’s attempts to stifle public comment. It’s clear what the people want – clean drinking water – and the legislature should not pretend that they don’t hear us.”

Join us to push back against weakening drinking water quality protections which could facilitate another water crisis! Click here to send a letter to your delegate. Tell them to reject SB 592 to preserve the crucial role the AST Act plays in safeguarding our health and environment.