Many years ago I wrote about the high cost of litter. It would seem that that over the last 10 years so much attention and social media is directed toward litter pollution that littering would decrease and we would hear more about litter abatement in states such as West Virginia: It appears that West Virginia has bigger issues than litter and illegal dumping. Their issues involve water quality. It is said that 60% of West Virginia’s rivers are polluted.. due to mining and coal operations and lack of laws.
- 1.831 Million is the population of West Virginia in 2016
- 29 State Parks
- 9 State Forests
- 1 State Fish Hatchery
- 1 National Forest
- 1 National Historic Park
- 2 National Recreation Areas
The Taxpayer Cost of Litter in West Virginia
- $1 million per year in West Virginia to remove litter from state highways.
- 15,000 illegal dump sites in West Virginia (2016)
- 1100 Illegal dumpsites cleaned up in West Virginia every year according to the DEP’s Rehabilitation Environmental Action Plan (REAP), New River Gorge
- 2009: The Monongalia County Litter Control collected close to 10,000 pounds of trash from illegal dumping sites. Couches, chairs, mattresses, box springs, commodes and televisions were cleaned up from the site. (GreenEcoServices)
- 2014: Berkeley County Solid Waste Authority litter-control program has processed 84 complaints of violations and collected more than 7,500 pounds of illegally dumped trash from roads, yards and streams, said Clint R. Hogbin, chairman of the authority.
- 2016: $170,000 Cost to clean up illegal dumpsites in Mineral County. Over the past six years, 73 open dumps have been cleaned up with 737 tons of trash removed and with 60, 293 tires retrieved.
- 2016: There are an estimated 15,000 open dumps across West Virginia. The efforts of the PPOD average up to 900 dumps removed yearly, at a total of 9,500 tons/year. (Source)
- 2016: The Pollution Prevention and Open Dump Program (PPOD) uses landfill fees to clean up illegal dumps and to gather evidence to prosecute illegal dumping activity. Currently the program has completed more than 15,000 projects that have resulted in the removal of an estimated 147,000 tons of material, including 26,000 tons of steel, 62,000 appliances and over 2,000,000 tires.
- 2017 Chemically Polluted Drinking Water
Resources
- Appalachian Mountain Advocates ; More than 40 percent of West Virginia’s rivers are too polluted to pass simple water-quality safety thresholds
- West Virginia Rivers Safe Water
- West Virginia Water Crisis
- 2018 CHARLESTON, W.Va. (AP) — The West Virginia Senate has voted unanimously for a bill that would delete a section of state law governing water pollution by surface coal mining.
- 2017: CHARLESTON, WV – Today, West Virginia committed to a schedule for treating mining pollution generated from seven former mine sites now owned and managed by the WV Department of Environmental Protection (WVDEP).
- 2017: WV Senate OKs bill that could increase water pollution
- Think Progress Behind West Virginia’s Biggest Chemical Spill.