W. Virginia 2013 Feds asked to investigate mining oversight / Groups claim state DEP has failed to p

[mitty14u2]

W. Virginia 2013 Feds asked to investigate mining oversight / Groups claim state DEP has failed to properly regulate surface mining

MORGANTOWN — Eighteen environmental, civic and religious groups said Monday that the West Virginia Department of Environmental Protection has failed to properly regulate surface mining for decades, and it’s time the federal government step in.

The state and national groups — including Earthjustice, the Sierra Club, the League of Women Voters and Catholic Committee of Appalachia — say the DEP has shown “callous disregard” for both the environment and federal law. It also has spent nearly $1 million between November 2010 and November 2012 fighting the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, the groups say, “to protect the mining industry at the expense of public health and the environment.”

In a 100-page petition, the groups ask the U.S. Office of Surface Mining and Reclamation Enforcement to investigate and temporarily take over the regulatory program the state has run since 1981. The groups cite chronic failures at virtually every level of oversight, from permitting and inspection to insufficient water-quality and fines that are too small to deter violations.

Inspectors have failed to make the number of required inspections for seven years in a row, the groups say, and the DEP isn’t sufficiently inspecting coal slurry dams either.

Thank you for supporting our investigations!

http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/West_Virginia_and_coal

Guess what, you have ALEC and the Koch Bros involved, No Surprise again!

[mitty14u2]

1. Meet Freedom Industries, the Company Behind the West Virginia Chemical Spill

Meet Freedom Industries, the Company Behind the West Virginia Chemical Spill

What exactly does Freedom Industries do and why was its chemical facility so close to the river that feeds into the Charleston water supply?
According to its website, the company is “a full-service producer of specialty chemicals for the mining, steel, and cement industries.” The Etowah River Terminal, where the company’s corporate office is located, sits along the Elk River near the intake facilities for the West Virginia division of American Water Works (AWK), the largest publicly traded water utility in the U.S. The Freedom website notes that its location makes the Etowah terminal accessible by barge and truck; barges travel on rivers. One imagines that the lawyers who are already filing damage lawsuits may have some interest in the terminal’s proximity to the water supply, an issue that could come back to haunt not only Freedom Industries but also American Water Works, a corporation with far deeper pockets and, presumably, more extensive liability insurance policies


http://www.businessweek.com/articles/2014-01-13/meet-freedom-industries-the-company-behind-the-west-virginia-spill

Meet Jeffry Sterba, America's Highest Paid "Water Worker"

Taxpayer dollars make Sterba "America's Highest Paid Water Worker."He has made $8,311,925 in the three years that he has been a top executive at the company. And other executives at the company are rolling in dough as well. From 2008 to 2012, American Water's key executives made $32,232,667.

Over the next few weeks, CMD will continue to profile some of the other CEOs who are living large off the taxpayer dime. The effort is part of our ongoing project, OutsourcingAmericaExposed.org, which focuses on the 12 firms doing the most to privatize public services.

http://www.prwatch.org/news/2013/12/12326/meet-jeffry-sterba-americas-highest-paid-water-worker

Why Republicans Love to Privatize $$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$ You Pay, they Steal, How FREEDOM Works!

[countryjake]

2. K&R!