West Virginia Water Use Update

            The West Virginia Water Resources Protection and Management Act (Act) became effective on June 10, 2004.  Authority to implement the Act was placed with the West Virginia Department of Environmental Protection (WVDEP).

The purpose of the Act is intended, among other things, to identify water resources, identify consumptive versus non-consumptive water, identify interbasin transfer of water, provide drought and flood assessment, identify areas of concern and growth areas (resulting in increasing water demand).  The final report to the legislature is to include discussing practices to reduce water withdrawal.  Those water users with withdrawals greater than 750,000 gallons in any month are required to report.  The Act does not restrict withdrawal. 

During November 2008 the WVDEP updated the West Virginia Joint Legislative Oversight Commission on State Water Resources regarding implementation of the Act, which was one of the quarterly reports required by the Act.  The quarterly reporting is to address 1) the survey of water within the State and 2) recommendations.  The WVDEP also is required to submit an annual report.

Each year, large quantity water users are required to certify that their water use did not change by more than 10% of their baseline average. If usage changes in excess of 10%, they must re-register.  Large quantity users currently on file with the WVDEP are scheduled to receive their user certification forms during the first quarter of 2009.  This will be the first time for implementation of the certification provision.

The WVDEP has contracted with MarshallUniversity’s Center for Environmental, Geotechnical and Applied Sciences (CEGAS) to combine several water resources databases and to resolve discrepancies within those databases.  CEGAS will continue to update the databases and provide a data warehouse for the information.  CEGAS also is currently developing a website, which has not been finalized at this time.  Water data from is being collected currently from the West Virginia Geologic and Economic Survey, West Virginia university, Department of Health, Office of Mining and Reclamation and the United States Geological Survey.

            Information on regional coal mine pools is currently being collected.  Mine pools have been identified as a major source of water within the State.  The WVDEP also has identified drilling for natural gas in the Marcellus Shale as a major user of water.  According to the WVDEP, wells in this formation require large amounts of water for development, accomplished by a process called fracing.  They report that water use for fracing is between one million to several million gallons of water per well. The WVDEP is developing a new policy and report form for wells which use more than 750,000 gallons of water within a month for development.

Other data throughout the state is being updated, including installation of two new stream gauges in the western portion of West Virginia and a pilot plan to collect data from new water wells drilled in LincolnCounty.  Additionally, watershed management planning is going to occur in the future.  Two organizations have expressed interest in preparing such plans:  The Greater Cumberland Committee (Mineral County) and Pocahontas County Commission.  The WVDEP will provide training for those organizations selected for plan preparation.

We have seen many areas around the United States develop water use plans or have allowed localized agencies to develop regulations for specific watersheds (Sesquehanna River Basin Commission, et. al.).   Water is important to everyone’s future and staying abreast of new developments and becoming involved in the development of water use policy is critical to our future.

This article was authored by William Chambers, Acacia Environmental Group LLC. For more information on the author see here.