On April 15, 2015, the West Virginia Department of Environmental Protection (“WVDEP”) mailed out a generic order to all of the approximately 90 coal preparation plants in West Virginia. The Order requires prep plants to identify all chemical components of the products used at the plant as well as the outlets that could potentially receive these…
In January 2014, a leak of MCHM from a tank farm operated by Freedom Industries entered an intake for a public water system on the Elk River in Charleston, West Virginia. The State Legislature, already in town, responded to public outcry and cobbled together a complicated statutory and regulatory structure for aboveground tanks before adjourning in March 2014. WVDEP, unfamiliar with…
By order dated March 11, 2015, the West Virginia Environmental Quality Board (“EQB”) affirmed an earlier order by WVDEP revoking a laboratory certification granted to Appalachian Laboratories (“AppLabs”). WVDEP issued the order on October 16, 2014 in response to press accounts that a former employee of AppLabs (John Shelton) had pleaded guilty to diluting or falsifying water samples…
On January 13, 2015, the U.S. EPA published a preamble and final rule that places new restrictions on recycling under the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act of 1976 (RCRA), part of the Solid Waste Disposal Act, 42 U.S.C. §§ 6901-6992k. The revised regulations focus on businesses that recycle, often for a fee, hazardous secondary materials accepted from off-site industrial sources. The…