Kanawha River pollution subject of Tuesday DEP hearing

Environmental Council notwithstanding, I'm not sure how I feel about this.

Sunday, June 29, 2014
Kanawha River pollution subject of Tuesday DEP hearing
By Ken Ward Jr., Staff writer

Later this week, Kanawha Valley residents will get the chance to tell state regulators what they think of a Tomblin administration proposal to redesignate the Kanawha River as a potential source of public drinking water.

The state Department of Environmental Protection proposal will not by itself put a drinking water intake on the Kanawha, or even constitute a regulatory finding that the river is clean enough to use for public drinking water. Instead, the move by the DEP to re-designate the Kanawha is an effort to set a goal of making the Kanawha safe for drinking...

...On Friday, the West Virginia Environmental Council issued an “action alert” that urged citizens to strongly support the DEP proposal.

In the email alert, the Environmental Council said the likely impact of the proposal is that, “over time, water pollution control permits for chemical plants and other dischargers may need to be strengthened to ensure” that drinking water protections are met. The group said additional monitoring will be needed to determine of those standards are being met, and, “if the river proves sufficiently clean, then one outcome may be for West Virginia American Water to propose a secondary intake in the Kanawha River, which could be used if the primary intake in the Elk River were to become contaminated again.”

MORE at http://www.wvgazette.com/article/20140629/GZ01/140629321/1419