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The Energy and Public Works Committee advanced HB 2233 to the Republican-supermajority House over the objections of committee Democrats and environmental advocates who have argued the bill is an unnecessarily dangerous concession to industry.

“The only reason that a permittee would bring this forward would be to relax their permit limits so that they could discharge more pollution into rivers and streams,� Delegate Evan Hansen, D-Monongalia, said. “And what’s the mechanism for how that would happen? It would happen through these permits.�

“I don’t want any more chemicals in the water,� Delegate Kayla Young, D-Kanawha, said.

House Energy and Manufacturing Subcommittee Chairman Bob Fehrenbacher, R-Wood, defended the proposed rule change, noting it was backed by the Department of Environmental Protection, which negotiated it with the West Virginia Manufacturers Association.

Fehrenbacher said the West Virginia Rivers Coalition, which has opposed the rule change proposal, reporting receiving over 700 petitioners against it.

But Fehrenbacher stuck with his support for the measure, observing proposed removal of the drinking water use designation, known as Category A, would be subject to a 45-day public comment period. It would also be subject to a public hearing and submitted to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency for approval.

Then the removal, which must still be protective of downstream uses per the federal Clean Water Act, would become effective for permitting and compliance purposes.

Fehrenbacher has ties to Chemours plant, Manufacturers Association

DEP Deputy Secretary Scott Mandirola had told the committee during the legislation’s hearing stage Monday a change to the state’s drinking water use designation approach was proposed by the West Virginia Manufacturers Association.

“Permittees are concerned about what their permits say,� West Virginia Manufacturers Association counsel David Yaussy told the committee Monday, arguing the legislation was crafted to avoid adverse drinking water quality impacts.

Fehrenbacher was a plant manager at the Chemours Co.’s Washington Works chemical manufacturing facility in Wood County, a site with a long history of polluting toxic chemicals into the Ohio River. The two-term delegate was a plant manager for Chemours from November 2014 to February 2019 and a unit manager for DuPont from March 2010 to November 2014, according to his LinkedIn profile.

Chemours, which was spun off from DuPont in 2015, took over the Washington Works site from the latter that year.

Fehrenbacher and Energy and Public Works Committee counsel Robert Akers received Champion of Industry awards from the West Virginia Manufacturers Association last year.

The group said in an October 2024 the awards recognized their “outstanding contributions to the manufacturing sector, and their unwavering commitment to advancing West Virginia’s economic growth.� Senate Economic Development Committee Chairman Glenn Jeffries, R-Putnam, also received a Champions of Industry award.

Fehrenbacher chairs West Virginia Manufacturers Association Educational Fund Inc.’s board, per his LinkedIn profile. The fund is a nonprofit that promotes a greater awareness of manufacturing careers and the academic preparation required for advanced manufacturing jobs, the fund reported in tax documents.

DuPont began using toxic chemicals known as PFAS to make Teflon-products at the Washington Works site in 1951.

After PFAS used to make Teflon-related products at the Washington Works facility discharged into water supplies, people living in the area experienced increased rates of:

• Testicular and kidney cancer
• Thyroid disease
• Ulcerative colitis
• Pregnancy-induced hypertension

Ohio officials announced a proposed $110 million settlement with manufacturers that included Chemours and DuPont in November 2023. West Virginia has refrained from similar legal action against the manufacturers over PFAS.

Mandirola acknowledged on Monday under questioning from Hansen, president of Morgantown-based environmental consulting firm Downstream Strategies, that redesignation of an Ohio River tributary into which Chemours’ Washington Works plant in Wood County discharges PFAS could result in additional discharges of those chemicals.

In December, the West Virginia Rivers Coalition filed a federal lawsuit against Chemours to stop alleged permit exceedances for pollution discharges into the Ohio River.

The Greater Cincinnati Water Works is concerned elevated PFAS levels reportedly being discharged by Chemours may pose an increased public health risk to Kentucky and Ohio communities that use the Ohio River as their drinking water source, according to testimony filed in the case last month.

Emergency rule provision added

The Energy and Public Works Committee on Thursday adopted a Fehrenbacher-proposed amendment to the proposed rule change that would require that drinking water use designation removal approved under the rule would be issued as an emergency rule per state code rather than added to the rule upon the next legislative rulemaking review cycle.

Under the newly proposed rule change — which is labeled HB 2236 within the larger rules package named HB 2233 — fecal coliform would be the bacteria with a maximum allowable level for the main stem of the Ohio River despite E. coli, a type of fecal coliform, being commonly recognized as a more specific indicator of health risks.

Mandirola told the committee the EPA indicated it could not approve the previously proposed change from fecal coliform to E. coli and that the DEP would have time to “pull more data� and evaluate the relationship between fecal coliform and E. coli at higher levels before its next triennial review of water quality standards.

Drinking water regulations have been violated in West Virginia at a disproportionately high rate in recent years, EPA data show.

The violations have been piling up faster and more out of proportion with the rest of the country.

West Virginia’s percentage of public water systems with health-based violations of the federal Safe Drinking Water Act in 2022 was 22.7%, far exceeding the 4.5% national average. West Virginia’s clip of public water systems in this category had been just 4.7% in 2015.