WVa residents rip pesticide facility plan as hearing looms
CHARLESTON, W.Va. (AP) — A West Virginia logging company’s bid to establish a toxic-spewing facility in the picturesque Allegheny Mountains is drawing stiff pushback ahead of a public hearing planned for Thursday evening.
Allegheny Wood Products wants to build a fumigation facility in the Hardy County community of Baker to treat logs before they are shipped overseas. The state Department of Environmental Protection’s Division of Air Quality has said it tentatively plans to issue an air permit that would let the facility emit nearly 10 tons of the pesticide methyl bromide into the atmosphere each year.
Regulators were set to give an online presentation on the permit later Thursday evening before addressing questions from the public. A public comment period on the proposal has been extended to May 12.
In comments posted on the DEP’s website, some Hardy County residents invoked the Feb. 3 fiery train derailment in East Palestine, Ohio, and other environmental disasters in asking officials to preserve their health and natural resources.
Hardy County, along the Virginia line less than a two hours’ drive from Washington, D.C., has about 14,000 residents, considerable poultry and other agricultural operations, and offers tourists an array of river float trips and hiking and cycling trails.
“Please do not let this be another manmade disaster,” Janet Fisher of Moorefield wrote in a lengthy 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 in the state and touts itself as one of the largest producers of eastern U.S. hardwoods.
Several residents asked the DEP prior to the hearing to further review the public health and environmental threats from the pesticide’s fumigation use.
Among their questions are how the methyl bromide will be stored, how the plant’s fumes will be monitored and dispersed outside the facility, and whether it will pose risks to motorists along the four-lane highway. Some respondents are seeking alternative insect treatments, such as the use of heat or steam, or fumigating the logs during their ocean transport.
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency says methyl bromide is an odorless, colorless gas used to control pests in shipping and agriculture. While dozens of countries have stopped most uses of methyl bromide, the countries Allegheny exports the logs to require the pesticide fumigation treatment.
Under a three-decade-old international treaty called the Montreal Protocol, the United States and 197 other countries restricted most uses of methyl bromide, including in soil applications for crops, in an attempt to protect the ozone layer. But pre-shipment applications to logs were allowed to continue to help prevent the introduction or spread of pests and diseases. That exemption is valid until an acceptable alternative for methyl bromide is found, but the U.S. Department of Agriculture has not approved one.
According to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, methyl bromide also is a neurotoxin that can cause lung disease, convulsions, comas and ultimately death. It is three times heavier than air, can accumulate in poorly ventilated or low-lying areas and remain in the air for days under adverse conditions, the CDC said.
In 2015, a family of four from Delaware vacationing in the U.S. Virgin Islands was sickened after methyl bromide was sprayed for pest control at a Caribbean resort.
About 20 states now regulate the use of methyl bromide in log fumigation, according to the Southern Environmental Law Center.
Allegheny Wood Products owned two fumigation facilities in Moorefield. One opened in 2018 and has met air quality standards, according to the DEP. The other facility closed last year and the company now wants to move it 16 miles (25 kilometers) to a site off U.S. Route 48 in Baker.