You did it again! Your advocacy stopped a bill that would have weakened drinking water protections under the Aboveground Storage Tank Act!

During the final days of the legislative session, the Senate Energy, Industry, and Mining Committee unanimously voted to table HB 2598, the bill that would have removed mandatory inspections by qualified professionals of aboveground oil and gas tanks closest to drinking water intakes. Read an article in the Charleston Gazette-Mail.

Your comments played an important role in shining a light on why professional inspections are so important for drinking water safety! Your advocacy stopped this bill from advancing.

Watoga State Park is ineligible for any private development under HB 4408. Photo by Watoga State Park Foundation.

The following provisions were amended into the rule:

• We were successful in guaranteeing public input on proposed new development in the County where the park is located.;
• the leasing terms were shortened;
• Watoga State Park is exempted from any private development to preserve its dark skies designation;
• and we protected our state parks from wholesale privatization.

Throughout the session, we advocated for funding to equip the WVDEP Office of Oil & Gas with enough inspectors to keep our water safe.

Right now, WVDEP has only 9 inspectors responsible for 75,000 wells – that’s 1 inspector for every 8,000 wells! That’s unacceptable for the state agency tasked with the regulatory oversite of oil and gas.

The revised water quality standards rule quickly advanced through the Legislature and was signed into law by the Governor in February.

It’s been a 5-year slog to push the state to update human health protections within our water quality standards. Our persistent involvement, and your voices, were successful in establishing stronger criteria for 30 toxic chemicals. This would not have happen without your advocacy!

The Legislature is beginning to acknowledge the state is at great risk in making sure mining reclamation liabilities are covered. However, SB 1 does not address the root of the structural problems that puts taxpayers potentially on the hook for coal companies that walk away from their reclamation responsibilities.

Instead, SB 1 puts $50 million (and potentially much more) of taxpayer money into a new private company set up to insure the highest risk coal companies. The bill passed and is headed to the Governor’s desk. We believe SB 1 is unwise policy; read our comments here.