WVDEP staff correct Sec. Huffman's Senate testimony

read the memo (4.00 / 1)

Read the memo linked to at Coal Tattoo. It's amazing.

The WV DEP has known about adverse effects of MTR since at least 2002. Yet, somehow, Sec. Huffman was unable to testify about any in front of the U.S. Senate in 2009.

Among the adverse effects known to the WV DEP:

Despite the findings of the Watershed Assessment Section that I have presented in numerous memoranda and reports since 2002, it appears that Secretary Huffman is unaware of the findings of our efforts to understand the effects of mountaintop coal extraction to aquatic ecosystems in West Virginia.

Habitat parameters, such as embeddedness and sediment deposition, usually score marginal or poor in our rapid habitat assessments of sites we visit below valley fills. Stream temperature regimes have been changed dramatically. All such negative impacts to "the chemical, physical, hydrologic [...] components of aquatic ecosystems" contribute to the significant adverse impact on the biological components that we consistently find below valley fills.

The developmental abnormalities found in fish in the Mud River reservoir have been attributed in part to Selenium toxicity. As you know, we are finding high selenium concentrations in more streams below valley fills with each new field season. Selenium toxicity, like ionic toxicity, is  a clear violation of §47-2-3.2.e., the narrative standard of the state's water quality standards.

With valley fill discharges, especially those from very large fills, we can expect the negative impacts to last for centuries, just as deep mine discharges have remained toxic for centuries. Such long-lasting adverse impacts are indeed significant.

Read the entire memo and you learn: valley fills are killing off West Virginia streams. There has been growing evidence of this since 2002 yet, counter to West Virginia statute, the WVDEP has failed to act on this evidence.

There's a major management problem at the WVDEP that Sec. Huffman did not know this information before he testified in front of the Senate.

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by: Clem Guttata @ Fri Aug 21, 2009 at 21:37:01 PM UTC

Remember the Chesapeake Bay thing? (4.00 / 2)

Do you think the lawyers at DEP were getting nervous and pulled back? Remember Gov. Manchin's vetoed of SB715, the Chesapeake Bay bill that the wastewater people wanted? Probably written by outside lobbyists.

You think maybe some more kudos should go out to those with standards at DEP?

NFTT: Support My Team or I Will Dance

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by: CA Berkeley WV @ Sat Aug 22, 2009 at 01:18:19 AM UTC

Huffman's entire testimony looked like he represented the WV Department of Commerce (4.00 / 2)

than an agency charged with the responsibility of guarding the safety and health of WV citizens.

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by: One Citizen @ Sat Aug 22, 2009 at 17:25:25 PM UTC

loss of (0.00 / 0)

mayflies and stoneflies can hardly be considered devestating ...especially when compared to, say, having a job to feed a family of humans... much ado about nothing imo...

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by: stevewvu @ Sun Aug 23, 2009 at 14:15:10 PM UTC

According to the same biologists, the same polluted water, air, and earth (0.00 / 0)

which immediately eliminates the general fauna over time also kills humans.  Except, of course, those who are too greedy (or ignorant) to tie it all together. Then they generally blame God.

Btw, stevedubya, your argument would be much more convincing if you'd at least have learned how to how spell [i]'devastating'[/i] before you start expounding on it.

yeeesh.

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by: One Citizen @ Tue Aug 25, 2009 at 19:44:54 PM UTC

[ Parent ]

ever been fly fishing? (0.00 / 0)

you know what this attitude of yours reminds me of?

In Germany they first came for the Communists,
and I didn't speak up because I wasn't a Communist.

Then they came for the Jews,
and I didn't speak up because I wasn't a Jew.

Then they came for the trade unionists,
and I didn't speak up because I wasn't a trade unionist.

Then they came for the Catholics,
and I didn't speak up because I was a Protestant.

Then they came for me -
and by that time no one was left to speak up.

Martin Niemöller

Sweeney Todd was gainfully employed.

NFTT: Support My Team or I Will Dance

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by: CA Berkeley WV @ Tue Aug 25, 2009 at 21:42:13 PM UTC

[ Parent ]