Press Release

April 22, 2008

Contact: Donna Branham: 304-475- 2421
Patricia Feeney: 304-360-2110

Citizens Present $ 2.4 Billion to State Legislature on Earth Day

CHARLESTON, W.VA.—Earth Day (Tuesday, April 22) at the state capitol, an alliance of citizen groups, union workers, and environmental organizations called for the legislature to protect the health and wellbeing of West Virginians. They present a mock check for $2.4 billion to the West Virginia state legislature.

“We would like the legislature to have these billions that could be coming into the state if the Department of Environmental Protection would collect the over due fines from violators,” said Gordon Simmons, President of the Local UE 170. “Unfortunately, there is no money to collect, as the DEP has not been doing their job to hold polluters accountable.”

“We are here today because we want to support the DEP,” said Donna Branham, OVEC member from Mingo County. “We want good jobs for the state workers, we want a DEP that has the resources they need to do their job, and so we are asking the state legislature to conduct an audit of the DEP, assess why they have been missing these billions of dollars, and get them the resources they need to protect our health and our environment.”

Speakers cited the $20 million dollar settlement between the federal Environmental Protection Agency and Massey Energy for more than four thousand violations of the Clean Water Act in West Virginia and Kentucky. If the state had collected the full amount of the fines, it would have totaled $2.4 billion.

During the press conference, citizens presented more than 600 petition signatures, which they delivered to the Speaker of the House and the Senate President by way of the clerks’ offices. The groups will continue collecting signatures on the petition, which calls for the legislature to audit the DEP, fill the 100 job vacancies in the DEP, assess why the agency has missed so many fines, and postpone the issuance of any future permits until the audit is complete and the fines are collected.

“DEP's Oil and gas division issues 3,000 drilling permits a year, and yet has only 16 inspectors to cover the whole state, period,” said Gary Zuckett, Executive Director of the West Virginia Citizen Action Group. “West Virginia now has 45,000 active wells. That's not counting the 10,000 inactive wells that, if ignored, pose a serious threat to our ground water. Increasing DEP's capacity to enforce existing laws is desperately needed, but so is the will to make polluters follow the law.”

The event was sponsored by the Ohio Valley Environmental Coalition, West Virginia Public Workers Union, Coal River Mountain Watch, Concerned Citizens of Mingo County, West Virginia Citizen Action Group, the WV Environmental Council, Sustainable Living for West Virginia, Keepers of the Mountain Foundation, Student Environmental Action Coalition, Sierra Club and other concerned citizens.

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For photos of the event, e-mail vivan@ohvec.org or call Vivian at 304-360-1979