'Five-mile rule' will help W.Va. coal industry and environment
Washington (Platts)--1Jul2005
The Environmental Protection Agency has approved W.Va.'s Manganese Five-Mile Rule revising allowable limits on levels of the metal in water discharge from mining operations. The W.Va. Coal Assn. says the change will help the industry and the environment. The approval "places W.Va. on a more even level with surrounding states, since a manganese limit of 1 [1 milligram of manganese for each liter of water, the old standard] is unheard of elsewhere," said Jason Bostic, WVCA's regulatory affairs specialist. "Application of the five-mile rule will take some time," Bostic told Platts on Thursday. "Pending [National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System] permits will be revised accordingly, but there are thousands of existing NPDES permits for coal mining that have the previous 1 standard. How the DEP will address revising these applications is critical." Regulatory language was added to have the manganese human health criterion apply only within the five-mile zone immediately upstream from a known public or private water supply used for human consumption, according to EPA's Region III office. "In consideration of the following factors, EPA finds that this new rule is protective of the designated use and consistent with the Clean Water Act. Manganese has a very low toxicity via oral ingestion, and drinking water accounts for a relatively small proportion of the total manganese intake by humans. Indeed, EPA has decided not to regulate manganese as a contaminant under the Safe Drinking Water Act (SDWA)." Bostic explained how the revision helps the environment as well as the state's coal industry. "First, treatment of effluent to achieve the limit of 1 [mg] involves the application of caustic chemicals. With the five-mile rule approved, in most cases, coal mining NPDES outlets will have to meet technology-based effluent limits of 2 average [and] 4 maximum, but the dangerous treatment required to meet the limit of 1 will no longer be required in cases where a public drinking water intake does not exist in close proximity to the mining operation. Manganese treatment to 1 is costly and creates legacy water liabilities and bond release issues where otherwise there would be none. "The application of treatment chemicals to meet a 1 limit of manganese also degrades the streams below the treatment sites, since the pH of the effluent must be raised in order to remove manganese to 1," he added. More stories like this are published in Platts Coal Trader. Request a free trial at http://coaltrader.platts.com
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