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Thunderstorms - some may contain locally heavy rain, especially this evening. A few storms may be severe. Low 64F. Winds WSW at 5 to 10 mph. Chance of rain 100%.
Pictured in this 2018 photo is Chemours’ Washington Works facility in Wood County, for which the company has submitted a plan to address discharges of toxic PFAS into the Ohio River on which the United States Environmental Protection Agency has yet to take final action.
Pictured in this 2018 photo is Chemours’ Washington Works facility in Wood County, for which the company has submitted a plan to address discharges of toxic PFAS into the Ohio River on which the United States Environmental Protection Agency has yet to take final action.
Last year, the United States Environmental Protection Agency identified more than 1,600 miles of West Virginia waterways it says state officials failed to account for in a list of impaired waters that require cleanup plans.
The EPA also required one of the nation’s most prominent polluters to submit a plan to address their discharges of a toxic class of cancer-linked chemicals into the Ohio River, a drinking water source for some 5 million people.
But the EPA has yet to take final action on either front with key related documents lingering under its review months later, exacerbating longstanding water quality concerns.
No decision following October comments submissions
In June, the EPA partially disapproved the West Virginia Department of Environmental Protection’s list of impaired waters, finding the DEP failed to provide a “technical, science-based rationale for not using existing and readily available data and information†in developing its Section 303(d) list of waters. The list is named after the section of the federal Clean Water Act authorizing the EPA to help states list impaired waters.
Such waters, known as water quality-limited segments, require the calculation of maximum amounts of pollutants allowed in them as a planning tool for restoring water quality.
The EPA identified 346 additional water quality-limited segments totaling 1,656 miles to add to the Section 303(d) list submitted by the DEP in May.
EPA spokeswoman Kelly Offner said last week the agency had no notable updates since EPA spokesman Andrew Kreider said last month the agency was evaluating and preparing written responses to stakeholder comments on the waters it proposed to add to West Virginia’s 303(d) List. The EPA reported receiving 291 sets of comments from 300 organizations and individuals.
The EPA said it would consider comments and transmit West Virginia’s final 303(d) list to West Virginia at a date to be determined.
The comment period closed in October.
Genus vs. family-level data
The EPA says the DEP should be using genus-level biological data to identify water impairments rather than relying on family-level data. Referring to a group of closely related species, genus falls below family in taxonomic rank, making it a more precise basis for assessments.
Attorney General Patrick Morrisey urged the EPA to reverse course and affirm West Virginia’s 303(d) list, saying the dispute “does not rise to a level where EPA should override†the state’s role in the listing process.
The West Virginia Coal Association similarly asked the EPA to withdraw its partial disapproval, contending it was the state’s right to determine how to use genus-level data. The CONSOL Energy and Metallurgical Coal Producers Association objected to the EPA’s partial disapproval on similar grounds.
A West Virginia Rivers Coalition-led group of 13 conservationist and community organizations supported the EPA’s finding the DEP didn’t give a science-based rationale for not using readily available water quality data to identify water quality-limited segments.
West Virginia is the only state in EPA Region 3 for which the agency identified any water segments that needed to be added to the latest 303(d) lists, according to Offner. The other Region 3 states are Delaware, Maryland, Pennsylvania and Virginia. The EPA identified water segments on recent 303(d) submittals in six other states nationwide.
Within Region 3, Virginia is the only state other than West Virginia to use family-level data rather than genus-level data, according to Offner.
The EPA has urged the DEP to switch data since at least 2010.
The DEP — in its formal comment to the EPA in October — said the EPA disregarded state authority when ranking priorities for plans determining pollution reduction targets. The state agency also said it was complying with EPA biological criteria guidance.
Former DEP Watershed Assessment Branch Program Manager John Wirts recalled the DEP began identifying benthic macroinvertebrate samples to the genus level in 1998 during an Oct. 5 Rivers Coalition webinar. He suggested genus-level identifications are more cost-effective than sticking with a family-level approach.
Wirts said a genus-level assessment approach yields improved diagnostic abilities, greater season and region specificity, and increased flexibility in sampling dates.
The DEP has said the most common impairment causes in streams are iron, a common mine drainage pollutant, and fecal coliform bacteria.
Last week, three environmental groups filed a federal lawsuit alleging the EPA has not calculated maximum pollution amounts in the Lower Guyandotte River watershed that would allow the watershed to meet water quality standards.
The Sierra Club, West Virginia Highlands Conservancy and West Virginia Rivers Coalition say the EPA didn’t establish the watershed’s total maximum daily loads for ionic toxicity. Total maximum daily loads (TMDL) determine a pollutant reduction target and allocate load reductions for pollution sources.
The groups say the TMDLs should have been triggered, in part, by the DEP not submitting to the EPA any ionic toxicity TMDLs for the watershed.
In April, the EPA touted making history when it issued its first Clean Water Act enforcement action to address pollution of per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances, or PFAS — a class of man-made chemicals that build up in the bloodstream linked to cancer and other adverse health effects.
“This order demonstrates that [the] EPA will take action to safeguard public health and the environment from these dangerous contaminants,†EPA Mid-Atlantic Regional Administrator Adam Ortiz said in an April 26 agency news release heralding an administrative consent order aimed at PFAS in the facility’s stormwater and effluent discharges.
But the EPA has yet to approve a plan Chemours submitted per the order to comply with permitted limits for PFAS discharges into the Ohio River, holding up potential pollution control at outlets with total discharge limit exceedances of 2,000% and more last year.
Offner said last week there was no new update of EPA’s review of the Chemours plan.
Chemours’ proposed plan says it would take roughly 31 months to implement fully following EPA approval, pushing the targeted time frame for completion well into 2026.
The EPA required Chemours to submit its proposed plan within 120 days of its April 26 administrative consent order, and Chemours’ submitted plan is dated Aug. 24.
“Every day that treatment is delayed is another day of increased risk to West Virginians’ health,†West Virginia Rivers Coalition Executive Director Angie Rosser said in December.
If approved and implemented, the plan would address four outlets at Chemours’ Washington Works facility, three of which discharge directly into the Ohio River. The plan pledges that it would result in consistently meeting water pollution control permit limits for two PFAS: hexafluoropropylene oxide-dimer acid, or HFPO-DA, a processing aid used in industrial manufacturing at the facility, and perfluorooctanoic acid, or PFOA.
The plan estimates that it would take 14 months for design, five months for bidding and contracting, nine months for permitting and 10 months for construction.
The EPA has reported that monthly average and daily maximum HFPO-DA water pollution control permit exceedances of 2,043% and 3,117%, respectively, took place in July and September 2022 at facility outlets.
The 2018 permit includes limits for industrial and stormwater discharges, and a combination thereof from permitted outlets.
The EPA has said a 2020 agency study of PFOA and HFPO-DA used at the facility supports a finding that those PFAS were deposited into soils as far as 30 miles from the facility and 25 miles into surface waters from the facility.
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