Coal Ash Permits Panned

DEP criticized for meeting format

Morgantown Dominion Post
18 October 2011
By David Beard

A public-comment meeting on a Monongalia County coal ash dump swelled into a verbal smackdown of the W.Va. Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) for the way it structured the meeting.

Residents said they were unpleasantly surprised to learn they would be speaking into a tape recorder — not to a crowd — and Delegate Barbara Evans Fleischauer, D-Monongalia, delivered a tongue lashing for the DEP staffers to take back to their bosses.

The meeting concerned Coresco LLC’s applications to renew and expand a coal ash refuse facility near Maidsville and the Longview Power plant, bordering Crafts Run and Crooked Run — both Monongahela River tributaries.

Comments about the plan were uniformly negative.

Coresco wants to renew its current permit for 140.3-acre refuse dump and expand it to a total 337.62 acres, according to DEP staff at the meeting. The land is owned by Coresco affiliate Mepco LLC and Longview Power LLC. All three are GenPower Holdings subsidiaries, according to GenPower documents.

James Laurita, of Morgantown, is Mepco president and CEO.

The current facility accepts coal ash — derived from coal combustion — from area power plants, including adjacent Longview Power, said Brian Osborn, a Mepco vice president representing Coresco.

Residents who came to the Granville Volunteer Fire Department social hall Monday evening said they were expecting a public hearing, where they could hear each other address DEP staff.

But Randy Moore, DEP Division of Mining Reclamation permitting supervisor, said it was intended as an informal conference. Experts were set up at one end of the room to answer questions about the site. A small table with a video camera and tape recorder was at the other. Speakers would have their backs to the crowd, facing the wall and Moore, sitting behind the table.

The first few speakers cooperated, sitting and speaking into the recorder. Then Fleischauer’s turn came. She stood, and could be heard across the room.

“This forum is ridiculous,” she said. “A public hearing is for the public. [This] is inconsistent with what everyone in the Legislature thinks of as a public hearing.”

Fleischauer and several others demanded that the DEP hold a real hearing.

After Fleischauer, the rest of the speakers stood near the recorder and directed their comments to the crowd.

Moore explained that this was actually an informal conference, not a hearing. The format is experimental and designed to let residents directly address the DEP — not each other. And it’s intended to give a voice to people afraid to address crowds.

Residents said they were unimpressed with the experiment. They’d prefer regular hearings.

Negative feedback

The DEP put the head count at about 25, and Moore confirmed that not a single person spoke in favor of the permits.

Anne Hereford, with Downstream Strategies, said her company has studied water quality upstream and downstream of the site. Downstream, the water is polluted. Sodium and arsenic levels are higher, and conductivity — indicating higher salt levels — is up.

Although the Environmental Protection Agency does not consider coal ash a hazardous waste, residents said it contains high levels of toxic arsenic, barium, chromium, lead, mercury and more.

Cassville resident Petra Wood said that with the evidence showing the current refuse site is already degrading the environment, the DEP should deny the renewal and the expansion.

Jim Sconyers, chairman of the West Virginia Sierra Club chapter, announced that Sierra, the Highlands Conservancy and the Fort Martin Community Association have teamed to give notice of intent to file suit against Coresco for allegedly violating its National Pollution Discharge Elimination System (NPDES) permits for the existing facility.

They are giving Coresco 60 days to correct the alleged violations before filing.

“How imprudent can you be?” Sconyers asked the DEP regarding its consideration of site expansion.

Delegate Mike Manypenny told the story of a 1,000-acre lake in his home county of Hancock that is now no longer a lake — it got filled in with coal ash.

And Cynthia Solomon, a principal in Solo Enterprises, and officer in Vic’s Garage and Morgantown Towing, said she owns 163 acres next to the site that will become worthless and undevelopable if the facility expands.

Osborn said the refuse facility is considered a beneficial use of coal ash, since it’s mixed with coal refuse and serves to mitigate acid drainage. He didn’t have precise numbers on hand, but said the site has an expected life of 20-30 years. It would be filled and reclaimed as pasture in stages.

Right now, the refuse is about 150-200 feet deep, and could get as deep as 250 feet, he said.

He pointed out that the land in question isn’t pristine — it’s an old surface mine already disturbed by logging, sewage and other activities.

Clarence Wright, senior engineer in the DEP’s permit review staff, said Coresco’s NPDES applications for the two sites aren’t complete. They’ve been sent back for technical corrections.

Some residents demanded a second chance to comment when the applications are complete, when they will have full information on Coresco’s plans.