A bill being portrayed as an industry-labor compromise to help West Virginia's ailing coal industry appears headed for approval in the Senate.
On Monday, senators moved the bill (SB 4726) to passage stage after amending it to revise language that would have allowed appeals by only one side in cases where site-specific water quality rules are adopted by the state Department of Environmental Protection.
The amended bill should be up for a vote in the Senate today. It will need to return to the House because of several changes made in the Senate.
Supporters are promoting the legislation as a bill "to enhance the state's mine safety and environmental statutes."
The legislation relaxes the requirements for mine operators to provide private mine rescue teams, allowing them to instead rely on a state-funded team as a backup, and also reduces the fines for not immediately reporting major mining incidents like fires and explosions to state officials. The bill gives the industry increased ability to appeal safety violations in court and sends such appeals to local judges in communities where the mines are located, rather than to Kanawha Circuit Court, where most challenges of state agency actions are filed.
UMW officials have said they agreed to the bill - and state mine safety officials said they have not opposed it - largely because they feared that without a compromise, the West Virginia Coal Association would push through the industry's other bill, which union and state officials viewed as more drastic.
Supporters have not explained exactly how the changes the bill includes would make West Virginia's coal mines safer, better protect the state environment or create more coal-mining jobs.
In committee, the Senate had already modified the bill to address concerns raised by the state Department of Environmental Protection that a rewrite of the way DEP responds to strip-mine blasting complaints could have threatened the agency's ability to collect roughly $1 million a year in explosives fees that fund DEP's blasting enforcement program.
On the Senate floor, Sen. Jeff Kessler, D-Marshall, won approval of a change in language aimed at requiring DEP to respond within 90 days to petitions seeking site-specific changes to West Virginia water quality standards.
Prior to Kessler's amendment, the bill would have allowed appeals of such DEP decisions - typically requested by industry to weaken standards on specific streams - only when the DEP denied the petitions. Kessler's amendment would allow both denials and approvals to be appealed to the state Environmental Quality Board.
Reach Ken Ward Jr. at kward@wvgazettemail.com, 304-348-1702 or follow @kenwardjr on Twitter.