EPA Approves Most of W.Va.'s Water Quality Rules
The State Journal
7 February 2012
MORGANTOWN, W.Va. (AP) - Regulators say the Environmental
Protection Agency has approved all but 1 of West Virginia's
proposed water quality standards.
The Department of Environmental Protection must review its
standards every three years. It said Tuesday the EPA found most
consistent with federal regulations.
The exception was language allowing the state to use what it calls
"weight of evidence" in determining whether nutrient levels are
high enough to declare a waterway impaired.
Water standards chief Kevin Coyne says DEP doesn't want to declare
impairment unless a waterway has both elevated phosphorous
concentrations and corresponding chlorophyll levels.
The EPA proposes making the declaration on phosphorous levels
alone.
Coyne says the agencies have been working on a compromise. He says
several other states are having similar differences of opinion
with the EPA on the issue.