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  • 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.

  • September 21, 2020

There was a natural gas explosion on Salvation Road in Berkeley County on Monday, September 21 sending pressurized gas up to 100 feet in the air—only feet from a residence—which caused all homes and businesses in a 330-foot radius from the blast to be evacuated. The company putting in the gas line to Rockwool, Mountaineer Gas Company, is constructing without any permits on record.

MGC working without a permit

For the last eight months, Jefferson County Foundation, in partnership with the Eastern Panhandle Protectors, has been working to monitor Mountaineer Gas Company’s construction activity on this pipeline. The company is installing a new gas line in the same location as an old, no longer in service gas line so they can utilize the rights-of-way. Several complaints have been filed with the DEP and despite several inspections, Mountaineer Gas has repeatedly convinced the DEP that this construction project is a few segments of pipeline being replaced for safety reasons. In fact, in the inspection report from March 2020, the DEP inspector reported that Mountaineer Gas said they would seek a permit before pursuing the section of pipeline they are currently working on where the explosion was on Monday. Mountaineer Gas has not obtained this permit.

Last week, the PSC told Jefferson County Foundation that Mountaineer Gas was not building pipeline in Berkeley County. The accident is a glaring example that this is simply not true. From a search of the Department of Transportation (DOT) division Pipeline and Hazardous Material Safety Administration (PHMSA) database, it seems they have no registration for Mountaineer Gas building pipeline or distributing natural gas in Berkeley County. A FOIA of the administration for this information has as of yet not been fulfilled yet.

“This incident is an example of the careless manner in which Mountaineer Gas is installing the gas pipeline to Rockwool. We have again and again tried to get Mountaineer Gas to have the pipeline appropriately permitted, but they have refused to do so,” states Dr. Christine Wimer, president of Jefferson County Foundation. “The regulators are all too happy to oblige Mountaineer Gas’s obfuscation of the regulatory requirements. The regulators have abandoned their post of protecting the public. This cannot be tolerated.”

Tracy Cannon, president of Eastern Panhandle Protectors, said, “I was just at the site at 5:00 p.m. and could still smell the gas. I’ve been watching the pipeline construction in the Eastern Panhandle closely for two years now. I’ve often been concerned about what I saw. Mountaineer Gas Company has been installing new pipeline on Salvation Road without removing the old pipeline first. I was worried that something could go wrong, but I’m still shocked that this happened. Thankfully no one was injured.”