Hansen says US Senate committee bill to protect drinking water could be stronger
Evan Hansen of Downstream Strategies said the bills matches up to the way West Virginia’s Senate Bill 373 started the legislative process. That bill, which was signed into law earlier this week, changed, however, as it worked its way through both houses of the legislature.
“The West Virginia bill is much more comprehensive,” he said Thursday. “They overlap in terms of having new regulations on aboveground storage tanks, but the West Virginia bill includes a lot more.”
Things like installing early monitoring systems at water treatment facilities and long term medical monitoring stemming from the January 9th incident.
But Hansen says Manchin’s bill is a start, particularly in states that aren’t experiencing the aftermath of a spill.
It provides those states with a framework to implement a regulatory program, but Hansen believes it could be stronger particularly with the addition of source water protection plans that are now required in West Virginia.
Senator Rockefeller, who is also a co-sponsor of the legislation said in a release the bill moves the U.S. toward closing loopholes in the regulatory system and protects taxpayers from footing the bill for any future chemical spills.
