West Virginia - Yesterday afternoon, the Sierra Club and Potomac Riverkeeper Network, in accordance with the Clean Water Act, filed suit against VEPCO, a subsidiary of Dominion for violating and continuing to violate “an effluent standard or limitation” and continuing to violate its temperature discharge limits at its Mount Storm Power Station. Dominion’s water discharge activities at the site are regulated under WV/NPDES Permit No. WV0005525.
West Virginia Department of Environmental Protection (WVDEP) stated in a February 2020 administrative order that the thermal exceedances harm the downstream fishery. WVDEP also stated that it “believes that drastic changes in flow over the spillway are detrimental and counterproductive to obtaining a sustained BIP (balanced, indigenous population) in the Stony River.”
In response, Brent Walls, Upper Potomac Riverkeeper released the following statement:
“The state set limits on temperature in the power plant's discharge to protect trout and other fish species downstream in the Stony River, and Dominion's VEPCO has been violating those limits for years - not just slightly violating, but by orders of magnitude. Dumping huge volumes of hot water into a coldwater mountain trout stream degrades that stream and anything that lives in it, especially when that goes on for years.”
About the Sierra Club
The Sierra Club is America’s largest and most influential grassroots environmental organization, with more than 3.5 million members and supporters. In addition to protecting every person's right to get outdoors and access the healing power of nature, the Sierra Club works to promote clean energy, safeguard the health of our communities, protect wildlife, and preserve our remaining wild places through grassroots activism, public education, lobbying, and legal action. For more information, visit www.sierraclub.org.