The Foundation filed another complaint with the West Virginia Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) last week outlining several concerns about Rockwool’s handling of stormwater at their Ranson facility. “There are activities that appear to be occurring at the site, that are not described in or in accordance with Rockwool’s Multi-Sector Stormwater General Permit (MSGP) registration materials,” the letter states. “It is imperative for the protection of human health and the environment that the DEP determine what is occurring at the Rockwool site and ensure that Rockwool at a minimum maintains the protections described in the MSGP application and preferably takes every measure necessary to prevent pollution of the groundwater with contaminants from its site.”
Read the full complaint here outlining the four most recent concerns.
Monitoring of the Rockwool site shows that Rockwool continues to fail to follow the procedures outlined in its operational general stormwater permit registration (Multi-sector Registration) intended to protect the groundwater. The Foundation filed another complaint this week with the West Virginia Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) regarding the issues, requesting they be investigated. Unfortunately, the DEP has not yet addressed all the issues raised in the Foundation’s previous complaints in June and July. The Foundation has also forwarded these complaints to the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) at both the Region 3 office as well as federal headquarters. In light of the issues occurring at the site, the Foundation has also initiated repeat water sampling.
Rockwool is engaging in operations that are clearly endangering the groundwater and the DEP is failing to require Rockwool to stop these activities. This demonstrates two critical things 1) Rockwool is unwilling or unable even at this early stage to maintain just the minimum safeguards set out in its Multi-sector General Permit Registration (MSGP); and 2) that Rockwool’s current permit registration does not adequately identify or address all of the activities at the site that are reasonably expected to affect groundwater. The Foundation is appealing Rockwool’s current MSGP for exactly these reasons; this demonstrates why the Foundation’s legal actions are so critical. It also demonstrates that further legal action will be necessary to ensure that Rockwool follows the laws and regulations.
We await an inspection report from the DEP.