By David Beard, The Dominion Post
MORGANTOWN, W.Va. – Every legislative session there are one or two prominent bills that pit the interests of industry against the environmental community.
HB 2598 is one of those. It was before the House Energy and Manufacturing Committee Tuesday.
It seeks to once again modify the 2014 above-ground storage tank (AST) legislation that followed the Freedom Industries chemical spill that contaminated the water supply for about 300,000 people in the Kanawha River Valley. Subsequent 2015 legislation reduced the number of tanks regulated.
This bill is aimed at excluding small tanks that hold wastewater and other chemicals from old conventional vertical oil and gas wells.
It would specifically exempt tanks having a capacity of 210 barrels (8,820 gallons) or less, containing brine water or other fluids produced in connection with oil and gas production activities within a zone of critical concern. A zone of critical concern is defined as five hours or less upstream of a drinking water intake…
