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Winds of Change Newsletter, March 2008 See sidebar for table of contents
Department for Every Polluter?
In "DEP still behind on pollution monitoring; No
citations or fines issued for mine water violations in late 06, early
07," Ken Ward Jr. of the Charleston Gazette reported on Jan. 20,
2008:
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Take Action
Are you thinking its
time to put the "protection" back in the Department of
Environmental Protection? When the DEP doesnt operate well,
human health suffers and our state misses out on millions of
dollars. We need a strong DEP if we are going to provide clean
water, good jobs, a healthy environment, and protection for the
states most important asset: our childrens future.
Take action! Visit OVECs website,
www.ohvec.org, and click on "Safe
Water and a Strong DEP" to find out how you can help. |
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When a federal government lawsuit over Massey Energy
Co. water pollution violations hit the courtroom in 2007, it was big
news. U.S. Environmental Protection Agency lawyers cited thousands of
water permit problems, enough to amount to 28 violations per day over
a six-year period.
Most of the lawsuit was based on self-monitoring
pollution reports Massey subsidiaries filed every month with the state
Department of Environmental Protection. But ... DEP officials had not
been looking at the reports.
"The cop was clearly asleep for years," said Pat
Parenteau, an environmental law professor at the Vermont Law School. "It
is really an indictment of the enforcement program."
Despite efforts by DEP to improve, the agency is
still about a year behind in reviewing the coal industrys pollution
reports, officials said. And the agency has not issued any citations or
assessed fines for any violations discovered on reports it reviewed for
late 2006 and early 2007
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