DEP Should Step Aside at Dunkard
The Daily Athenaeum
29 September 2009
Opinion
The West Virginia Department of Environmental Protection should step
aside in an investigation regarding the recent fish kill in Dunkard
Creek.
The fish kill began several weeks ago and wiped out virtually all
aquatic life along the 30-mile stretch of the Monongahela River
tributary.
Thousands of fish, crayfish, mussels and salamanders have been piling
up on the banks of the stream, which was one of two Monongahela
tributaries that contained the rare salamander and snuffbox mussels.
In total, 160 species were eliminated.
Division of Natural Resource Biologist Frank Jernejcic told West
Virginia Public Broadcasting that "(the aquatic life) probably will not
be replaced for decades."
WVDEP officials believe that high chloride levels and the presence of
dissolved solids resulted in a non-native bloom of "golden algae" that
made the water conditions uninhabitable tor aquatic life as it made
its way downstream.
Yet, those same officials have yet to determine what precisely caused
those water conditions.
While the conditions were initially believed to be caused by toxic
discharge from mine sites, a report in the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
alleged that state Post-Gazette alleged that state agencies are now
investigating the possibility of illegal dumping of wastewater from the
Marcellus Shale natural gas mine.
These conditions are similar to the brine waste created from the
extraction of methane from that seam.
Helicopters were sent to search for signs of covert dumping.
The fish kill began weeks ago, and still mining representatives and
WVDEP officials have come no closer to determining the source of the
incident.
And it is sickening.
It's no secret that in politics, industry regulators often look
industry regulators often look out for the industry they regulate more
so than the public interests they were entrusted to protect.
In economics, the practice is referred to as "capture theory."
It is time for state officials to step aside and for the federal step
aside and for the federal government - in this instance the EPA - to
determine fault for the Dunkard Creek tragedy and ensure that it never
happens again.
daperspectives@mail.wvu.edu