Sen. Byrd: Massey ’scoffed and laughed at’ repeated MSHA citations at Upper Big Branch Mine prior to April 5 disaster that killed 29 miners
by Ken Ward Jr. Sen. Robert C. Byrd, D-W.Va., has secured an additional $22 million to help clear up the huge backlog of appealed enforcement cases pending at the Federal Mine Safety and Health Review Commission. In a statement announcing the move, Sen. Byrd had this to say: Last month, a horrific explosion at the [...]
EPA to join investigation of DuPont Belle plant leaks
by Ken Ward Jr. U.S. Environmental Protection Agency officials are planning to join the growing investigation of safety concerns at DuPont Co.’s chemical plant in Belle, W.Va., following a string of leaks including one that killed a worker. Two teams of EPA inspectors plan to visit the plant next week. One will be looking into [...]
Meet me at Starbucks: EPA’s secret rendezvous with 3M
by Ken Ward Jr. The last we heard, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency officials had held a couple of days of closed-door meetings with folks from DuPont Co., listening to DuPont’s pitch against tougher regulation of perfluorinated chemicals like PFOA (C8) and PFOS. Now, it turns out that those meetings, held in October at EPA headquarters [...]
EPA taking closer look at Coal River Mountain mining
An interesting development just in concerning Massey Energy’s Bee Tree Mine, the Southern West Virginia operation where environmentalists had hoped to put a wind energy facility instead of a mountaintop removal job. U.S. Environmental Protection Agency officials are investigating the Bee Tree site, examining Massey’s operation there without first obtaining a “dredge-and-fill” permit under Section [...]
EPA releases reports on AEP coal-ash dam in W.Va.
EPA releases reports on AEP coal-ash dam in W.Va. by Ken Ward Jr. U.S. Environmental Protection Agency officials have finally made public the contractor’s report upon which they based their decision to require additional testing and warn the public about possible structural problems at two American Electric Power coal-ash dams in Mason County, W.Va. The [...]
EPA IG: Coal ash report withholding an ‘oversight’
by Ken Ward Jr. In May, Coal Tattoo covered the release of a once-secret U.S. EPA report that examined the risks of living near a coal-fired power plant ash dump. I wrote at the time: Every year, coal-fired power plants dump nearly 100 million tons of various wastes — fly ash, bottom ash, and scrubber [...]
