W.Va. residents rip pesticide facility plan as listening to looms

CHARLESTON, W.Va. — A West Virginia logging firm’s bid to determine a toxic-spewing facility within the picturesque Allegheny Mountains is drawing stiff pushback forward of a public listening to deliberate for Thursday night.

Allegheny Wood Products needs to construct a fumigation facility within the Hardy County group of Baker to deal with logs earlier than they’re shipped abroad. The state Department of Environmental Protection’s Division of Air Quality has stated it tentatively plans to situation an air allow that will let the ability emit practically 10 tons of the pesticide methyl bromide into the ambiance every year.

Regulators had been set to provide an internet presentation on the allow later Thursday night earlier than addressing questions from the general public. A public remark interval on the proposal has been prolonged to May 12.

In feedback posted on the DEP’s web site, some Hardy County residents invoked the Feb. 3 fiery prepare derailment in East Palestine, Ohio, and different environmental disasters in asking officers to protect their well being and pure sources.

Hardy County, alongside the Virginia line lower than a two hours’ drive from Washington, D.C., has about 14,000 residents, appreciable poultry and different agricultural operations, and provides vacationers an array of river float journeys and mountain climbing and biking trails.

“Please do not let this be another manmade disaster,” Janet Fisher of Moorefield wrote in a prolonged letter to the DEP. “Please protect those who are helpless creatures of the water and of the air. They have no voice. We are their only voice. Help us keep this little part of Heaven safe for future generations.”

Founded in 1973 with one sawmill in Riverton, West Virginia, Allegheny Wood Products has grown to eight sawmills within the state and touts itself as one of many largest producers of jap U.S. hardwoods.

Several residents requested the DEP previous to the listening to to additional evaluate the general public well being and environmental threats from the pesticide’s fumigation use.

Among their questions are how the methyl bromide will probably be saved, how the plant’s fumes will probably be monitored and dispersed outdoors the ability, and whether or not it is going to pose dangers to motorists alongside the four-lane freeway. Some respondents are in search of different insect therapies, corresponding to using warmth or steam, or fumigating the logs throughout their ocean transport.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency says methyl bromide is an odorless, colorless gasoline used to manage pests in transport and agriculture. While dozens of nations have stopped most makes use of of methyl bromide, the nations Allegheny exports the logs to require the pesticide fumigation remedy.

Under a three-decade-old worldwide treaty referred to as the Montreal Protocol, the United States and 197 different nations restricted most makes use of of methyl bromide, together with in soil purposes for crops, in an try to guard the ozone layer. But pre-shipment purposes to logs had been allowed to proceed to assist forestall the introduction or unfold of pests and illnesses. That exemption is legitimate till an appropriate different for methyl bromide is discovered, however the U.S. Department of Agriculture has not accepted one.

According to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, methyl bromide is also a neurotoxin that may trigger lung illness, convulsions, comas and finally loss of life. It is 3 times heavier than air, can accumulate in poorly ventilated or low-lying areas and stay within the air for days underneath opposed situations, the CDC stated.

In 2015, a household of 4 from Delaware vacationing within the U.S. Virgin Islands was sickened after methyl bromide was sprayed for pest management at a Caribbean resort.

About 20 states now regulate using methyl bromide in log fumigation, in keeping with the Southern Environmental Law Center.