Virginia Water Resources Research Center Research in Coalfield Streams Highlighted in May 2013 Environmental Monitor Article

For several years, Virginia Water Resources Research Center Director Stephen Schoenholtz, Research Scientist Anthony Timpano, and several Virginia Tech graduate students have been studying the potential impact of total dissolved solids (TDS) on macroinvertebrates living in streams in Virginia’s coalfield area.  (Macroinvertebrates are animals that can be seen withou a microscope—“macro-“—and which do not have a backbone—“invertebrate.”  The large and varied group includes many insects, but also crustaceans, such as crayfish; mollusks, such as snails; worms; and other creatures.)  The research is important to federal and state regulation of coal-mining activities that affect water resources.  An overview of the work was published on May 17, 2013, by Environmental Monitor, a journal from Fondriest Environmental, Inc., of Fairborn, Ohio.  The article is available online at http://www.fondriest.com/news/mining-stream-insects-dissolved-solids.htm, or contact Fondriest Environmental at (888) 426-2151.

Virginia Proposes $340,000 Grants for Acid Mine Drainage Remediation in Powell River Watershed in Southwestern Virginia; Public Comment Period Runs through May 22, 2013

On April 30, 2013, Virginia Governor Robert McDonnell’s office announced that the Commonwealth intends to provide $340,000 for two projects to reduce nonpoint source pollution from acid mine drainage in southwestern Virginia’s Powell River watershed.  The projects would be at sites mined before the 1977 federal Surface Mine Control and Reclamation Act (1977) required reclamation.  The grants are subject to a 30-day public-comment period that runs from April 22-May 22, 2013.  The funds are to come from the state’s Water Quality Improvement Act and the projects would be administered by the Department of Conservation and Recreation (DCR).  The proposed projects would seek to remedy acid mine drainage along Straight Creek, a Powell River tributary in Lee County.  More information about the funding or the projects is available from Kelly Miller, the DCR’s Abingdon Regional Manager, at Kelly.miller@dcr.virginia.gov, or (276) 676-5529, ext. 11.

Source:  Governor McDonnell Announces Intent to Award $340,000 Grant for Acid Mine Drainage Water Quality Projects, Virginia Governor’s Office News Release, 4/30/13

A Washington Post Look at the Issue of Coal Ash Disposal

A 10/14/12 Washington Post article examines the issue of disposal of an estimated 140 million tons of coal ash (the solid material remaining after coal combustion) from 431 coal-fired power plants in the United States.  According to the Post article, about 40 percent of the ash produced is used in products such as concrete or wallboard, but the rest is stored in landfills, ponds, or mines.  The stored ash has in some cases resulted in water contamination, and these incidents have led to consideration by the U.S. EPA of stricter regulation on coal ash disposal.  The article examines the history and current status of this issue.

Source:  Coal ash decision stymied in election year, Washington Post, 10/14/12.

For a Virginia example of coal-ash disposal case in Virginia, please see the Water Central News Grouper item, Update (as of February 2012) on Lawsuit over Use of Coal-combustion Fly Ash for Golf Course in City of Chesapeake, Va., posted 3/22/12.

Acid Mine Drainage from Borehole in Old Forge, Penn., Described in Aug. 28, 2012, Scranton Times-Tribune Article

Old Forge Borehole offers intrigue and concern for state, local leaders, Scranton (Pa.) Times-Tribune, 8/28/12.  This article describes what one observer called “the biggest, baddest source of mine drainage in the east”: a “borehole” in Old Forge, Pennsylvania, designed to release underground water from an old mining system that, if left unreleased, can cause surface flooding.  The borehole works to help avoid flooding, but its discharge of some 60 million to 100 million gallons per day results in acidic drainage in the Lackawanna and Susquehanna rivers.  The Susquehanna is a major tributary of the Chesapeake Bay.  Click on the title to access the article, or contact the Scranton Times-Tribune at 149 Penn Avenue Scranton, PA 18503; phone 800-22-TIMES (228-4637); main Web site: http://thetimes-tribune.com/.

“The Future of Coal”–Op-ed Column in Roanoke Times by Appalachian School of Law Professor Buzz Belleville

An August 8, 2012, Roanoke Times op-ed piece by Buzz Belleville, a faculty member at the Appalachian School of Law in Grundy, Va., discusses a “confluence of events over the past few years” that has reduced the U.S. coal consumption (from about 50 percent of the fuel used for U.S. electrical generation to 36 percent in 2012).  Mr. Belleville asserts that the main reason for a drop in U.S. consumption is competition from new, large supplies of currently inexpensive natural gas, combined with “maturation of renewable energy sources and efforts to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.”  Issues over air quality, mine safety, and disposal of coal-combustion by-products are also involved.  In the Appalachian region, a current focus is three recent court decisions in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia over the U.S. EPA’s use of the Clean Water Act to limit stream valley fills resulting from mountaintop mining.  Mr. Belleville’s piece discusses those cases and their legal and regulatory background.   See The future of coal, Roanoke Times, 8/8/12.

For more on one of the three court cases discussed by Mr. Belleville, please see the Water Central News Grouper item, Federal District Court Rules July 31, 2012, that U.S. EPA Exceeded Authority in July 2011 Guidance on Regulation of Water-quality Impacts of Appalachian Mountaintop Coal Mining, posted 8/3/12.

Federal District Court Rules July 31, 2012, that U.S. EPA Exceeded Authority in July 2011 Guidance on Regulation of Water-quality Impacts of Appalachian Mountaintop Coal Mining

On July 31, 2012, U.S. District Court Judge Reggie B. Walton (federal district court for the District of Columbia) ruled that the U.S. EPA exceeded its authority under the federal Clean Water Act (CWA) and the federal Surface Mining and Reclamation Act (SMRCA) in the July 21, 2011, regulatory guidance issued to regional EPA offices regarding permits for mountaintop coal-mining in Appalachian states.  (The July 2011 “final guidance” replaced an April 2010 “interim guidance” that had also been challenged in this federal district court.)  The judge held that the guidance’s in effect developed a water-quality standard, or a “regional water-quality criterion,” in its expectation for states to take into account such mining’s impacts stream levels of conductivity (a measure of the amount of solids dissolved in water).  The court held that this has illegally infringed upon the states’ water-quality standard-setting authority under the CWA.  Access to the court opinion is available online at https://ecf.dcd.uscourts.gov/cgi-bin/Opinions.pl?2012; the case is Civil Action No. 2010-1220, National Mining Association v. Jackson et al.  (This case combined three other cases: Civil Action No. 2011-0295, Huffman et al v. United States Environmental Protection Agency et al; Civil Action No. 2011-0447, Gorman Company, LLC et al v. Jackson et al; and Civil Action No. 2011-0446, Kentucky Coal Association v. United States Environmental Protection Agency et al.)

Sources: Web site for the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, at http://www.dcd.uscourts.gov/dcd/, 8/1/12; and US judge: EPA illegally seized powers given to states on water-quality guidance for coal mine, Associated Press, as published in Washington Post, 7/31/12.  Access to the July 21, 2011, guidance and related documents is available via EPA Issues Final Guidance to Protect Water Quality in Appalachian Communities from Impacts of Mountaintop Mining, U.S. EPA News Release, 7/21/11.

Three Organizations File Federal Clean Water Act Lawsuit in July 2012 Over Alleged Coal Mining Violations in Wise County, Va.

In late July 2012, three organizations filed a lawsuit in U.S. District Court for the Western District of Virginia in Big Stone Gap alleging that the Penn Virginia Operating Company violated the federal Clean Water Act by discharging pollutants without a permit to several streams at former mining sites in Wise County.  The suit, filed by Southern Appalachian Mountain Stewards, the Sierra Club, and Appalachian Voices, claims that the waterways received discharges of various metals from several mine-refuse piles, known as “gob piles.”  The suit seeks civil penalties, monitoring of the sites, and remediation of any violations found.  On July 30, a spokesperson for Penn Virginia told The Roanoke Times that the company believes it is in compliance with regulations.  The case is 2:12-cv-00020, Southern Appalachian Mountain Stewards et al v. Penn Virginia Operating Company, LLC.

Source:  Lawsuit accuses mining operation of pollution violations in Wise Co., Roanoke Times, 7/31/12

Proposed Coal-fired Power Plant in Surry County, Va., Now Has Town Approval But Faces a New Regulatory Environment

The publication on March 27, 2012, of draft U.S. EPA regulations on carbon emissions from new power plants led quickly to comments that Old Dominion Electric Cooperative’s (ODEC’s) proposed coal-fired Cypress Creek power plant in Surry County faces a doubtful future, despite the Town of Dendron’s renewed approved of the project.   On March 5, the Dendron Town Council voted for a second time to approve local permits for the proposed $5-billion, 1,500-megawatt plant, which would be the largest coal-fired plant in Virginia.  The council’s second vote of approval followed a successful lawsuit challenging the public-notice procedures of the council’s February 2010 vote to approve local permits (many other state and federal permits are still needed before construction on the plant could begin).  But the draft EPA rules would require that new power plants emit no more than 1000 pounds of carbon per megawatt generated, and the proposed Cypress Creek plant—as designed now—would emit an estimated 1700 pounds per megawatt generated.  The March 29, 2012, Virginian-Pilot, quoted David Hudgins, ODEC’s director of external relations, as saying that ODEC’s board would not approved the additional expense of technology to meet the proposed standards “with all this regulatory uncertainty in the air.”

Sources:  Dendron reaffirms approval of $5B coal-fired plant, Norfolk Virginian-Pilot, 3/7/12; New regulations could doom proposed Surry coal plant, Norfolk Virginian-Pilot, 3/29/12; EPA to reduce new power plants’ carbon pollution, Richmond Times-Dispatch, 3/28/12; and EPA Proposes First Carbon Pollution Standard for Future Power Plants/Achievable standard is in line with investments already being made and will inform the building of new plants moving forward, U.S. EPA News Release, 3/27/12

Update (as of February 2012) on Lawsuit over Use of Coal-combustion Fly Ash for Golf Course in City of Chesapeake, Va.

Here are some recent developments (as of late February 2012) over groundwater contamination from coal combustion by-products (fly ash) taken from Dominion Virginia Power’s Deep Creek Power Plant and used in 2002 to construct the Battlefield Golf Club’s course in Chesapeake.  On February 21, lawyers for about 400 people living near the golf course sued Dominion, the golf course’s owners, and two other parties, alleging that 10 people were damaged by groundwater contamination and asking for $2 billion in damages.  The complaint filed on February 21 alleges that the contamination from the golf course has affected some nearby residential wells.  A previous lawsuit, filed in March 2009, was dismissed in 2011 after the judge dismissed much of the case because plaintiffs had not shown sufficient evidence of damages from contamination.  Meanwhile, also in February a $10-million lawsuit against Dominion and another party was filed by a contractor who alleges that his work with fly ash in building the golf course over five years contributed to his developing kidney cancer.  Source:  Chesapeake fly ash suit against Dominion refiled, Norfolk Virginian-Pilot, 2/22/12.

Here is background on the situation and some previous developments:  1) Starting in 2002, some 1.5 million tons of ash from Dominion Virginia Power’s Deep Creek Power Plant were used in building the golf course.  Starting in March 2008, a series of Virginian-Pilot articles described the use of the ash and alleged impacts on nearby groundwater.  In August 2008, Dominion offered to provide up to $6 million to extend water-supply lines to the area near the golf course.  In April 2010, the U.S. EPA reported that it had found no public-health threat from contaminants in the soil beneath the course.  Since 2008, the EPA had paid a contractor to test 22 golf-course wells and 55 nearby residential wells.  In those tests, arsenic, lead, and other contaminants were found in the golf-course test wells, but EPA concluded that these materials were not moving from the golf course to the residential wells.  Lead had been found in some residential wells and the EPA offered to do further tests on those wells.  Dominion is to continue monitoring the golf course wells four times annually, under oversight by the Virginia Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ).  No current risk from golf course fly ash, EPA says, Virginian-Pilot, 4/23/10.

2) In October 2010, Allen Brockman, who worked from 2001 to 2009 as a groundwater specialist for the Virginia DEQ, provided the Virginian-Pilot with an affidavit in which Mr. Brockman asserted that the agency should not have allowed the course to be constructed with the fly ash, that the presence of contamination on the course should have led the DEQ to order the ash to be removed, and that the DEQ “took actions that were not in the public interest in order to, in my view, help or assist the corporate interests of the companies [the DEQ] regulated, including Dominion.”  Former worker: Agency’s OK to use fly ash ‘unconscionable’, Virginian-Pilot, 10/3/10.

3) On March 16, 2011, CDM Engineering released a 600-page study confirming that groundwater under the golf course was contaminated with up to 10 toxic substances, but that the contamination had not reached residences near the course.  Study: Groundwater under Chesapeake course tainted, Virginian-Pilot, 3/17/11.

Water Quality and Appalachian Coal Mining Series Concludes in Feb.13, 2012, Episode of Virginia Water Radio

Water resources are used and affected in important ways by mining and use of Appalachian coal.  One area of attention is water quality and aquatic habitat in streams located in coal-mining regions.  Virginia Water Radio has a series of three episodes based on recent public presentations in 2011 about water quality and coal mining.  Part 3 of the series (7 min./16 sec.) presents perspectives from a representative of Alpha Natural Resources, a major coal-mining company in Appalachia and Virginia.  Have a listen at the following link: Episode 99 (Feb. 13, 2012).

Virginia Water Radio, online at http://www.virginiawaterradio.org, is the Virginia Water Resources Research Center’s weekly podcast using sounds and music to focus on issues, events, people, and creatures connected to Virginia’s waters.