West Virginia Code 22-12-4 – Authority of Secretary to promulgate standards of purity and quality
(a) The secretary has the sole and exclusive authority to promulgate standards of purity and quality for groundwater of the state.
Terms Used In West Virginia Code 22-12-4
- Beneficial uses: means those uses which are protective of human health and welfare and the environment. See West Virginia Code 22-12-3
- Constituent: means any chemical or biological substance found in groundwater due to either natural or man-made conditions. See West Virginia Code 22-12-3
- Evidence: Information presented in testimony or in documents that is used to persuade the fact finder (judge or jury) to decide the case for one side or the other.
- Groundwater: means the water occurring in the zone of saturation beneath the seasonal high water table, or any perched water zones. See West Virginia Code 22-12-3
- Person: means any industrial user, public or private corporation, institution, association, firm or company organized or existing under the laws of this or any other state or country. See West Virginia Code 22-12-3
- Secretary: means the Secretary of the Department of Environmental Protection. See West Virginia Code 22-1-2
- State: when applied to a part of the United States and not restricted by the context, includes the District of Columbia and the several territories, and the words "United States" also include the said district and territories. See West Virginia Code 2-2-10
- Water: means any and all water on or beneath the surface of the ground, whether percolating, standing, diffused or flowing, wholly or partially within this state, or bordering this state and within its jurisdiction, and includes without limiting the generality of the foregoing, natural or artificial lakes, rivers, streams, creeks, branches, brooks, ponds (except farm ponds, industrial settling basins and ponds and water treatment facilities), impounding reservoirs, springs, wells, watercourses and wetlands. See West Virginia Code 22-12-3
(b) These standards shall establish the maximum contaminant levels permitted for groundwater, but in no event shall the standards allow contaminant levels in groundwater to exceed the maximum contaminant levels adopted by the United States Environmental Protection Agency pursuant to the federal Safe Drinking Water Act. The secretary may set standards more restrictive than the maximum contaminant levels where it finds that such standards are necessary to protect drinking water use where scientifically supportable evidence reflects factors unique to West Virginia or some area thereof, or to protect other beneficial uses of the groundwater. For contaminants not regulated by the federal Safe Drinking Water Act, standards for such contaminants shall be established by the secretary to be no less stringent than may be reasonable and prudent to protect drinking water or any other beneficial use. Where the concentration of a certain constituent exceeds such standards due to natural conditions, the natural concentration is the standard for that constituent. Where the concentration of a certain constituent exceeds such standard due to human-induced contamination, no further contamination by that constituent is allowed and every reasonable effort shall be made to identify, remove or mitigate the source of such contamination and to strive where practical to reduce the level of contamination over time to support drinking water use.
(c) The standards of purity and quality for groundwater promulgated by the secretary shall recognize the degree to which groundwater is hydrologically connected with surface water and other groundwater and such standards shall provide protection for such surface water and other groundwater.
(d) In the promulgation of such standards the secretary shall consult with the Department of Agriculture and the Bureau for Public Health, as appropriate.
(e) Any groundwater standard that is in effect on the effective date of this article shall remain in effect until modified by the secretary. Notwithstanding any other provisions of this code to the contrary, the authority of the secretary to adopt standards of purity and quality for groundwater granted by the provisions of this article is exclusive, and to the extent that any other provisions of this code grant such authority to any person, body, agency or entity other than the secretary, those other provisions are void.