Please relay to your membership
lists…thanks.
If you can’t make it to the Public Hearing on Water
at the Capitol today, here’s four ways you can participate
1. You can send your comments by email to members of the
House Health Committee (see attachment for email addresses)
2. You can send your comments by email before 3:30pm today
to either Julie Archer (julie@wvcag.org) or Chuck Wyro (outreach@marcellus-wv.com)
and we will print them and hand deliver them at the hearing.
Please do not send to both of us.
3. WV Public Broadcasting will be covering the hearing
live. You can tune in by radio, internet or TV. http://wvpublic.org/post/water-crisis-public-hearing-air-live-west-virginia-public-broadcasting
4. Go to http://www.legis.state.wv.us/live.cfm
, scroll down to the 5:30pm box and
listen on online.
TAKE ACTION ~ PUBLIC HEARING ON WATER AT THE CAPITOL ~
THIS MONDAY FEB. 3RD, 5:30PM
What: Public Hearing on SB 373 related to water
resources protection
When: Monday, February 3rd, 5:30pm
Where: House Chambers, State Capitol Building
Who: Joint Committee on Health & Finance
Why: For legislators to hear citizen input
WV House of Delegates to Host Public Hearing on Ongoing Water
Crisis
Here’s your chance to speak to your legislators and
fellow citizens, from a podium with a P.A. system, about how this chemical
spill crisis has affected you.
This
public hearing will take place in the House Chambers. House Speaker Tim Miley, D-Harrison said "The House leadership would like to give everyone
who wants input in this important legislation to have the opportunity to
participate. Legislation of this magnitude should be addressed very
methodically and with great care. We want to ensure that the final product
takes meaningful steps to truly protect our state's water supply and the health
of the public."
Pat
McGinley, an environmental law professor at West
Virginia University,
said, "The
events of the last few weeks have severely damaged West
Virginians' confidence in leadership provided by the Legislature,
governor, and DEP.”
Sen. Chris Walters, R-Putnam said, "This should be a deliberate, slow study process.
This doesn't need to be a knee-jerk reaction. I have a pregnant wife and
a three-year-old daughter -- I'm not consuming the water. I'm not cooking with
it. I'm worried about my unborn child. I can't get answers."
The spill
revealed once again that porous legislation and murky assumptions about industry
self-policing hinder oversight of dangerous chemicals. U.S. Chemical
Safety Board investigators have found that chemical storage tanks at the Elk River site were "very
old" and "designed to a
very old standard, without leak detection or secondary containment."
Downstream
Strategies consultant Evan Hansen said, “"This
is not just about Charleston.
This is not just an issue about above-ground storage tanks. This issue affects
us all."
After attempting to take
contaminated water from his father's tap to decision-makers in Charleston
last Thursday, Dustin White, of Boone
County, was told by
Capitol police to leave the Statehouse for carrying the "unidentified
liquid." Bring your bad water to the Capitol steps for the hearing
on Monday—they need to know what we deal with everyday. Then come
inside for the Public Hearing.
Our legislators need to
face the truth.
Let’s
hear what you
have to say about this travesty. We urge as many of you as possible to
come out as a show of support for stringent water protection law and
no-nonsense enforcement.
After the Public Hearing there will be a Town Hall meeting
at First
Baptist Church on Shrewsbury St. 7-9pm.
Logistics:
Easy Parking: Perry Bryant of West
Virginians for Affordable Health Care tells us:
I have confirmed with the Capital Security
folks that we can park in the state employees parking lot after 5:00 pm on
Monday. So if you get off the Greenbrier exit (Exit 99), go down the hill
towards the Capitol building. Turn left at the light on Washington Street, Take an immediate left
at the guard shack. There is metered parking (probably don’t have to pay
after 5 pm) slightly to the right, and unmetered parking for state employees further to the right. The state employee parking is behind
a wrought iron gate. This gate will be closed (and you won’t be able to
get out) ½ hour after the end of the public hearing. If you park behind the
wrought iron gate, do not dally after the public hearing.
While this parking has some limitations, it is significantly
better than parking at the Laidley Field public parking areas on Elizabeth Street.
See you Monday evening.
Attached
is an information and talking points document, courtesy of Maya Nye and Angie
Rosser. Here are some tips.
·
Arrive ten minutes (or earlier) to sign up to speak.
·
Each speaker can expect only to have 1-2 minutes to speak.
·
Written comments can be submitted for the record.
·
Below are some suggested talking points as a guide.
Citizens are encouraged to give their own perspective, in their words, of how
the government needs to better protect drinking water supplies and public health.
Citizen
messaging framework:
·
We deserve thorough protection from all contamination
threats to our water supplies.
·
The government is failing us and needs to do a better job
in regulating and enforcing protections.
·
We deserve to have all available government resources
applied to understand and responsibly advise the public on risks and solutions
to this health crisis.
Needed
technical improvements to SB 373:
·
Close loopholes – there are many exclusions to tanks
that are regulated under the new program, these need carefully analyzed. All
tanks and all additional sources of potential contamination need adequately
regulated.
·
Require individual permits and regular inspections for all
potential significant contaminant sources within zones of critical concern for
public drinking water systems.
·
Require and fund development of source water protection
plans that address all significant contamination threats and include full
stakeholder and community involvement.
- Assure that
all pollution sources can be enforced via the Clean Water Act with provisions
for citizen involvement.
Additional
actions needed:
·
Implementation of Chemical Safety Board Recommendations.
·
Continuation of bottled water distribution to all affected
communities.
·
An environmentally sound and safe mechanism to flush the
chemical from the water treatment plant, distribution lines, sewage systems,
residences etc.
·
Immediate institution of a medical surveillance program.
·
Immediate studies on the short and long term effects of
MCHM and its breakdown chemicals on human health.
Chuck Wyrostok
Outreach Organizer
Sierra Club, WV Chapter
T: 877 252 0257
E. outreach@marcellus-wv.com
www.marcellus-wv.com
Water is
Life...Keep It Clean
Whenever there is a huge spill of solar
energy, it's just called a nice day.....