Jan 1, 2021
Jan 1, 2021
We love our majestic mountains and beautiful valleys but our natural resources demand strong stewardship to preserve for future generations.
In the 2021 legislative session, water quality will again come before our state representatives. Our state Department of Environmental Protection (WVDEP) is required to submit recommendations to our legislature periodically under the federal Clean Waters Act. You might remember that in 2019, our WV legislature voted on updating the acceptable limits of 60 water contaminants, as recommended by the WVDEP. As reported in this paper, and others, the West Virginia Manufacturing Association argued against these recommendations, raising concerns about industryâs costs in meeting these standards and shockingly asserting that since West Virginians are more obese than the national average we are therefore able to tolerate higher levels of water contamination than other Americans. Appallingly, these arguments ap