Global Courant 2023-04-28 02:24:38
People living in a small town in West Virginia worry that their quality of life and health will be changed by a logging company’s plans to move a poison-spewing fumigation plant to their backyard. Regulators are holding a public hearing next week on Allegheny Wood Products’ proposal to move the facility from Moorefield to Baker. An existing air permit allows the Moorefield facility, which treats logs before shipping them abroad, to release nearly 10 tons of the ozone-depleting pesticide methyl bromide into the atmosphere annually.
Residents of a small West Virginia town less than two hours from the nation’s capital worry that their health and quality of life in the Allegheny Mountains will be turned upside down by a logging company’s plans to build a to move a poison-spewing decontamination factory to their backyard.
Regulators will hold a public hearing next week in response to outcry over Allegheny Wood Products’ proposal to move its plant 15 miles within the same county from Moorefield to Baker. An existing air permit allows the Moorefield facility, which treats logs before shipping them overseas, to emit nearly 10 tons of the ozone-depleting pesticide methyl bromide into the atmosphere annually.
Hardy County, which lies along the border with Virginia, has a population of about 14,000, has a lot of poultry and other agricultural activities, and offers tourists a network of river rides and hiking and biking trails.
Allegheny Wood Products applied for an air quality permit for its Baker plant in January. The state Department of Environmental Protection told the company that all state and federal air quality requirements would be met and that the Air Quality Department has made preliminary plans to issue the permit.
A virtual public hearing is scheduled for May 4 at 6 p.m., Department of Environmental Protection spokesman Terry Fletcher said. A public comment period that was initially set to end on May 5 has been extended to May 12, Fletcher said.
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A telephone message left with the Petersburg-based company about facility plans was not returned.
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 phased out most methyl bromide use, the countries to which Allegheny exports the logs require the pesticide fumigation treatment.
Under a three-decade-old international treaty called the Montreal Protocol, the United States and 197 other countries have restricted most uses of methyl bromide, including in crop soil applications, in an effort to protect the ozone layer. But pre-shipping applications on tree trunks were allowed to continue to help prevent the introduction or spread of pests and diseases. That exemption is in effect until an acceptable alternative to 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 is also a neurotoxin that can cause lung disease, convulsions, comas, and eventually death. In 2015, a family of four from Delaware fell ill after methyl bromide was sprayed for pest control at the Caribbean resort where they were staying in the US Virgin Islands.
About 20 states now regulate the use of methyl bromide in log fumigation, according to the Southern Environmental Law Center.
Residents of a small West Virginia town fear their health and quality of life will be compromised by a logging company’s plans to move a toxic fumigation plant to their backyard.
Allegheny Wood Products has been operating a logging fumigation facility in Moorefield since 2018 without much fanfare. A recent state inspection determined that “the facility complies with the terms of the state-issued permit,” Fletcher said in an email.
According to documents filed with state regulators, the Moorefield property has been sold and Allegheny Wood Products must relocate the decontamination facility. A piece of land was chosen just off U.S. Route 48 in unincorporated Baker. According to the documents, there are only a few houses near the proposed site in the rural area.
So far, responses sent to the Department of Environmental Protection have been overwhelmingly against the move. The public hearing will be held virtually and not in person, to the dismay of some who said not every resident has access to the internet.
Betsy Orndoff-Sayers, the mayor of the nearby community of Wardensville, wrote to the Department of Environmental Protection demanding that the state set up an air monitoring station in Hardy County.
“We are deeply concerned about the effect this toxic substance may have on the quality of life, long-term health, business operations and tourism in Hardy County,” she wrote.
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Whitney Fore wrote that she and her husband bought real estate in the Lost River area of Hardy County so that she and their two young children could “escape the pollution of Washington.” Fore said her family is “deeply disheartened that the pristine wilderness of Hardy County is now under threat.”
Founded in 1973 with one sawmill in Riverton, West Virginia, Allegheny Wood Products has grown to eight mills in the state and touts itself as one of the largest producers of eastern U.S. hardwoods.
