Presentations from the “Shale Gas and the Environment” - a workshop hosted by the West Virginia Water Research Institute and the Petroleum Technology Transfer Council - are now available.
Please follow the link below to view the presentations from the event:
https://wvwri.org/shale-gas-and-the-environment-march-11-2014/
The House and Senate have spent weeks working on House Bill 4411 dealing with the disposal of hydraulic fracturing drill cuttings in land fills. Earlier in the session, the House of Delegates held a public hearing on the issue. But members could not agree on the terms of the bill and late Saturday evening it ended up in a conference committee.
The conference agreement came down to this: landfills who want to accept drill cuttings from fracking sites must apply for permits from the Department of Environmental Protection and the Public Service Commission. So far, seven are in the process of doing so. Those seven would be the only landfills allowed to apply for the permits for two years. They must put radon detectors at their front gates to test trucks, cannot mix the drill cuttings with municipal waste and must charge a $1 fee per ton they accept. The first $750 thousand collected will go toward a study on the waste due to the Joint Committee on Government and Finance next year.
That agreement, however, did not make it to the clerks’ desks in time to be put to a vote and the bill died, leaving no legislative restrictions on these cuttings and their disposal.
West Virginia Water Research Institute Director, Dr. Paul Ziemkiewicz, will be a speaker at an upcoming event hosted by the West Virginia University Environmental Law Society. The event, called “Protecting West Virginia Water: Legislation, Litigation, and Lessons Learned for the Future of Water Regulation in West Virginia,” will provide an overall analysis of how safe public water resources are in West Virginia, as well as what changes may come in water-related regulation as a result of the chemical spill in the Elk River.
Speakers at the event will include:
John Unger II
West Virginia Senate Majority Leader
Patrick McGinley, JD
West Virginia University College of Law
Paul Ziemkiewicz, PhD
West Virginia Water Research Institute
Alexandra Dunn, JD
Association of Clean Water Administrators
Robert Gupta, MD
Kanawha Charelston Health Departement
The event will take place on Monday, March 24th, 2014 at 5:30 p.m. in the Lugar Court Room at the WVU College of Law.
For more information about this event, visit: http://protectingwestvirginiawater.weebly.com/
The West Virginia Water Research Institute, a program of the National Research Center for Coal and Energy at West Virginia University, is accepting abstracts through May 30 for the 2014 Mid-Atlantic Regional Water Conference.
The Conference combines exceptional educational programs with opportunities for researchers, policy makers, regulators, agencies and the public to share in the latest information, technologies and research relating to the Mid-Atlantic region’s water resources.
The West Virginia Water Research Institute will be one of several Mid-Atlantic National Institutes for Water Resources to co-host the Conference. The Conference will take place on Sept. 24 and 25 at the National Conservation Training Center in Shepherdstown.
The theme for this year’s Conference is, “The Future of Mid-Atlantic Water Infrastructure: Challenges and Solutions.” Researchers from colleges and universities, federal and state agencies, private organizations, consulting firms, industry and students are invited to submit abstracts for consideration for oral presentation. Abstracts for basic and applied research papers are being solicited in all areas related to water infrastructure including drinking water, dams, hazardous waste, levees, wastewater, storm water and others.
“Water infrastructure is a vitally important issue moving into the future,” said Paul Ziemkiewicz, director of the West Virginia Water Research Institute. “January’s chemical spill on the Elk River in West Virginia highlighted the need to seriously study the Nation’s water infrastructure to find better ways to protect source water and to improve the resiliency of the entire water system.”
For more information about the 2014 Mid-Atlantic Regional Water Conference and complete abstract submission details, visit: www.midatlanticwc.org.
The West Virginia Water Research Institute has been in existence since 1967 and serves as a statewide vehicle for performing research related to water issues. It is the premier water research center in West Virginia and, within selected fields, an international leader.