WVEC Green Legislative Update

March 12, 2007

Quick E-Update: 78th Legislature Adjourns

The Regular Session of the 78th West Virginia Legislature ended Saturday night at midnight.  All in all, there were more victories than losses for environmental issues, with one matter remaining up in the air. 

Here is a quick rundown:

The Legislature passed SCR 15, WVEC’s resolution requiring the Department of Environmental Protection to study the contents of coal slurry and the impacts on groundwater from disposing of it by injection into abandoned coal mine seams.  As amended, the resolution also requires the Bureau of Public Health to consult with DEP on the design of the study, and to review the results for the potential of impacting the health of coalfield residents. This is a great outcome for an issue that WVEC guided through several months of Interim Committee meetings.

The Legislature also passed: SB 337, DEP’s greenhouse gas inventory bill; SB 460, a bill that provides further protections in State Forests from oil and gas drilling operations; SB 177, that creates a Division of Energy for developing a comprehensive energy plan for WV; and HCR 48 that authorizes an Interim Study on funding for land conservation in the state.

Sometimes It’s Good To “Kill” a Bill.  WVEC, along with activists from the early “Garbage Wars” days and WV Citizen Action Group, helped kill two terrible solid waste bills: SB 629 that would have authorized a huge mega-landfill in McDowell County; and SB 701 that would have abolished the state Solid Waste Management Board and county Solid Waste Control Authorities, and consolidated that control of solid waste management into the hands of the DEP.

Sometime It’s Good To Amend a Bill.  WVEC worked with legislative staff and DNR officials to improve the language in SB 396, so that the bill protects rare, threatened, and endangered species from collectors and poachers, while still allowing researchers and concerned conservation groups to continue to have access to site-specific data necessary for protection of those species.

It’s Not Over ‘Til It’s Over: Perhaps the most controversial environmental issue of the legislative session – how many West Virginia rivers and streams would be placed on the Tier 2.5 list to protect them from degradation by polluters – is still up in the air.  Here’s a brief explanation, but you will have to read our Legislative Wrap-Up for the full version.

All of the DEP agency rules were placed into a rule bundle, HB 2601.  All of the rules in that bundle, including the Tier 2.5 stream list, were approved by the House Judiciary Committee as proposed by DEP.  Facing the very real possibility that the stream list would be gutted by amendments proposed by industry lobbyists on the House floor, House leaders and DEP Cabinet Secretary Stephanie Timmermeyer ultimately decided not to advance the rule bundle to the floor for a vote.

So here’s the situation as it now stands. DEP filed the proposed rules with the Secretary of State last year.  If the Legislature does not act on the rules (which they did not), according to state law the rules filed by DEP will go into effect.  And even though last year the Legislature passed a bill requiring the Tier 2.5 stream list to be approved by the full Legislature, Secretary Timmermeyer believes that legislation was unconstitutional.

In press reports, Secretary Timmermeyer has indicated that since the Legislature did not act there are now 309 new streams on the Tier 2.5 list and that DEP will manage those streams and issue permits on that basis.  She is basically telling industry that if they don’t like it, they can take the agency to court.

Obviously, friends, it may be quite some time before we finally know just how many streams will receive Tier 2.5 protection status.

Donald S. Garvin, Jr.
WVEC Legislative Coordinator