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 uninhabit able 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