West Virginia Blue
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Obama promised a "wealth-based green industry", but didn't go into much detail, as far as I could tell. And unfortunately, his "green jobs czar" was run off before he could really get the ball rolling. So its up to us.
I'm old enough to remember when West Virginia used to be a real manufacturing mecca. Think about it. From tools to weapons, from silicon chips to silicone coatings, we've been a source for aluminum, steel, plastics, Teflon, glass, and even Glyclean, used in the processing of high purity electronics & semiconductor processing.
I have a pretty good idea why we DON'T manufacture high grade alternatives like solar panels and wind turbines in WV. Its because of the hyper-toxicity of coal-driven politics. Big Coal simply wants to drive everyone out and turn WV into a giant moon scape. We may as well face it. As long as surface mines are allowed to proliferate and there aren't any Clean Election Laws implemented, Big Coal will be all but encouraged by our politicians to continue that course of action.
Clean election laws aside, EPA's enforcement of Clean Water Act laws and OSM strict oversight of SMCRA regs can potentially jam a crowbar into the spokes of surface mine operators.
So to turn things around we need to embrace the fact that manufacturing takes energy, and right now, WV's fossil fuels are the only source of that energy. Since Clem points out that coal production per man hour is on the wane in WV, perhaps dangling the prospect of jacking up local energy needs by luring manufacturers to come to WV is part of the political solution. And all the while, demand that deep mining and strict environmental laws are being enforced.
Guaranteeing more deep mine operations while ramping up local energy consumption so WV can manufacture alternative energy sources can be a winning argument. I just wonder if our state leaders could be persuaded to promote the discounting of energy for the purpose of manufacturing anything "green". Seems to me that discounting energy was one major method he tried to keep those Ravenswood aluminum workers from getting laid off. He certainly tried getting discounted energy when it came to trying to save Blenko from shutting down.
Another wealth-based green industry is cleaning up the over 400 toxic slurry injection sites, the abandoned coal mines, and the countless sludge impoundments strewn across WV. While the WV Brownfields Redevelopment program is doing remediation in northern WV primarly using state funds, it just so happens that Don Blankenship was recently required to spend $10 million of Massey cash for remediation.
As part of the deal, Massey agreed to perform 20 water quality improvement projects along 25 miles of the Little Coal River, and to set aside 200 acres of riverfront property as protected from development. source
Now that's what I call generating shovel-ready 'wealth-based green jobs', because implementation didn't shift the responsibility onto the taxpayer.
Although there is a huge potential for a local green version of FDR's "New Deal" to be found in the remediation of hundreds of thousands of Clean Water Act permit violations, the plain truth is that there isn't the political climate for enforcement. First of all, even though there can't be any greener jobs than those engaged in remediation, neither Joe Manchin nor Randy Huffman are ever going to call them "green". Because that would then call attention to the fact that it's the EPA which has had to step in before scofflaw companies get busted.
Between January 2000 and March 2006, self-reported violations, included in reports Massey filed with regulators, amounted to 60,500 days of violations, or about 28 violations per day, according to court records.
That $20 million went into FED coffers and not WV because in all those violations over all that time, our DEP never busted them. And although $10 million is being spent towards remediation, it should have been a lot more.
It is notable that it was Bush's EPA that struck the deal.
One coal industry analyst previously cited by The Associated Press estimated Massey's potential fines at more than $2.4 billion.
So the thing that really ticks me off about the whole deal is that while the fine seemed large, it was the equivalent of only ten days worth of profit-taking by Massey.
Randy Huffman is even now stalling green jobs from being implemented by blocking the OSM from enforcing SMCRA requirements for restoring blasted-away mountains to their approximate original contour ("AOC").
This could really be a key issue towards changing the political attitude in WV regarding "green jobs". As surface mines are shut down, restoring to AOC has the potential to keep many of those dozer and other heavy equipment operators working. And again, it has the potential of being done on the scofflaw coal operator's dime, not ours.
This post co-written by Mary Anne Hitt, Deputy Director of the Sierra Club's Beyond Coal Campaign
Very big news out of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) this morning - the agency has determined that all 79 mountaintop removal mining permits submitted to them for review by the Army Corps of Engineers would violate the Clean Water Act. After eight long years of rubber-stamp permits being issued during the Bush Administration, this is one of the most dramatic and encouraging actions yet by the Obama Administration, and marks a welcome return of the rule of law to the coalfields of Appalachia.
Mountaintop removal - a devastating form of coal mining that involves blowing up mountains and dumping the former mountaintops into neighboring valleys, burying streams - is governed by a patchwork of laws and federal agencies. Permits to bury streams with mining waste are initially issued by the Army Corps of Engineers, but EPA has ultimate oversight and may veto Corps-issued permits if they fail to comply with the Clean Water Act.
Remember when the fish in the Potomac got weird and the thought was, just maybe, it was pollution in the water? As Lincoln Walks at Midnight points out, DEP guy doesn't. Any body want to ask him what made Mad as a Hatter mad?
For a decade, the EPA has turned a blind eye to the potential hazards of coal slurry. After the massive coal slurry spill, many are calling for a much closer look at this potential hazard. So far, that closer looks isn't pretty.
West Virginians eager to know what's in the slurry that coal companies pump into worked-out underground mines will have to wait until May for the state's answers, but preliminary independent tests suggest it contains heavy metals they wouldn't want to drink.
Lab results, shared with The Associated Press by citizen activists with the Sludge Safety Project who plan to make their findings public Thursday, detected arsenic, lead and several other metals at levels exceeding federal drinking water standards.
Slurry, a byproduct of washing coal, is what's left after operators remove clay, dirt, sulfur and other impurities to meet demand for coal that burns efficiently.
For decades, slurry has been injected into abandoned mines in Appalachia as a cheap alternative to massive dams or filtration and drying systems. But hundreds of coalfield residents are now suing coal companies, claiming that waste has leaked into aquifers, contaminated well water and caused health problems from kidney disease to cancer.
[snip]
West Virginia regulators permit 15 companies to inject slurry, but the practice of injecting waste is broader: A 2008 report cites 50 injection sites for slurry and sludge, with a total of 600 pipes into the ground.
The growing concern in West Virginia has legislators and the state Department of Environmental Protection focused on a potential public health problem that for years only mattered to people with black and orange water spewing from their taps.
To comply with a legislative inquiry on whether underground injection is safe, the DEP is testing water and slurry samples from six sites in Monongalia, McDowell, Raleigh, Nicholas, Kanawha and Boone counties.
Those results will be made public in early May, DEP spokeswoman Kathy Cosco told the AP this week. Then the Department of Health and Human Resources will decide if there is a potential health threat.
But DEP also shared samples with scientists at Wheeling Jesuit University, who sent them to Heidelberg University's National Center for Water Quality Research in Tiffin, Ohio.
Those tests found six metals -- antimony, arsenic, lead, barium, cadmium and chromium -- in levels that exceeded federal standards for primary drinking water at one or more sites, said chemist Mary Ellen Cassidy and biologist Ben Stout.
[snip]
Though federal regulations don't apply to unregulated, private wells, Cassidy and Stout argue it's fair to hold industry to them: DEP said in documents last year that it would deny injection permits "if an existing mine pool is being used as a potable water source for even one person.''
[snip]
There is no consensus on the chemical composition of slurry or whether it is hazardous to human health if ingested over decades, as some coalfields residents believe they have done. Nor can state or federal regulators say how much slurry has been pumped underground.
Last week, state Sen. Randy White, saying he was frustrated by delays in DEP's research, introduced legislation that would ban slurry injection starting May 1. So far, no action has been taken on the Webster County Democrat's bill.
Thank you to the alert reader for the email tip on this story.
When asked about research findings released last week which concluded that residents in coalfield counties face a greater risk of early death, and of suffering from heart, lung and kidney disease, Secretary of the WV Division of Environmental Protection, Stephanie Timmermeyer had the following comments:
"No one at my agency should be talking about whether these facilities have adverse health effects," Timmermeyer said. "That's not under our purview and we do not have that expertise."
Are you kidding me? Really?
I guess Secretary Timmermeyer forgot that according to WV Code, ยง22-2-1, one of the primary purposes of the WV DEP is:
"(5) Those functions of government which regulate the environment should be consolidated in order to accomplish the purposes set forth in this article, to carry out the environmental functions of government in the most efficient and cost effective manner, to protect human health and safety and, to the greatest degree practicable, to prevent injury to plant, animal and aquatic life, improve and maintain the quality of life of our citizens, and promote economic development consistent with environmental goals and standards."
(emphasis added)
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