A reworked bill that makes changes
to the law passed after the 2014 Freedom Industries chemical spill on the Elk River is now moving through the Senate in the closing
weeks of the 2015 Regular Legislative Session.
The Senate Judiciary Committee’s
version of the bill amending the Aboveground Storage Tank Act would regulate
tanks in two zones: “zones of critical concern,” those within five hours water
travel time from public water intakes, and the newly-created “zones of
peripheral concern,” those within ten hours water travel time from public water
intakes.
Additionally, all tanks outside of
those zones that store more than 50,000 gallons of liquids or those containing
hazardous chemicals would also be subjected to regulations from the state
Department of Environmental Protection.
“The highest risk tanks, or the
tanks that pose the highest risks, the highest threat to our water intakes are
regulated and it does that,” said Randy Huffman, secretary of the state
Department of Environmental Protection, of the proposed revisions.
Huffman estimated the changes would
reduce the total number of aboveground storage tanks being regulated in West Virginia
“It gives us the protections that
we really sought after all along without regulating all these tanks that probably
didn’t need any additional scrutiny in order to provide the water protection,”
Huffman said.
The bill amending the Aboveground
Storage Tank Act, SB 423, is scheduled to be taken up on second reading Friday
in the state Senate. Passage could come early next week. The bill would then
have to go to the House of Delegates for consideration before the end of the
2015 Regular Legislative Session on March 14.
A similar bill is already pending
in the House Judiciary Committee.
The Legislature originally approved
the Act with bipartisan support in the weeks after the Freedom Industries
chemical spill of MCHM on Jan. 9, 2014 that contaminated tap water for 300,000 West Virginians in parts of nine counties.
