Bay phase II now beginning

Goal for year includes effort toward government, shareholder involvement

February 25, 2011 - By John McVey, Journal staff writer

MARTINSBURG - Phase II of the West Virginia Department of Environmental Protection's watershed implementation plan got started Thursday at the Berkeley County Council meeting.

"Phase II is all about how and where and by whom - it's all about local involvement," Alana Hartman, Potomac Basin coordinator for the WVDEP, said after the meeting.

The watershed implementation plan, or WIP, was developed by the WVDEP and other state agencies as well as outside organizations at the order of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency for the Chesapeake Bay Restoration program.

Because of a 2009 presidential executive order, the EPA issued strict limits on the amount of nitrogen, phosphorus and sediment that can get into the bay through its tributaries.

The Potomac River is one of the bay's major tributaries, and the greater eight-county Eastern Panhandle of West Virginia, which includes Berkeley, Jefferson and Morgan counties, is in the Potomac watershed area.

West Virginia's Phase I WIP final draft was submitted to the EPA at the end of November. It outlines how West Virginia is going to meet the new pollution limits issued by the EPA.

The EPA issued its WIP evaluations and pollution-control mandates in December.

Phase II is suppose to bring the implementation plan to the local level, involving county and municipal governments as well as local agencies and organizations, Hartman said.

She and Jennifer Garlesky, conservation specialist with the West Virginia Conservation Agency for the Eastern Panhandle Conservation District, will make similar presentations to county and municipal governments throughout the tri-county over the next few weeks.

"We'll have stakeholder meetings that include local government officials," Hartman told Berkeley County Council members. "We'll be looking to get input on opportunities and gaps in technology and funding."

Delta Development Group Inc., a consulting firm based in Mechanicsburg, Pa., will facilitate the meetings, she said.

"We want to see what the local government options are to achieve the goals in the WIP," Hartman said. "We would want (the Berkeley County Council) to look at a couple of sub-watersheds to consider if those land-use models meet the Chesapeake Bay requirements."

She said after the meeting that Berkeley County's lack of land-use planning presents a challenge to meeting the new, strict pollution limits.

"Anything counties can institutionalize would look great in the Phase II WIP," Hartman said. "Without land-use management, without planning, all the work could be negated. What worries me is future use."

Municipalities in the tri-county and Jefferson County have zoning regulations.

Stakeholder meetings will probably be held in late April or early May, she said, with day-long summits in July.

The EPA wants the Phase II draft by June 1, Hartman said, but West Virginia and the other bay states are requesting more time to develop that document. The final Phase II draft is scheduled to be done by Nov. 1.

- Staff writer John McVey can be reached at 304-263-3381, ext. 128, or jmcvey@journal-news.net

Chesapeake Bay funding bill passes major hurdles in Senate

February 25, 2011 - By John McVey, Journal staff writer

MARTINSBURG - The Chesapeake Bay funding bill is well on its way to passage, state Sen. Herb Snyder, D-Jefferson, said in a telephone interview Thursday.

"We've cleared the highest hurdle - the Senate Finance Committee - it was a unanimous vote," said Snyder, who has shepherded the bill through the legislative process.

Senate Bill 245 would dedicate $6 million over 30 years to a bond issue that would help pay for improvements, upgrades and new construction of wastewater treatment plants in West Virginia's eight-county Eastern Panhandle.

The improvements are needed to meet new, stringent pollution limits imposed by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency for the Chesapeake Bay Restoration program. The program is aimed at reducing pollution in bay tributaries.

The Potomac River is one of the bay's major tributaries, and the Eastern Panhandle is in the Potomac River watershed.

The estimated cost to make the improvements to 13 sewer plants across the Panhandle is about $225 million, records show. About $149 million would be needed to upgrade nine plants in Berkeley, Jefferson and Morgan counties.

SB245 would cover about $180 million of the total costs, or about 44 percent, Snyder said. Customers will have to stand the balance of the costs.

Without the funding assistance from the state, the entire cost to meet the EPA's unfunded pollution-control mandates would fall on the backs of the sewer customers, he emphasized.

"The real winners are the citizens who live in the Eastern Panhandle," Snyder said. "This is the state Legislature saying we are going to help."

Snyder credited state Sen. John Unger, D-Berkeley, the majority leader and a member of the Finance Committee, for his "immense help."

Unger said in a telephone interview Thursday that one change made in the Finance Committee to the original bill was specifying the source of the revenue to underwrite the bonds.

Rather than coming from the excess lottery fund, which is already dedicated to specific programs, the revenue to cover the bonds will come from the video lottery's undedicated surplus funds that are used for supplemental appropriations at the end of the fiscal year, Unger explained.

"It settled everyone down - no one's ox was going to be gored," he said.

The unencumbered dollars come to about $26 to $30 million a year, Unger said, and are a stable revenue source with which to finance the bonds so the interest rate might be better.

The Chesapeake Bay funding bill also "set a mechanism to solve future" issues, Unger said, such as a pollution reduction program for the Ohio River watershed, which would encompass the rest of the state.

"This is not just an Eastern Panhandle issue, this is a West Virginia issue," he said. "The rest of the state could be in the same boat in five years."

The bill was expected to be sent to the floor of the Senate Thursday night with its first reading Friday and second reading Monday at which time Snyder expects it to be passed.

"Then it has to go through the House (of Delegates)," he said. "I'm sure the Panhandle's delegation will fully support it in the House and lobby for it. It is absolutely nonpartisan. It impacts everyone's constituents."

- Staff writer John McVey can be reached at 304-263-3381, ext. 128, or jmcvey@journal-news.net

Model stormwater management ordinance set

Template designed to meet EPA Chesapeake Bay Restoration requirements

February 24, 2011 - By John McVey, Journal staff writer

MARTINSBURG - Martinsburg's planning department staff probably will start sifting through a model stormwater management ordinance in the next few months to see how it can be adapted to the city's needs.

"We'll be using it to either totally replace our stormwater management ordinances or enhance our ordinances with provisions from the model," Michael Covell, the city's planning director, said in a telephone interview Wednesday after the final draft of the model stormwater management ordinance was released.

A project of the Region 9 Planning and Development Council, the model ordinance was prepared by Delta Development Group Inc. of Mechanicsburg, Pa. About 25 professionals from the public and private across the tri-county acted as a steering committee for the drafting of the model ordinance. The steering committee has met monthly since last May.

The project was funded with a $30,000 U.S. Environmental Protection Agency grant that was administered by the West Virginia Department of Environmental Protection. Region 9 matched the grant with $12,000.

Region 9 P&DC encompasses Berkeley, Jefferson and Morgan counties.

Covell described the process as beneficial.

"It gives us something to work with, and hopefully the language will be standard across the Eastern Panhandle," Covell added.

He pointed out that while the ordinance is a model designed for counties and municipalities to adapt to their specific needs, the model was tailored for communities in the Eastern Panhandle.

Jennifer Brockman, director of Jefferson County's Department of Planning and Zoning, agreed that the process of drafting the model ordinance went very well.

"We're excited to have it as a resource," she said later in a telephone interview. "We'll have to do an analysis to see if it would be more effective as a standalone ordinance or used to amend our existing stormwater management ordinances."

The introduction to the model ordinance states: "This Model Stormwater Management Ordinance has been designed to address issues including stormwater control and the Chesapeake Bay Nutrient Reduction requirements in the Potomac River Watershed in West Virginia."

Stormwater runoff is one of the areas targeted by the Chesapeake Bay Restoration Act of 2000 and 2009's presidential executive order to reduce nitrogen, phosphorus and sediment pollution from getting into the bay through its tributaries.

The Potomac River is one of the major tributaries to the Chesapeake Bay and the greater, eight-county Eastern Panhandle of West Virginia is in the Potomac River watershed.

The EPA has set dramatically reduced limits on the amount of pollution for West Virginia and the other bay watershed states. The West Virginia DEP has been working on an implementation plan to comply with the new, stringent requirements imposed by the EPA.

Alana C. Hartman, Potomac Basin coordinator with the WVDEP, explained Wednesday that maintaining the status quo on stormwater runoff is how the department's implementation plan is meeting the EPA requirements.

"We don't have to reduce, but we have to hold the line," she said. "If we want to continue to grow, we must find reductions someplace else. We have to capture the runoff, and this is where the model ordinance comes in."

- Staff writer John McVey can be reached at 304-263-3381, ext. 128, or jmcvey@journal-news.net

PSC denies 72 percent water hike

Much smaller amount approved for Jefferson Utilities Inc.

February 23, 2011 - By Matt Armstrong, Journal Staff Writer

CHARLES TOWN - Ratepayers for Jefferson Utilities Inc. will not see their water bills increase by approximately 72 percent, thanks to a recent ruling by the West Virginia Public Service Commission.

Instead, the PSC granted a 4.4 percent water rate increase for JUI in its Friday ruling, and the order also initiates a general investigation of JUI's utility operations. A recommended decision on the case, issued by a PSC administrative law judge on Jan. 7 following a two-day public hearing on the matter in Ranson last year, called for a 22.4 percent rate increase.

JUI, a privately owned utility company that provides service to approximately 2,196 customers in Jefferson County, filed for a water rate increase on June 30. It would have represented an increase of roughly 72.2 percent, before the application of a previously approved $12 monthly surcharge.

JUI's rates have been a contested issue in the county, and numerous individuals, homeowners associations and the Jefferson County Commission filed as intervenors in the case.

The PSC's Water Utility Cost Ranking as of Feb. 18 lists JUI's rates at $40.09 per 4,000 gallons of water. The rate is actually down from a reported November rate of $63.60 per 4,000 gallons, which was the third-highest water rate in West Virginia at the time.

The utility company filed a petition for consent and approval of a revised operation and maintenance agreement with its affiliate, Snyder Environmental Services, and a petition for consent and approval of lease agreements with SES in a separate case.

The petitions listed in that case were for the approval of an operation and maintenance agreement in which SES would continue to provide operation and maintenance services for JUI. The second petition was for the approval of lease agreements between SES and JUI and the third petition was a requested issuance of a protective order.

The PSC's ruling lists more than 10 separate orders, including that the operation and maintenance agreement and leases filed by JUI aren't approved and that, upon entry of the order, both cases be removed from the PSC's docket of open cases.

Perhaps the most significant order issued by the PSC is that "the commission initiates a General Investigation ... of JUI's utility operations, including the proposed O&M Agreement and Leases as well as other issues. The commission will require JUI to show that JUI customers are better off with an affiliate furnishing all required services as opposed to JUI employing its own personnel. In addition, the commission will study JUI's long-term plans to operate and rehabilitate its utility facilities, and receive further details of JUI's current and future use of the $12 surcharge. The commission will also request information about future possibilities of private-public agreements."

Chris Cody, a Jefferson County resident and Citizens for Fair Water member, said the PSC's decision to limit the water rate increase to 4.4 percent will save ratepayers a considerable amount of money.

"I'm cautiously optimistic the general investigation will yield some results and show what we're paying for," Cody said during a phone interview Tuesday. "They say they have losses, I know the water system isn't in that great of shape and that's costly. We feel the losses (JUI is) claiming aren't existent."

Lee Snyder, who owns JUI and is the president of SES, has said the rate increases he has filed for with the PSC are needed so that JUI does not continue to lose money each year.

"It's obviously not what we asked for ... I would characterize there being no justice in it," Snyder said in a phone interview Tuesday in reference to the PSC decision. "We'll just continue what we've done for 13 years, lose money."

Snyder added that the general investigation will just be "added bureaucracy."

The entire PSC decision document can be viewed online with this article at www.journal-news.net.

Chesapeake Bay funding bill clears hurdle, gets traction

Legislation would help pay for upgrades to sewer treatment plants throughout Panhandle

February 16, 2011 - By John McVey The Journal

MARTINSBURG - A bill that would provide funding for upgrades needed by wastewater treatment plants in the Eastern Panhandle to meet new, stringent anti-pollution requirements has cleared another hurdle in the West Virginia Legislature.

"It unanimously passed the Senate Judiciary Committee (Monday) - this is an excellent start," state Sen. Herb Snyder, D-Jefferson, said in a telephone interview Tuesday.

Snyder has shepherded Senate Bill 245 through interim committee meetings and is now seeing it through the legislative session.

On Tuesday afternoon, he was on his way to the Senate Finance Committee, where the bill goes next for consideration.

"That's going to be an uphill climb," Snyder said of convincing that committee's members to take up the bill. "I've got my work cut out for me. Finance has a stack of bills and it's my job to make sure it's on the Finance Committee's agenda. The biggest hurdle is to get it on Finance's agenda."

While he feels confident that the members of the Legislature would pass the bill, it has to get out of the Finance Committee first.

Snyder is "cautiously optimistic" of getting the bill through the Finance Committee, he said.

SB245 would set aside $6 million of the state's Excess Lottery Fund for the next 30 years to finance up to $180 million in bonds that would help to pay for improvements, expansions and new construction at 13 sewer treatment plants across the greater, eight-county Eastern Panhandle, Snyder explained.

The estimated cost of all the projects is about $225 million. The balance of the costs would have to be paid for by customers.

Last year, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency issued new, very strict pollution limits for wastewater treatment plants in the Chesapeake Bay watershed.

A presidential executive order is directing the EPA to reduce nitrogen, phosphorus and sediment pollution from getting into the Chesapeake Bay via its tributaries, like the Potomac River, which is a major tributary of the bay.

The greater Eastern Panhandle is in the Potomac River watershed area.

The EPA also has targeted agricultural operations and stormwater runoff as areas for dramatic reductions in pollution.

The existing or new treatment plants that would be eligible for funding under the bill would include four facilities operated by the Berkeley County Public Service Sewer District, and one each by Charles Town, Jefferson County Public Service District, Keyser, Martinsburg, Moorefield, Petersburg, Romney, Shepherdstown and Warm Springs Public Service District in Morgan County.

Potomac Headwaters Resource Conservation and Development Council

Council gets new coordinator

Ritz takes over reins at eight-county resource conservation and development agency

February 3, 2011 - By John McVey, Journal staff writer

MARTINSBURG - This is Steve Ritz's first week as the new coordinator of the Potomac Headwaters Resource Conservation and Development Council.

He comes to the PHRC&D after 21 years as the district conservationist for the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Natural Resources Conservation Service in Romney, where he provided technical assistance to Hampshire County farmers in natural resource management.

Originally from Marshall County in the Northern Panhandle, Ritz has worked for the USDA for more than 27 years, including about three and a half years as a conservationist in Berkeley and Jefferson counties in the early 1980s.

"As coordinator, I assist the RC&D Council to plan and implement projects," he said Wednesday. "I provide guidance and technical assistance to the board."

Writing grants and securing funds for the council's projects also are part of Ritz' duties, he said.

Formed in 1969, PHRC&D was incorporated as a nonprofit organization in 1985.

The Potomac Headwaters RC&D territory includes the greater eight-county Eastern Panhandle. It was created through the sponsorship of the eight county governments of the Panhandle, the Potomac Valley and Eastern Panhandle Conservation districts and the USDA.

The council is led by a board of directors from each county and is supported with a combination of federal, state and local funds.

Ritz actually is employed by the NRCS, which administers the RC&D program.

"For every dollar a county contributes, it gets back $17 dollars in services," Ritz pointed out.

PHRC&D is not a government agency, but it partners with government agencies as well as other nonprofits to complete its tasks.

Conservation of natural resources and economic development that focuses on natural resources are core to the PHRC&D mission - in order to "enhance the social, economic and environmental conditions of the region," he said.

If jobs follow, that is all the better, added Gary Heichel, president of the PHRC&D Council.

A major project just getting under way is the Farm to School program that Potomac Headwaters RC&D has undertaken in cooperation with the Wes-Mon-Ty RC&D, which includes 12 counties in northeast West Virginia, Heichel said Wednesday.

Late last year, the two RC&Ds won a $160,000 grant through the USDA Risk Management Agency to help resource-limited farmers learn how to sell their produce to local schools, he explained.

With the grant, a horticultural specialist has been hired to work with small-scale food producers to understand the risks and opportunities associated with accessing the school-food service market, he said.

"They can learn what is acceptable to local schools," Heichel said. "They learn what to grow and in what manner that is acceptable. It's an economic development opportunity for the region."

Some past projects have included a dry-hydrant installation program funded through a state grant and stabilizing the Dupont soccer complex green parking lot, said Olga Adams, council administrator, on Wednesday.

PHRC&D has close to 30 projects ongoing throughout the eight-county region, from wetland restoration to parks and trails development, historical and cultural programs to the annual Growing Communities on Karst Conference at the U.S. Fish and Wildlife's National Conservation Training Center in Shepherdstown.

PHRC&D's offices are at 151 Aikens Center, Suite 6, off Edwin Miller Boulevard in Martinsburg.

Ritz can be reached at steve.ritz@wv.usda.gov or at 304-263-7547, ext. 114.

"If the public has a need that the RC&D can meet, they should contact a board member and they will bring it to the council for consideration," Ritz added.

- Staff writer John McVey can be reached at 304-263-3381, ext. 128, or jmcvey@journal-news.net

Chesapeake Bay funding is a priority for WV Senator Snyder

Commuter trains, elections, Marcellus shale, OPEB and road funds to be addressed

February 1, 2011 - By John McVey, Journal staff writer

MARTINSBURG - The West Virginia Senate's 2011 legislative session has settled into a routine after a couple of weeks of upset over that chamber's leadership, state Sen. Herb Snyder, D-Jefferson, said in a recent telephone interview.

"It's calmed down and it's getting productive," he said. "Committees are operating smoothly and we're moving bills."

Snyder was named chair of the Senate Government Organization Committee when committee assignments were shuffled after state Sen. Jeffrey V. Kessler, D-Marshall, secured enough votes to change the Senate's rules creating the position of acting Senate president and to have himself elected to that post.

Kessler lobbied hard for the new position when Senate President Earl Ray Tomblin, D-Logan, became acting governor after former Gov. Joe Manchin was elected to fill the unexpired term of the late U.S. Sen. Robert C. Byrd.

Kessler named new committee chairs and put new people in leadership positions, including state Sen. John Unger, D-Berkeley, who was named majority leader, the No. 2 spot in the state Senate.

Snyder-sponsored bills

So far this session, the most important piece of legislation introduced by Snyder is Senate Bill 245, the Chesapeake Bay Restoration funding bill.

"It's absolutely critical for the Eastern Panhandle and it's more important to Berkeley County (than the other counties)," he said.

The bill, which Snyder authored and shepherded through an Interim Judiciary Subcommittee, would dedicate $6 million of the state's excess lottery fund for the next 20 to 30 years - raising about $132 million - to finance bonds that would help pay for improvements and upgrades to large wastewater treatment plants in the greater, eight-county Eastern Panhandle.

The upgrades and improvements to about 10 sewer plants in the Panhandle are needed because of new, very stringent pollution-control mandates ordered by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency as part of its Chesapeake Bay Restoration program.

The EPA has ordered states to dramatically reduce nitrogen, phosphorus and sediment pollution getting into the tributaries of the bay. The Potomac River is one of the major tributaries of the bay and West Virginia's Eastern Panhandle is in the Potomac watershed.

The upgrades and improvements would cost an estimated $180 million to $240 million. The estimated cost to making improvements to the Martinsburg sewer treatment plant is $45 million and the Berkeley County treatment facility improvements would be about $40 million.

"We cannot put that cost on the backs of ratepayers alone," Snyder said.

Another bill Snyder has introduced is Senate Bill 58, the Commuter Rail Access Act.

It would set aside about $500,000 to subsidize the MARC commuter trains that serve Jefferson and Berkeley counties.

"We are very vulnerable to those trains being cut," Snyder explained. "Maryland is still in a budget crunch, and what happens in Maryland could have a direct effect on West Virginia commuters."

Maryland threatened in 2008 to cut MARC commuter trains running between Martinsburg and Washington's Union Station, with stops in Duffields and Harpers Ferry, because of budget cuts to MARC.

CSX owns the rail lines that MARC uses for its commuter service. MARC must pay CSX almost $500,000 annually to run commuter trains on the CSX lines in West Virginia. West Virginia has never contributed to those costs.

A compromise was reached between MARC officials and West Virginia's local and state leaders to preserve commuter train service to Berkeley and Jefferson counties. One regularly scheduled train was cut and West Virginia passengers began paying $2 extra for a one-way ticket in February 2009.

Snyder believes SB58 has a good chance of at least getting out of the Transportation and Infrastructure Committee.

"It would let Maryland know that West Virginia wants to be part of (the MARC commuter rail service)," he said.

Other important legislation

Two bills of great importance to state residents introduced by other members of the Legislature are the elections bill and the Marcellus shale bill.

Describing it as "huge," Snyder said the elections bill would set June 20 for a special primary election to pick nominees to run for governor during a special election on Oct. 4.

"Otherwise we would have a nominating convention and I and most legislators are vehemently opposed to a convention," he said. "One-third of the voters in the 16th (Senate) district are independent and would not have a chance to vote in a convention. It's a plain bad idea."

The 16th Senate district, which Snyder represents, includes all of Jefferson County and about three-quarters of Berkeley County.

The West Virginia Supreme Court ordered Tomblin, in his capacity as acting governor, to proclaim and set a date for a special election to fill Manchin's unexpired term in office. The high court's justices said the new governor has to take office by Nov. 15, the one anniversary of Manchin vacating the post.

In their decision, the justices pointed out that under current state code, political party nominating conventions are mandated to select candidates for the special election. The justices also pointed out that state lawmakers could change that part of the code legislatively to hold a primary rather than conventions.

Senate Bill 258, the so-called Marcellus shale drilling bill, would set rules and regulations for the burgeoning industry, which applies new technology to the extraction of natural gas from a mile-deep layer of shale that runs throughout the Appalachian Mountains.

The Marcellus shale gas drilling business is expected to produce several billions of dollars of revenue for West Virginia and its residents.

"We have an opportunity to do this right and not make the same mistakes we made with coal," Snyder said. "There are potential environmental concerns, so it must be done properly. We must protect our water and roads."

He added that a companion bill to the Marcellus shale drilling bill should be introduced that would offer incentives to companies to build natural gas refineries in West Virginia.

"We have to latch onto that and capture one or two (refineries) or they'll be in Pennsylvania," Snyder said.

In addition to the natural gas, Marcellus gas can be refined to produce chemicals that are used in the manufacture of plastics, which could reinvigorate the plastics industry in the Kanawha Valley, he explained.

"The benefits are enormous," Snyder said.

Unaddressed issues

Unfortunately, there are a couple important issues that Snyder does not think will be addressed during the current legislative session, which he finds "disheartening and disappointing."

No proposal has been submitted to address the $8 billion OPEB unfunded liability, he said.

Mainly health care costs, other post-employment benefits - other than pensions - were promised to public employees in lieu of high salaries and pay raises by legislators going back several decades.

However, funding for these benefits was not set aside in adequate amounts or not all. Now, with the boomer generation reaching retirement age, the tab is coming due. Some analysts have said West Virginia's unfunded OPEB liability could jeopardize the state's solvency and severely hurt the state's credit rating.

"It's disheartening," Snyder said. "One more year, we're going to kick the can down the road."

He is even more disappointed, though, that no one is addressing the funding shortfall for road construction, maintenance and repair, which state transportation officials have said is minimally about $800 million a year.

"Nothing is going to be introduced because it's an election year," Snyder said. "This one of the top two items we have to deal with this year and it's our responsibility to make the tough decisions."

He suggests that slight increases to certain fees associated with car registration and licenses dedicated exclusively to roads could raise about $70 million this year, which would help, but obviously would not solve the problem.

"I might introduce something myself," Snyder said. "We've go to get serious about roads. Good roads are in every citizens' common interest."

Snyder can be reached at 304-357-7957 orherb.snyder@wvsenate.gov.

- Staff writer John McVey can be reached at 304-263-3381, ext. 128, or jmcvey@journal-news.net