Dec 17, 2020
Dec 17, 2020
CHARLESTON â The West Virginia Stream Partners Program recently announced the recipients of its annual grant awards, with 17 watershed groups receiving grant amounts totaling $77,025.
Locally, the Morris Creek Watershed Association will receive a $5,000 grant.
The West Virginia Stream Partners Program is a cooperative effort between the West Virginia Department of Environmental Protection (WVDEP), the state Division of Natural Resources (DNR), the state Division of Forestry, and the Soil Conservation Agency. The program has $100,000 appropriated each year to award to watershed associations interested in protecting and restoring state streams. This year, 17 organizations received funds up to $5,000 each.
âThe West Virginia Stream Partners Program is proud to support the watershed volunteers across this state who have dedicated years to the love of West Virginia and our streams and rivers,â said Stream Partners coordinator Jenn
In August 1985, eight months after the leak of a highly toxic gas called methyl isocyanate from a Union Carbide Corporation pesticide plant in Bhopal, India, that killed thousands and caused permanent disabilities or premature death for many thousands more, an accidental release of aldicarb oxime from Union Carbideâs plant in Institute sent at least 135 people to the hospital.
The following year, Congress passed the Emergency Planning and Community Right-to-Know Act, which requires industrial operators to report on the storage, use and releases of hazardous chemicals to federal, state and local governments. The lawâs aim is to increase the publicâs knowledge of chemicals at individual facilities, their uses and releases into the environment.
Today
Cloudy skies. Slight chance of a rain shower. High 63F. Winds W at 5 to 10 mph..
Tonight
A few passing clouds, otherwise generally clear. Low around 45F. Winds WNW at 5 to 10 mph. Updated: April 12, 2021 @ 11:58 am
December 16, 2020 GMT
CHARLESTON, W.Va. (AP) The head of West Virginia’s Department of Environmental Protection is leaving state government in January, the governor announced.
Austin Caperton, 69, has served as cabinet secretary since January 2017. Gov. Jim Justice said Tuesday his replacement will be appointed once he leaves his post. The agency is in charge of regulating everything from air and water quality to overseeing abandoned mine lands.
“It has been an honor and a privilege to serve the great state of West Virginia and its citizens,” Caperton said in a statement. He said this year has made him “realize, more than ever, that our days are limited.
CHARLESTON â Chlorinated dry bleach and methanol were present in a fire that burned for two hours after a fatal explosion at the Optima Chemical facility on the Chemours Co.âs site in Belle, West Virginia, on Tuesday, Dec. 8, according to emergency responders.
An emergency and hazardous chemical inventory that Optima Belle LLC submitted to the West Virginia Emergency Management Division as required by the division for a reporting period spanning all of 2019 lists 18 chemicals, half of which were listed as explosive or flammable.
Methanol was one of the flammable chemicals, and CDB 63, a chlorinated dry bleach product that emergency responders said was present in the fire, was not listed at all.