Local Group Vigilant in Keeping Waterways Safe
Washington PA Observer Reporter
20 November 2011
"The stuff that we have found is no good."
This is one of the first things Ken Dufalla, longtime resident of
Greene County and sportsman and president of the Harry Enstrom
Chapter of the Izaak Walton League of Greene County, tells me.
We're sitting in a conference room around a table with Jim Butler,
Greene County farm owner and key member of the league.
These guys don't look anything like your stereotypical, REI-clad
environmentalists. Dufalla wears a plaid button-up over a T-shirt.
He looks like he just walked in from the woods. And he may have.
The local chapter of the Izaak Walton League, which according to
its membership pledge, "strive[s] for the purity of water, the
clarity of air, and the wise stewardship of the land and its
resources," now boasts 47 trained volunteers testing the water at
"more than forty locations, covering all head streams in Greene
County, some in Monongalia (W.Va.) County, and some in Washington
County."
Dufalla wants to make one thing clear: The Izaak Walton League is
not opposed to "proper and regulated drilling or proper and
regulated mining." The league is willing to work - and is working
- with people in the extractive industry, and it is working
closely alongside the state Department of Environmental Protection
and also shares information with Environmental Protection Agency.
"But," he continues, "850,000 people depend upon the Monongahela
River daily for water. That must be protected."
Despite the vigilance of Dufalla, Butler and the league's
volunteers, "It is happening," Dufalla says. "We're getting
illegal material dumped into our waterways. We were fortunate
enough to catch a truck the other day.
The EPA has been in here, we have consulted the EPA, and there is
a lot of other stuff going on that the EPA is aware of."
Part of the problem, according to Butler and Dufalla, is that even
known issues may not be adequately resolved. Dufalla cites the
California, Pa., DEP, who, he says, reissued a permit for a
discharge site that was exceeding the standards set by the
Pennsylvania Environmental Quality Board Standards for Totally
Dissolved Solids and Electrical Conductivity. Water samples from
the area taken by Dufalla, the Harrisburg DEP, and the California
DEP showed there was a serious problem. "They reissued a permit
for one of the discharges two months after they were aware of the
problem," Dufalla says. "Now (the permit is) locked in for another
five years."
"They basically issued a permit on a site that was already in
violation of their own standards," Butler adds.
Butler and Dufalla continued to take me down unfamiliar roads,
filled with chemistry and terms that made my head spin. Walking
back to my car, I felt charged with heavy and even unwanted
information. I don't want to be afraid to give my daughters a
glass of water, and neither does Dufalla. At the end of the
interview before he shook my hand, he looked me in the eye and
said, "I want my grandkids to have a good life. I want your kids
to have a good life. I want you to be healthy. I guess I'm too old
to be afraid. It's time that this was brought to the forefront."
In future columns, I'll share more of what Dufalla and Butler told
me about Marcellus Shale wastewater, land issues and their vision
for a brighter future.
Meanwhile, you can read more about the Izaak Walton League and
watch a video about their work by visiting https://sites.google.com/site/harryenstromchapter/.
Stay tuned.