Selenium bill meets resistance, but sent to full House

Mar 05 - The Dominion Post (Morgantown, W.Va.)

Proponents of a House bill to set a new standard for a chemical in mine runoff touted it as a boon to the coal industry.

Opponents panned it as opening the door to poison fish and, ultimately, people.

The House Judiciary Committee sent HB 2579 to the House floor by voice vote.

The chemical is selenium -- found in vitamin pills and dandruff shampoo and in the ground. Coal mining and other ground-disturbing activity can dislodge it and send it into streams, where high concentrations can disfigure and poison fish.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) sets the safe drinking water standard for selenium at 50 parts per billion (or micrograms per liter, mcg/L), with mine effluent limits of 20 mcg/L for "acute" levels (short term) and 5 mcg/L for "chronic" (long term) levels. This standard was set in 1987, Department of Environmental Protection Secretary Randy Huffman said. The EPA has been unsuccessfully attempting to revise the standard for the past six years, and it likely won't happen in the next four.

In the absence of EPA action, the bill proposes to use those numbers as a threshold to trigger toxicity studies. During an extensive Q&A with Delegate Barbara Evans Fleischauer, D-Monongalia, about interpretation of the bill, Huffman said any discharge from any permitted site that exceeds those amounts would trigger a fish population study and monitoring plan. The data would be sent to WVU's Water Research Institute for analysis and used to shape new state standards.

Huffman said a single standard isn't appropriate because selenium in standard water affects fish differently from selenium in moving stream water. It's likely the DEP would recommend at least two standards, and possibly more -- perhaps one for each site based on its specific needs.

Fourteen people spoke at the public hearing. Bill proponents said the EPA standards are excessive -- 10 times more stringent that the drinking water standard of 50 mcg/L -- and punitive to the coal industry. Coal firms have to spend tens of millions of dollars to mitigate selenium although there is no scientific evidence connecting selenium discharge to disfigured fish.

Opponents said the bill favors the coal industry at the cost of wildlife and human safety. "This is a dishonest and shameful attempt to allow mountaintop removal companies to pollute streams," said Diane Bady with the Ohio Valley Environmental Coalition.

Huffman told members that a 2010 state study was inconclusive. It showed some deformed fish, but not enough to be statistically significant or demonstrate cause and effect.

Before the vote, Delegate Clif Moore, D-McDowell, pointed out coal community residents in the audience and said they wouldn't deliberately expose their families to toxins.

"We 're trying to revitalize," he said. "We 're trying to resurrect. We're trying to diversify. This bill will help that."

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