A special commission is recommending legislation that aims to safeguard public drinking water systems across West Virginia through increased funding and additional reporting requirements for owners of above-ground storage tanks located near water supplies.
Members of the Public Water System Supply Study Commission unanimously passed a handful of recommendations Friday, while postponing votes on other proposals until next week.
The commission faces a Dec. 15 deadline to submit a final report to the Legislature, the group's second report since the January 2014 Freedom Industries chemical spill, which contaminated drinking water for hundreds of thousands of people in Charleston and the surrounding region.
"This is tremendously important work when we're talking about protecting our waterways and ensuring that business is done, but that it's done in a very responsible manner," said Dr. Rahul Gupta, the commission's chairman. Gupta also is the state health officer and commissioner of the Bureau for Public Health. "All these different facets are about ensuring safety and security of our citizens."
Among the recommendations passed during the commission's meeting Friday:
n Distribute $2 million a year to the state Bureau for Public Health, which would award grant money to help public water utilities develop plans for protecting water sources used to provide drinking water.
n Require owners of above-ground storage tanks to notify nearby water utilities when the owners modify the tanks or store new substance in them. The requirement would keep water utilities updated about potential contaminates within the watershed, committee members said.
n Expand the types of information water utilities may release to the public. State law prohibits utilities from releasing some information - such as sources of contaminates - available publicly elsewhere.
n Require utilities - as part of their water protection plans - to conduct annual exercises to test those plans. The exercises also must be documented and evaluated.
Two commission subcommittees - one reviewing U.S. Chemical Safety Board proposals, the other studying the effects of bills passed in 2014 to better protect drinking water supplies - had no recommendations.
The full commission plans to meet again Friday to vote on additional recommendations from a subcommittee reviewing infrastructure improvements. All recommendations will be included in the final report to state lawmakers.
Reach Eric Eyre at ericeyre@wvgazettemail.com, 304-348-4869 or follow @ericeyre on Twitter.