April 19, 2020
The Jefferson County Foundation continues to work hard on multiple fronts to serve the people of our region. This report covers the Foundation’s activity in April thus far. Contact us to receive updates directly at https://bit.ly/3anQcIr. As always, we sincerely appreciate your support of our work. http://bit.ly/33yxyKc
Foundation Files Constitutional Challenge to Illegal Tax Breaks for Rockwool
This past week, Jefferson County Foundation formally filed a lawsuit in the Kanawha County Circuit Court against the West Virginia Economic Development Authority (WVEDA) and Roxul USA, Inc. alleging the unconstitutionality of the WVEDA’s resolution to authorize tax breaks for Rockwool. The WVEDA disregarded clear local community opposition to the Rockwool project and authorized up to $150 million in state bonds secured by Rockwool’s Ranson property which would be held by the state for up to 10 years during which time Rockwool would not pay taxes. This scheme is blatantly unfair and illegal as it allows uneven application of tax laws which is prohibited by Article X of the West Virginia Constitution. On the Foundation’s legal team for this challenge is a leading West Virginia constitutional law scholar from WVU Law. To read about the complaint, go here: http://bit.ly/2wWTbte
Foundation Seeks Legal Stay of Route 9 Sewer Construction Until Proper Permitting Put in Place
On April 6, Jefferson County Foundation filed a Motion to Stay to stop the construction of the Route 9 Sewer until the public comment period and the new permit registration under the 2019 construction stormwater general permit could be approved. Importantly, the 2019 permit requires a Karst Mitigation Plan be developed and followed. Unfortunately, the Order under which construction is currently taking place allows work to be done under the 2012 permit conditions, which lack Karst Mitigation Plan requirements. Because of the karst hydrogeology of the area in which the sewer is being installed, there are both immediate and long-term risks to the groundwater.
On Wednesday, April 15, there was a hearing on the Motion to Stay before the WV Environmental Quality Board (“EQB”). Through its counsel the Foundation argued that if the area aquifers were contaminated with construction runoff or sewage, this would be an irreparable harm and that suspension of the construction was appropriate to make the process safer. Charles Town and CTUB hired counsel to represent them in this proceeding, likely paying thousands of dollars of taxpayer money to argue against the Foundation’s request to temporarily stop the construction so that appropriate precautions could be taken. For their part, Rockwool and Snyder Environmental also intervened in the Foundation’s appeal of the WV Department of Environmental Protection (“DEP”) action. The way the Foundation sees it, they argued that their time and money is more important than protecting our environment. The lawyer from Snyder Environmental in fact said that if there was some sort of contamination, damages could just be paid. While we realize this is how corporate lawyers usually think, this is relatively shocking coming from a locally owned business that purports to care about the local people. In the end, unfortunately, the EQB sided with those who argued that they would lose money if the project was suspended until appropriate permit conditions could be applied and met.
We are sorely disappointed that Snyder Environmental, Inc. and the City of Charles Town will be allowed to complete the Rockwool sewer without proper compliance with the appropriate permit’s conditions that would have protected Jefferson County water. The WVEQB did not recognize the irreparable harm caused by not having appropriate karst protections in place. If something happens in the future due to the ways this sewer is being built, we should all remember the response of these parties to the Foundation’s straightforward request that there be compliance with the right construction stormwater permit. Jefferson County Foundation is evaluating next steps on this matter.
Foundation Files Comments on Charles Town Construction Stormwater Permit Application
On Friday, the Foundation submitted public comment on Charles Town’s Construction Stormwater General Permit Registration Application to the DEP. You can read our comments here (https://bit.ly/3anQcIr). The public submitted almost 100 comments via our website to the DEP. When asked to supply more detail in the GPP (Groundwater Protection Plan) to make it site specific, CTUB instead just whited out the word generic and construction site and wrote in the route 9, and added no further detail (see the photo. We did not edit these, it’s all CTUB). We will be keeping an eye on this proceeding and will keep you posted.
Foundation Follows Up on Millville Violations Complaint
This week, the Foundation’s permitting and monitoring teams followed up to confirm appropriate actions are being taken to address Millville Quarry stormwater violations from the March 11 inspection conducted as a result of our DEP complaint. Limestone sludge had been previously found to be running into the Shenandoah River through an unpermitted outlet. The Millville Quarry has reported to the DEP inspector that they have improved their stormwater handling but they have still not removed the sludge from the outlet or the culvert. We are pleased to report that the DEP inspector assigned to this matter is working diligently to ensure they come into compliance. We would like to thank her for her dedication and hard work on this issue.
Jefferson County Foundation Supports WV Rivers Coalition Work on Important Regulation
We encourage you to submit public comment to the DEP to oppose the use of a weakened standard for assessing aquatic life as part of water quality compliance testing. Our friends at WV Rivers have made it easy to submit comments on their website and they have great information on the subject here: https://wvrivers.salsalabs.org/wvdepbiologicalas…/index.html