Kessler, Miley want special session to delay chemical tank safety deadline Charleston Gazette West Virginia’s top two legislative Democrats moved Wednesday to put more pressure on Gov. Earl Ray Tomblin to call a special session to delay the deadline for owners of chemical storage tanks across the state to certify to regulators that those tanks are safe. Senate President Jeff Kessler, D-Marshall, and House Speaker Tim Miley, D-Harrison, issued a joint statement urging the governor to schedule the special session during the Legislature’s next round of interim meetings, set for Sept. 8-10. Kessler and Miley said “it has become apparent” that the Jan. 1, 2015, deadline for tank safety certifications “is unattainable.” “Extending that deadline will allow the state Department of Environmental Protection to put in place, with public input, agency rules to fairly and effectively govern the inspection and certification process,” Kessler and Miley said. “Any continued delay in taking action on this matter only causes uncertainty within affected industries and the families that rely on them for employment.” The tank certification deadline is among the provisions of SB373, legislation passed earlier this year in response to the chemical leak at the Freedom Industries tank farm along the Elk River, an incident that contaminated the drinking-water supply for more than 300,000 residents of Charleston and surrounding communities. Kessler and Miley issued their joint statement one day after top staffers for Tomblin met with industry lobbyists and with citizen group representatives to work out some sort of agreement on how to move forward with deadlines and other matters related to the legislation. Chris Stadelman, Tomblin’s communications director, said the governor “understands the concerns expressed by those who must comply with the new regulations and appreciates that those rules are not yet finalized, and a special session may be the best way to address that situation.” Tomblin has directed his staff to continue discussions with concerned citizens and industry representatives to “establish an appropriate solution that balances regulations and compliance requirements with the safety of our public water sources,” Stadelman said. More meetings are scheduled for Friday. Under the new law, which took effect in early June, chemical tank owners and operators were given until Jan. 1 to have all of their tanks inspected and certified as meeting minimum safety standards. In recent weeks, industry officials and some legislators have complained that it’s unreasonable to expect tanks to be certified by that deadline, because the DEP has yet to issue even a draft of the rule spelling out the standards which would apply to the tanks. Shortly after the law took effect, DEP officials published “interim guidance” for the initial storage tank inspections and certification. That guidance said that, for the certification due on or before Jan. 1, 2015, “compliance with a nationally recognized tank standard,” such as the American Petroleum Institute or the Steel Tank Institute, “shall be deemed compliance with the requirements.” Subsequent annual certifications “will be required to comply fully with legislative rules promulgated by” the DEP, the agency guidance said. On its website, the DEP published a checklist for tank inspections and a form to be used in filing tank certifications with the agency. DEP Secretary Randy Huffman, though, has said he supports a special session, to allow time for his agency to finish a tank standards rule. He says the DEP’s “interim guidance” is not the way he prefers to regulate because the guidance document “doesn’t have the effect of law.” “Entities that are regulated by this rule should have the rule far enough in advance to be able to comply with it by the deadline,” Huffman told the Gazette. Later Wednesday, during an appearance at the West Virginia Chamber of Commerce’s annual Business Summit at The Greenbrier resort, Huffman said an extension of the deadline wouldn’t really change much, from his agency’s perspective. The agency expects to have a draft of its rule concerning the tank bill in about two weeks. The agency will then hold a forum for public comments, likely at the Charleston Civic Center in September or October, before a final draft of the rule is written in November or December. Along with the Jan. 1 deadline for tank certifications, the law also requires that tanks be registered by Oct. 1 and that owners submit a spill prevention plan by Dec. 3. “It might make it a little bit easier, so that we’re not so jammed up in December, trying to process spill plans and certifications,” Huffman said. “You’ve got that real short window from the effective date of the rule to the time that the inspections are due.” Scott Mandirola, the DEP’s director of water and waste management, said the rule the agency is developing would make three levels of tanks, based on size, location and contents. Level 1 tanks, the highest priority, would be those nearest to drinking water, those with federally recognized hazardous materials or those that hold more than 50,000 gallons. Level 3 tanks — the lowest priority — would be those that hold water, food-grade materials or hazardous waste, which is regulated by a different program. Level 2 tanks would be everything else. While all tanks would need to be inspected initially, Level 1 tanks would require more frequent inspections in subsequent years from certified inspectors. “We’re not trying to follow the letter of 373, just because that’s what it says,” Mandirola said. “We have a goal here, and that is to regulate the tanks that have the greatest risk to health and the environment and regulate the other tanks in a fashion that meets the requirements in a way that is not overly onerous.” Mandirola also hinted at the difficulties in regulating often-reluctant industries. Among other things, the law exempts from inspection “process vessels,” tanks used for mixing materials, rather than for storage. “Surprisingly, after the legislation came out, no one had above-ground tanks anymore,” Mandirola said. “Everybody had a process vessel.”
Posted on: Thu, 28 Aug 2014 18:00:01 +0000
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