There are over 690 entities — including the City of Charles Town —operating in West Virginia without a valid General Stormwater Construction Permit, because the 2012 permit expired and the 2019 permit has not been issued (or, it was issued, appealed, revised, rejected by EPA, and withdrawn by the DEP). Jefferson County Foundation sent a letter to the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) requesting clarity about this today.
On March 16, the DEP issued 697 Unilateral Orders to different entities across the state. This distortion of an enforcement order allows entities to continue construction projects under the 2012 construction stormwater permitting conditions. These conditions have expired, and were replaced in February of 2019. Worse yet, on October 31, 2019, the EPA directly instructed the WVDEP to not allow any entity to continue work under the 2012 permit conditions. One of these orders was given to Charles Town to allow the construction of the Route 9 sewer project to continue even though Charles Town did not apply for a permit in time.
Jefferson County Foundation is appealing this Order at the Environmental Quality Board (state administrative court) and we have been trying relentlessly to determine, via phone call, email, and FOIA, what the EPA knew and when they knew it. Today we sent this letter to the EPA. Read on (click below).
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