Blog

  • June 17, 2021

Jefferson County Foundation filed a Motion for Stay today with the Environmental Quality Board (EQB) to stop Rockwool from operating under their current Operational Stormwater Permit. If approved by the board, Rockwool will have to delay operations until the case in the matter is resolved.

Click here to read the Motion for Stay and accompanying exhibits. (PDF)

Engineering Expert Warns of “Irreparable Harm”

Rockwool is expected to begin full production on June 22. The undersized design of the stormwater handling system will lead to ponding and carrying of pollution from raw and in-process materials to unintended locations and the groundwater. The Foundation’s engineering expert, Ryan Linthicum, P.E., LEED AP, says, “As stated in my report ‘if not corrected immediately, the RAN-5 Facility will not drain effectively or as portrayed in Figure 3 of The SWPPP resulting in a flawed pollution prevention analysis subjecting the surrounding surface and groundwater to risk of contamination.” He goes on to say, “Left uncontrolled and untreated, industrial water entering the groundwater that flows through the below grade karst matrix in this area would then result in irreparable harm to the groundwater and surrounding environment.”

Click here to read engineering expert Linthicum’s report from June 17, 2021 (PDF).

Click here to read engineering expert Linthicum’s report from April 20, 2021 (PDF).

Well-Developed Karst Subject to Environmental Risks

The issues regarding the increased risk “associated with the RAN 5 project shows that the facility is located on a well-developed karst landscape and aquifer and is subject to the environmental risks expected in such a hydrogeologic setting.” In his report from April 20, 2021, Foundation hydrogeology expert, Dr. Chris Groves, states the risks include, “… the potential both for sinkhole development and groundwater contamination. These are related in the sense that loss of structural support that can occur with sinkhole development could compromise the function of stormwater and/or chemical containment structures. In the case of a release groundwater impacts could be catastrophic in ecological terms, and potentially creating human disruptions by polluting groundwater, springs, and the surface waters to which these springs flow.”

Click here to read Hydrogeology Expert Groves’ Report from April 20, 2021 (PDF)

Costly Contaminated Groundwater Cleanup

The majority of residents in Jefferson County rely on groundwater for their drinking water, and even more people downstream of this aquifer rely on surface water that would be impacted by stormwater contamination at this site. Contaminated groundwater is extremely hard to contain and clean up; it’s also costly. The Appellants state in their Motion that while the Intervenor (Rockwool) will argue that granting the stay will create economic issues for their operations, “they pale in comparison to the impacts contaminated groundwater can have on a community.”

The Foundation awaits the chance to argue the merits of this Motion for Stay with the EQB. Stay tuned for further developments.

  • June 13, 2021

Jefferson County Foundation asks WV EQB to reopen Rockwool Construction Stormwater Permit appeal after bombshell emails discovered from DEP

It seems that the WV Department of Environmental Protection’s (DEP) permit review process has been tainted by political pressure disregarding the environmental impact of Rockwool’s factory construction in Jefferson County. In an email thread that started on January 14, 2020, Yogesh Patel, Assistant Director of the Water and Waste Management division and supervisor of the permit writing team, tells the permit reviewer, Rick Adams, “Permit need (sic) to get it out on or before 01/24/2020.” Adams pushes back, stating, “I don’t think we can get permit out by Friday.” Patel responds moments later, “We have too (sic). Cabinet Secretary has committed, we do not have any choice.”   

Click here to see the full DEP email thread.

This alarming discovery comes after the hearing in the Foundation’s appeal of Rockwool’s construction stormwater permit has been completed, after post-hearing briefs were filed, and while the case is awaiting a decision by the state Environmental Quality Board (EQB). At least four DEP employees, three of whom were deposed and testified under oath, failed to identify these facts. The emails were not produced as part of the Certified Record of the Construction Stormwater Appeal 20-02-EQB. Needless to say, had this email been produced when it should have been during the case proceedings, the Foundation would have had the chance to dig further into the apparent political pressure on DEP staff to issue Rockwool’s permit.  

In light of the emails that have just been discovered, on June 10, 2021 attorneys for the Foundation filed a motion before the EQB asking for reopening of the record and proceedings in the Construction Stormwater Permit Appeal, stating that “[i]f the DEP is allowed to selectively and without consequences withhold documents from the Certified Record, the process is without credibility. Presumably that is why the Legislature set as the first requirement after an appeal is filed in an environmental case, the production [of] a full and complete record.” The motion continues, “The disclosure of political influence on the permit review process, apparently exercised by the former Secretary, are matters of significant concern and information about same should properly have been put before the EQB and should have been available during the hearing process.”

Click here to read the full Motion to the EQB.

On June 11, the EQB responded to the Motion and scheduled a hearing for June 24 requiring the parties to fully brief the issue before the hearing. Relatedly, the Foundation continues to work on its appeal of Rockwool’s Operational Stormwater Permit, 20-13-EQB (the email string that just came to light was recently produced by DEP during discovery for this appeal).

  • June 3, 2021

Jefferson County Foundation thanks West Virginians for Sustainable Development (WVSD) for its successful pursuit of a complaint against Rockwool in its home country of Denmark. The Foundation has long recognized that Rockwool failed to properly engage the public in a transparent and responsive way and failed to do appropriate environmental due diligence. We are very pleased to see that, after a long investigation under OECD guidelines, the Danish agency has concluded the same. The Foundation is currently pursuing several key projects aimed at protecting the community and our natural resources from the effects of Rockwool’s failure to perform appropriate due diligence when the company chose to site its factory in a vulnerable area: challenges of Rockwool’s stormwater permits, facilitating a water monitoring program, and challenging Rockwool’s air permit. Through our work on zoning and the JCDA the Foundation is also working to ensure that, as we move forward, our region is smarter about who and how we invite development. Please join us in thanking the WVSD for their hard work and help us redouble our efforts to hold Rockwool accountable to operate safely while we promote sustainability and protection of our health, heritage, and environment in the Eastern Panhandle.

Read more here.

Read more about what Rockwool could do to voluntarily update their air permit and get an individual NPDES permit.

  • April 20, 2021

Legal documents recently obtained by Jefferson County Foundation as part of our lawsuit on Rockwool’s stormwater permits show that when the West Virginia Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) asked Rockwool to add a leak detection system to the pond liners, Rockwool refused. Rockwool stated, “The cost and operational implications of adding an interstitial monitoring layer and second geomembrane are considerable and ROCKWOOL does not believe they will add any appreciable value.”

Value to who is the question… Read the full letter for yourself.

Rockwool does not value the water; it only values its own convenience and bottom line! To support this work, please donate to the Foundation Legal Fund. And right now, all donations are being matched by a generous donor in honor of Earth Week, so your donation will go twice as far.

  • March 15, 2021

Charles Town City Council and Building Commission Declare that Rockwool Has To Pay for Its Own Sewer Once and For All

Great news! Today, the Charles Town City Council and the Charles Town Building Commission declared moot the bond ordinance for the “super sewer” to Rockwool! Since the Fall of 2018, the residents of Charles Town have spoken up and opposed the public funding of the “super sewer” to Rockwool. Residents first made their voices heard through a petition presented in March of 2019, which the City Council rejected and approved to fund the sewer anyway. Then, immediately afterwards, the Super Blue Petition Crew (led by Dr. Chrissy Wimer, the Blue Petition Project Manager) worked hard in eight weeks gathered over 1,500 verified signatures of Charles Town “freeholders,” or property holders, and submitted another petition. The City Council, again, rejected the will of the people — but the Blue Petition to stop the public funding continued on, taking the challenge to Circuit Court. Eventually, the Judge ruled against the viability of the legal challenge, but because the residents did not agree with the Judge’s decision, an appeal was filed. In the meantime, Rockwool, who saw growing outcry against public funding for its infrastructure and the potential slowdown ongoing cases would bring, decided to fund its own sewer and did so.

Two Unanimous Votes

Tonight, the Blue Petition became a rousing success—the Building Commission and the City Council voted unanimously to declare the Bond moot and of no effect because the Blue Petition delayed the issuance of the bond until Rockwool paid for its own sewer through the 5.5-7h. Thank you to all of the people who signed the Blue Petition – without your signatures, this could never have happened!  And thank you to all those who helped gather those signatures and do the immense amount of processing and back end work to make this a success—it took a team effort, and it was worth it. ROCKWOOL HAD TO PAY for its own sewer – as it should!

Hold the Line

This is the second defeat for Rockwool’s attempt to get public funding for its unwanted plant— the initial Property In Lieu of Taxation (PILOT) agreement, which provided Rockwool tax free status in exchange for the JCDA holding title to the property was declared null and void by the Circuit Court in August of 2019. Finding no support for any public funding in Jefferson County, Rockwool turned to the State Economic Development Authority and received authorization, without any public notice except on an obscure Charleston based agency website, for up to $150 million in bonds. Jefferson County Foundation has filed suit against the constitutionality of that bond mechanism, and is heading for the West Virginia Supreme Court soon. Other lawsuits and challenges continue on every front – help the Foundation continue the fight and hold the line!

  • March 14, 2021

Jefferson County Foundation continues to spring forward with momentum in the fight to protect our region’s natural resources. Recent developments prove that we must act with incredible urgency. Now is the time to support these critical actions. Please donate if you can. To update you:

Educate and Empower the Public

The Foundation has filed four more FOIA to state and federal government agencies due to new issues which continue to arise. The FOIA requests are time consuming but necessary as we continue to seek truth in matters that affect our region’s natural resources.

Advocate to Regulators and Leaders

Photo of B170 as of July 15, 2020. Gravel-covered. No enclosure.

The Foundation sent a letter to the West Virginia Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) and the federal Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) regarding Rockwool’s inaccurate and incomplete form submission for Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA), which requires the company to notify the EPA about how it intends to handle regulated waste at its facility. Rockwool cannot continue to be allowed to submit inconsistent, incomplete and inaccurate information for permits. It’s simply not protective of the environment and will lead to the degradation of our natural resources and the downturn of our economy, health, safety, and welfare. Read the full letter here.

The Foundation sent a letter of complaint to the DEP regarding the lack of proper public notice about the Sheetz Truck Facility Construction Stormwater General Permit (CGP) application. Sheetz, Inc. applied for a new permit on November 20, 2020, and as of the date of our letter, still had not posted the public notice sign as required by this type of permit. A public notice sign is the only method by which the public may become aware of this type of project and be drawn to review the permit and offer comment. Violations of these requirements in the CGP effectively eliminate the involvement of the public in the review process, and remove an avenue for the public to seek relief that was clearly intended by the CGP. We continue to hold the DEP to the requirements of the law and await the response on this matter.

Legal Updates

Constitutionality of the $150M Tax Abatement Deal with WVEDA

The Foundation is appealing the decision of the judge who dismissed the case in the legal challenge of the constitutionality of the $150 Million tax abatement deal the WVEDA made with Rockwool. The case was dismissed because the business court concluded that the legislature intended to allow these types of arrangements. The court did not answer the constitutional question or if the constitution allows these arrangements. We are appealing the decision as constitutionality was the basis of our suit. The constitution requires equity; every entity pays their fair share. For more information about this case and our view of PILOTs in general, read here.

Rockwool Stormwater Construction Permit Hearing Continues this Thursday

The Jefferson County Foundation v. WVDEP and Rockwool case that challenges Rockwool’s Construction Stormwater permit continues this Thursday. The hearing, which started last year, was originally continued into January at the request of the DEP so they could complete the certified record. The DEP was again unable to deliver the certified record in time for the hearing and now the hearing has been rescheduled for this Thursday. For more information on this case, please read here. We will share the link to watch the hearing on our Facebook page closer to the date.

Preparing for Discovery for Rockwool’s Operational Stormwater Permit Appeal

The Foundation continues to work on discovery in the appeal of Rockwool’s operational stormwater permit. The new expert’s assessment is underway. The evidentiary hearing has been set for April 8 and 9. Read the appeal.

Charles Town Votes on Resolution to Abandon the Bond to Pay for the Super Sewer to Rockwool

We are relieved to see that Mayor Trainor listened to the Foundation’s call last November to abandon the bond and require Rockwool to pay for its own sewer through the 5.5-7h process it has relied upon to build the sewer. The Charles Town City Council will vote on Monday, March 15 on a resolution to declare the ordinance moot. The Foundation would like to thank the over 1,500 people who signed the petition in opposition of the bond, and the volunteers from the Super Blue Petition Crew that helped gather these signatures. We collected signatures from well over 30% of the free holders, representing 34% of the adult population of Charles Town, all in eight weeks. As the Blue Petition Project Manager, I would personally like to thank those who gave countless hours of tireless dedication to getting the job done, in an amazingly short amount of time! 

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. You can donate safely and easily online at the Foundation’s website. You can also help by sending a check to Jefferson County Foundation, Inc., PO Box 460, Ranson, WV 25438.

For those that are contributing, 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. 

  • 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.