The Senate Judiciary Committee will
be the next stop for legislation that would create regulations for all above
ground chemical storage facilities in West
Virginia
On Wednesday, the Senate Natural
Resources Committee approved SB 373 with little discussion. It’s a bill
Senate Majority Leader John Unger (D-Berkeley) introduced last week in response
to the Jan. 9 chemical leak on the Elk River in Kanawha County
A mixture of crude MCHM and PPH
leaked from a storage tank belonging to Freedom Industries and was carried
downstream to the intake for West Virginia American Water Company’s
Kanawha Valley Water Treatment Plant. The facility provides water to
300,000 people.
“If you have an above ground
storage facility of liquids, then you need to register and have regular
inspections,” Unger has said of the proposal.
Governor Earl Ray Tomblin has
offered a different proposal that was introduced in the Senate on Wednesday and
also sent to the Senate Natural Resources Committee for consideration.
The West Virginia Source Protection
Act, SB 417, would require registrations and annual inspections only for above
ground sites storing chemicals in areas categorized as “zones of critical
concern,” including those upstream from water intakes.
The bill would also mandate that
water companies have contingency plans for water emergencies.
Senator Bill Laird (D-10, Raleigh),
chairman of the Senate Natural Resources Committee, said it’s up to legislators
to work out the details.
“Our responsibility will be to take
the best components of each bill to craft legislation to ensure that things
like this do not occur in the future,” said Laird.
“We want to know where these tanks
are, what’s in them and how to make sure that proper steps are taken to ensure
that the integrity of those storage tanks is maintained.”
The 2014 Regular Legislative
Session continues through Saturday, March 8.
