The DEP has submitted the Draft 2008 West Virginia Integrated Water Quality and Assessment Report to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency for approval.  The Integrated Report, complete with the Section 303(d) list was sent to EPA’s Region III office on October 17, 2008.  To view the documents, please follow this link, www.wvdep.org/wv303d.

In an effort to increase efficiency, reduce paper consumption and take advantage of available technology, the West Virginia Department of Environmental Protection will begin accepting mining permits and discharge monitoring reports electronically beginning in 2009. Background Water Quality information associated with Electronic Permitting Applications will be accepted via file uploads to the EQuIS Chemistry System.

To train representatives from the mining industry on the electronic permitting process and municipal and industrial entities on the process for filing electronic discharge monitoring reports, the DEP is offering training from now through December.

While filing discharge monitoring reports electronically will remain optional, all mining permit applications submitted to the Division of Mining and Reclamation will be required to be filed electronically after January 1, 2009.

The training sessions will take place at the DEP Headquarters, located at 601 57th Street SE in Charleston.

For Division of Mining and Reclamation ePermitting training dates and times, click here.

For Division of Mining and Reclamation eDMR training dates and times, click here.

For Division of Mining and Reclamation EQuIS Background Water Quality training schedule, click here.

For Division of Water and Waste Management eDMR training, click here.

The Great Kanawha River Cleanup took place Saturday, Sept. 13. More than 100 volunteers from throughout the area volunteered to help at six sites along the river from Fayette, Kanawha and Putnam counties. The volunteers removed 6.89 tons of litter and debris, and 52 tires from the waters and banks of the Kanawha River.

Click the link below to view an additional photo

• Volunteers got up early Saturday, Sept. 13 to help clean up the Kanawha River.
  

The West Virginia Department of Environmental Protection and West Virginia University have begun working together to study the potential for growing switchgrass on sites of former surface mines across the state.

Switchgrass is a tall grass that grows from three- to ten-feet tall, has a deep root system and grows annually after harvesting. It is often used to rehabilitate exhausted croplands by rebuilding soil structure, nutrients and organic matter. Switchgrass can also be converted to ethanol, which is a flammable alcohol and can be made by fermenting plant products such as corn, barley, wood and straw.

"Last year, 20 percent of the U.S. corn crop was used to produce five billion gallons of ethanol, which is about one percent of petroleum consumption in the United States," said Paul Ziemkiewicz, PhD, with the WVU Water Research Institute. "If our entire corn crop went to ethanol production, it would only replace seven percent of our annual petroleum use. In addition to competing for limited cropland, corn-based ethanol production consumes nearly as much energy as it produces."

According to a recent report by the National Academy of Science, the net energy yield of switchgrass ethanol was about six times better than corn ethanol.

"While corn ethanol will continue to reduce our dependence on foreign oil, we clearly need to develop additional sources for ethanol production," said Governor Joe Manchin III. "This study is designed to provide us the information we need to determine whether developing a switchgrass-based industry in West Virginia is the direction we want to go."

"Large surface mines can range from 1,000 to 12,000 acres; many have road networks, access to transportation, water, utilities and even locations for ethanol processing facilities," said Ken Ellison, Director of the WVDEP Division of Land Restoration. "But first, we need to know how many tons of switchgrass hay will be produced on an acre of mined land, track developments in ethanol conversion technology and the economics of ethanol production and processing."

  The project will be managed by the Water Research Institute at WVU. The researchers will test the performance of three switchgrass varieties in large, ten-acre plots in both northern and southern West Virginia. Hay yields and carbon sequestration will be measured over a seven-year period; and researchers will document costs related to switchgrass plot establishment, harvesting and maintenance.  

"This project is an example of the DEP's continuing effort to find productive uses for mine lands," said Stephanie Timmermeyer, Cabinet Secretary for the West Virginia Department of Environmental Protection. "If we discover that growing switchgrass on these lands is a successful endeavor, it is the perfect example of an enterprising and environmentally healthy use of those lands."