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  • February 13, 2021

There’s lots of activity to report on, and we have some good news to share. Thanks to your generosity, we met our match last week! We are also excited to announce today that another generous donor has come forward and is matching donations the Foundation Legal Fund. So, if you missed the last opportunity, now’s your chance; donate today and your money will go twice as far.

To update you:

Educate and Empower the Public

The Foundation continues to enroll participants in the well testing program. We are nearly ready to start another round of testing. If you are interested, please review these materials and email us at jeffersoncountyfoundation@gmail.com

The Foundation has filed FOIA to four state and federal government agencies this month. We hope the new administration will lead to more accurate information production. This information will be key for continued protection of the the air and water in region.

Advocate to Regulators and Leaders

The Foundation, in partnership with the Eastern Panhandle chapter of the Sierra Club, met with Senator Manchin’s office recently to update them on the situation with the DEP and Rockwool. This is part of a broader strategy to engage leaders at the federal level.

Legal Updates

Constitutionality of the $150M Tax Abatement Deal with WVEDA

A scheduling order was made by the judge in the Foundation’s legal challenge of the constitutionality of the $150 Million tax abatement deal the WVEDA made with Rockwool. The motion to dismiss made by Rockwool and joined by the WVEDA has been fully briefed and we await the decision of the judge. For more information about this case, please read here.

Rockwool Stormwater Construction Permit Hearing to be Continued… now in March

The Jefferson County Foundation v. WVDEP and Rockwool case that challenges Rockwool’s Construction Stormwater permit, which was due to resume last Thursday, has been postponed again. Thursday’s hearing was supposed to complete the hearing that started on December 11 and 12 but which was continued into January at the request of the DEP so they could complete the certified record. The DEP once again was unable to deliver the certified record in time for the hearning and now the hearing has now been rescheduled for March. For more information on this case and the reason for another delay, please read here.

Update: the DEP finally produced the certified record yesterday. The legal team is poring over the document so please stay tuned for more information.

Preparing for Discovery for Rockwool’s Operational Stormwater Permit Appeal

The Foundation is currently mid-discovery in the appeal of Rockwool’s operational stormwater permit. Multiple depositions and expert witnesses will be required for this case. While this will be resource intensive, it is critical to the success of our case. This case is critical to protecting the groundwater in the region. The evidentiary hearing has been set for April 8 and 9. Read the notice of appeal here.

Fighting the Super Sewer to Rockwool

We are waiting for the Kanawha County circuit court Judge to direct the schedule in the Foundation’s circuit court appeal of the EQB decision to dismiss the appeal of DEP Unilateral Order 9080, which allowed Charles Town to construct the Route 9 sewer extension (the super sewer to Rockwool) without a valid stormwater permit. Rockwool, one of three interveners, submitted a motion to dismiss in late December. For more information about this case, please read here.

Support the Foundation’s Work

Please check out our 2020 Annual Report. The discovery process is expensive, but necessary in order to submit more evidence into the record. We appreciate your support while we are conducting this process. Please, if you are able, consider a donation to the Foundation Legal Fund. For a limited time, all donations are again being matched by a generous donor, so your donation will go twice as far. You can donate safely and easily online here. You can also help by sending a check to Jefferson County Foundation, Inc., PO Box 460, Ranson, WV 25438.

For those that have contributed, we thank you for your dedication to bring truth to light and to protect our natural resources. We appreciate your continued support!  In the meantime, we’ll keep you posted on how our active cases are going.

  • February 9, 2021

The Jefferson County Foundation v. WVDEP and Rockwool case that challenges Rockwool’s Construction Stormwater permit, due to resume this Thursday, has been postponed again. Thursday’s hearing was supposed to complete the hearing that started on December 11 and 12 but which was continued into January at the request of the DEP so they could complete the certified record.

What is the certified record?

By law DEP must produce a complete, or certified, record that includes all documents and correspondence in the agency’s files relating to the appeal. And they need to do it within 14 days of receiving the notice of appeal.  Jefferson County Foundation filed the appeal on March 26, 2020.

That was almost a year ago.

The Environmental Quality Board (EQB) gave the DEP an extension due to COVID until May 2020. The DEP produced some materials in June 2020 but they have never been even close to complete. In fact, DEP initially produced the record for the wrong permit application. And the DEP has still not produced a complete record, even two days before the last scheduled days of the hearing. This morning, the DEP’s counsel contacted our counsel and advised that they would try to get it complete by tomorrow (day before the hearing) but were not sure they could. He further advised that there was new information in the record that we had not seen before, and that this information included communications between Rockwool and the DEP. This is obviously information that we need to know before we continue the hearing, and should have known last May.

These new documents go to the ultimate question in the case: why did the DEP allow Rockwool to build on karst without appropriate protection for our region’s water?

Even though this is all incredibly frustrating, we cannot push into the hearing without seeing the information in the complete record, so we did not oppose DEP’s request for a continuance. The hearing will now be March 18 and 19. We will keep you updated. 

  • January 29, 2021

Today, the Jefferson County Foundation filed its response to the West Virginia Economic Development Authority’s (WVEDA) attempt to dismiss the Foundation’s challenge of the WVEDA’s plan to give Rockwool a break from property taxes for up to 10 years and up to $150 million in bonds for Rockwool’s benefit. 

Read the response.

Jefferson County Foundation’s response to Motion to Dismiss from WVEDA and RockwoolDownload

The Foundation brought the WVEDA’s plan to our community’s attention in September of 2019 after surfacing information about it via the Foundation’s FOIA requests.  Our legal action against the WVEDA challenges the constitutionality and legality of the tax exemption that the WVEDA is attempting to provide Rockwool.  

The next step in the proceeding is for the Circuit Court judge in Charleston to rule on the motions to dismiss our challenge that the WVEDA and Rockwool have filed to protect the tax relief scheme. The Foundation has requested oral argument and looks forward to the opportunity to explain to the court why such tax breaks violate the Constitution’s requirement for fair and equal taxation while subsidizing certain companies at the expense of the state’s taxpayers.

About PILOT Agreements

For more information about PILOT (Payment in Lieu of Taxes) agreements, please see here.

  • December 9, 2020

Jefferson County Foundation’s legal team is on fire these last few weeks. We have two big things to share:

Arbitrary and capricious! That’s how WVDEP acted in rubber-stamping Rockwool’s stormwater permit which allows discharge of 86,000 gallons a day to sinkhole-prone land, says Jefferson County Foundation’s legal team in its latest regulatory legal action. With that kind of volume – more than 10 large tanker trucks a day – even small quantities of pollutants caught in rainwater and runoff can concentrate and run into the ground impacting our region’s water. We filed an appeal on Friday, December 4 to the Environmental Quality Board regarding Rockwool’s Multi-Sector Stormwater Permit Registration. Read the appeal here.

Our hearing on Rockwool’s Stormwater Construction General Permit Registration is tomorrow and Friday, December 10 and 11 starting at 8:30 a.m. and you can tune in to hear the case! This hearing is open to the public and is going to be worth listening to, so please tune in. This is the evidentiary hearing you and we have been fighting for since October 23, 2019. Jefferson County Foundation is following through and standing strong. Help us hold the line.

Want to help support this amazing work? Go here.

  • December 3, 2020

How many sinkholes does it take to get to the center of our drinking water supply, DEP? Inquiring minds want to know.

The Rockwool Construction Stormwater Permit Modification was approved November 20, 2020. Rockwool uploaded a new Site Map, and now we have another new sinkhole, #22, within the Limit of Disturbance (LOD) and a few feet away from the conduit to the Bioretention Pond and outlet #2. It is an active sinkhole 180 feet from the natural gas pipeline and 420 feet from the 8-story furnace and smoke stack #1.

If the sinkhole causes failure of the conduit, then all the water in the conduit that was going to the pond carrying all the pollutants that are in it will go straight into the groundwater. These include pollutants that will fall to the ground from the air emissions, other industrial processes and other outdoor storage areas.

We are working on filing an appeal to Rockwool’s Multi-Sector Stormwater Permit. We will not tolerate the DEP turning a blind eye to what can turn into a multigenerational disaster. 

  • November 25, 2020

The Environmental Quality Board (EQB) inappropriately decided that Jefferson County Foundation’s appeal of order 9080—which allowed the City of Charles Town (CTUB) to construct the super sewer to Rockwool WITHOUT a valid permit (and over 700 other entities)—was moot. On November 25, the Foundation filed an appeal of this decision to the Kanawha County Circuit Court.

Every challenge presents an opportunity to affect change. This case in particular is another step to make the DEP and the EQB follow the law. The DEP cannot be allowed to utilize enforcement orders to permit entities to sidestep the Clean Water Act and the EQB cannot just turn a blind eye to what’s right because it’s the easy way out. We stand up to such tactics because it’s the right thing to do. And we will every time.

We got to this place of dysregulation because the people did not hold the government to account. We have to now hold the line and never give up.

  • November 10, 2020

The dates for the hearing have been moved from November 12 and 13 to December 10 and 11 due to judge availability. This will be a public hearing and will be open to the public to listen in. In the meantime, the Foundation is working on several new legal challenges to protect the region’s water and hold the DEP accountable. We will keep you updated.

  • October 30, 2020

On October 29, the Environmental Quality Board heard arguments on the pre-trial motions in the Jefferson County Foundation v. WVDEP and Rockwool case challenging Rockwool’s Construction Stormwater permit. Rockwool’s five motions asked the Board to preclude evidence and decide nearly all of the case before evidence is heard. After hearing arguments and reviewing the motions, the Board found IN FAVOR of JEFFERSON COUNTY FOUNDATION and DENIED Rockwool’s motions. The evidentiary hearing is set for November 12 and 13, 2020.

  • October 23, 2020

Jefferson County Foundation has submitted multiple complaints to the West Virginia DEP asking that Mountaineer Gas be required to obtain a valid stormwater construction permit and follow appropriate stormwater controls for its Arden gas line (gas line to Rockwool). Our hard work and diligence has finally paid off. This week, Mountaineer Gas finally applied for a permit to cover this work after a notice of violation pursuant to a Foundation complaint. Mountaineer Gas is still not complying with several regulations and we continue to urge the DEP to require they stop work until they do so. We’re currently awaiting the DEP’s most recent inspection report.

Why do we push so hard for stormwater protections? Stormwater protections are important for protecting the water resources from contamination with construction pollutants (sediment, nutrients, bacteria, petroleum products, debris, and other pollutants).

  • October 15, 2020

The Good News: the DEP is now taking the Foundation seriously; however, Rockwool is not doing enough to address these concerns.

The DEP is now pushing Rockwool to answer for some of the many errors and issues in their NPDES permit. A recent letter from Rockwool’s hired consulting firm, ERM, goes over 10 comments from the DEP to Rockwool about issues with approving their permit. All 10 of them – every single one of them – came from the Jefferson County Foundation public comment to the DEP from November 2019.

We still need transparency from Rockwool and due diligence by the DEP to ensure the water resources are thoroughly protected.

See the side-by-side comparison

This is the power of public comments. This is the power of holding the DEP accountable through litigation. This is why we continue to put pressure on the DEP to do their job and to hold Rockwool to the standard of the law, the law that protects the natural resources. This is the water that sustains our health, welfare, and local economy, and we will stand up for the residents of this county and region protecting those natural resources.