April 28, 2011
CHARLES TOWN - Not everyone is willing to go along easily with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's mandates to clean up the Chesapeake Bay that have been imposed on West Virginia and local jurisdictions.
"I have a tremendous problem with the entire Chesapeake Bay deal," Jefferson County Commissioner Walt Pellish said at a Jefferson County Council of Governments meeting Wednesday that was called to discuss local jurisdictions' compliance with the EPA's new regulations.
"It's being rammed down our throats by the EPA without justification," he continued. "They're saying, 'Here are the standards and live with it.' It causes me great concern."
The EPA has imposed strict pollution limits on states in the Chesapeake Bay watershed, and the Potomac River is a major tributary of the bay. The Eastern Panhandle is in the Potomac watershed area.
State and local jurisdictions must dramatically reduce the amounts of nutrients and sediment getting into the bay via the Potomac River.
Pellish said he fully supports cleaning up the bay, but he wants to see the proof that the fault is local.
"I will not be satisfied until I see data that the water is contaminated and here's how it's being contaminated," he said. "It's based on a model. Who says the numbers are real? The EPA has to prove it to us, not us to them."
Pellish added that if you look at a map of the Chesapeake Bay watershed, the Eastern Panhandle is not a big part of the area.
"I am not comfortable with blind acceptance of the mandates," he went on. "Someone needs to challenge the mandates, challenge the numbers, challenge the mathematical model."
Jefferson County Commission President Patsy Noland, who chaired the meeting, agreed that the EPA's mandates could be challenged, but not on the local level.
"There's something to be said for the state challenging the EPA to show us the proof that we are the problem," she said.
However, Jefferson County Commissioner Frances Morgan suggested that if necessary, the local level is the field on which to challenge the EPA.
"We can give away the game to the feds or we can be a player," she said. "We need documentation to be prepared to challenge the EPA."
After the meeting, Pellish said he was not suggesting the county enter into a lawsuit against the EPA, but he wishes good luck to those who do.
- Staff writer John McVey can be reached at 304-263-3381, ext. 128, or jmcvey@journal-news.net
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