An editorial from The Herald-Dispatch
HUNTINGTON, W.Va. — A year ago in Charleston, lawmakers were busy grappling with an issue that wasn’t even on their radar heading into the 2014 legislative session: How do we protect the state’s drinking water supplies?
The question was thrust upon them by the leak of a chemical from an above-ground storage tank located less than two miles upstream from a water intake for the West Virginia American Water treatment and distribution plant in Charleston. The spill of the coal-cleaning agent contaminated the water supply in a nine-county area, forcing about 300,000 residents to go without tap water for several days and raising concerns about possible health effects.
The incident exposed significant shortcomings in the oversight of above-ground storage tanks, such as their location, their contents, inspection requirements and the level of threat they posed to public water supplies. The result was a law requiring businesses to register with the state any above-ground storage tanks falling into certain requirements, mandating the tanks be inspected or certified as safe, be protected by containment barriers to prevent widespread leakage and that plans be in place to deal with any spills.
So far, 48,000 tanks have been registered under the law, with about 7,500 of them facing closer scrutiny because of their location near a water supply or because they are considered higher risk.
But a bill introduced this week in the House of Delegates would appear to seriously undermine the scope of protections spelled out in the new law…