Members of Governor Earl Ray
Tomblin’s Administration continued work Wednesday to identify possible
administrative fixes for problems found within the Above Ground Storage Act.
That water protection law, among
many things, requires registrations and certified inspections of storage tanks
like the Freedom Industries tank that leaked along the Elk River in Kanawha County
in January and put more than 10,000 gallons of a coal processing chemical into
the water source for some 300,000 West Virginians .
Earlier this week, Gov. Tomblin was
preparing to call a Special Session for next month so lawmakers could change
the timetable for the implementation of the bill, but backed off of those plans
— at least temporarily — after hearing from environmental groups.
As of now, as many as 40,000 tanks
in West Virginia
Angie Rosser, executive director of
the West Virginia Rivers Coalition, said delaying the established deadline is
not be the only option. “If the sticking point is just this certification, Jan.
1 deadline and not having the standards out in time, could we expedite getting
those standards out now?”
Smaller oil and gas operators have
been pushing for exemptions from the inspection requirements citing the
practicality and costs of compliance when, in some cases, their tanks contain
only water or brine, not dangerous chemicals and do not threaten the water
supply.
Industry representatives have
complained they can’t meet the Jan. 1 deadline because there are not enough
inspectors to look at all of the tanks in time.
“I think that there is another
solution out there that could address some of the concerns of the small oil and
gas operators and tank owners as well as give us confidence that this state is
on top of this and that they take deadlines seriously,” Rosser said.
SB 373, the Above Ground Storage
Act, was written and passed as a response to the Freedom Industries chemical
spill where the tank that leaked was not required, by law, to undergo regular
inspections. When the spill was first discovered, DEP officials did not
immediately know what exactly was stored there.
“We know that public confidence was
profoundly shaken on Jan. 9. People were just amazed that there was this big of
a loophole in the law,” Rosser said.
Tomblin has said a Special Session is still an option. If such a
Special Session is called, it will most likely be held during September
interims which are scheduled from Sept. 8-10.
