From the Register-Herald
Citizens, advocates criticize DEP for failing to defend water quality standards
CHARLESTON — About 30 people turned out for a public listening session Thursday at the Department of Environmental Protection, with most criticizing the DEP for recently opting not to defend its own proposal to update water quality standards.
After the federal Environmental Protection Agency recommended West Virginia update standards for amounts of pollutants allowed in West Virginia rivers and streams in 2015, the DEP released last year its proposal to update about 60 of those standards.
For about two-thirds of the standards, less pollution would have been permitted in West Virginia waterways. For about one-third, more pollution would have been allowed.
But in late November, at the request of the West Virginia Manufacturers Association, the state lawmakers who were members of a joint rule-making committee decided to leave the standards the way they are instead, at levels enacted in the 1980s.
Thursday, the DEP held a public meeting at its Kanawha City office on those standards. The rule-making committee's decision, as well as the DEP's decision not to defend its own proposal before the
