Pennsylvania Angler & Boater - November/December 2013 - 3

photo-PFBC archives

photo-Chris Urban

Over multiple days, PFBC staff thoroughly investigated the fish kill.

total amount of chlorides and TDS that will be discharged
into Dunkard Creek in the future. It has been reported that
the coal company has spent $200 million to upgrade the
mine, $130 million of which was spent on upgrading water
treatment and an annual operating cost of $14 million per
year. Ironically, this water may never reach Pennsylvania
since reportedly the company will sell the treated water to
power plants and gas drilling companies or use it for its own
fracking operations.
Now, this is where it gets complicated and admittedly
frustrating from where I sit. Since Pennsylvania was not
a party to the EPA and West Virginia lawsuit, I instructed
our legal staff to pursue a case against the coal company to
attempt to get compensated for the damages that occurred in
our state in much the same way that West Virginia and EPA
did for their interests. Although the pollution crossed state
lines and was transported into our nation's water, Mr. Mason
and Mr. Dixon must have stopped it.
We then proceeded to hire a private attorney who is
licensed to practice law in the state of West Virginia and have
been diligently working our way through the courts to make
Pennsylvania whole for the damages that were caused. We
withstood an attempt by the coal company to remove the
case to federal court where federal law would have provided
no remedy for Pennsylvania, and we were successful in
getting the case moved back to the state court. However, in
July, the West Virginia state court dismissed our case and
held that PFBC, which was created in 1866 and received our
water pollution enforcement authority from our General
Assembly in 1909, lacks statutory authority to bring any civil
action except for violations under Chapter 25 of the Fish and
Boat Code, and therefore, lacks standing to bring an action
under West Virginia law. In August, we filed an appeal with
the West Virginia Supreme Court.

The pollution killed an estimated 6,447
mudpuppies.

As I write this story, we are waiting to hear whether the West
Virginia Supreme Court will hear our appeal. Right now, I feel
like President Roosevelt's Man in the Arena, and I promise you
that I will use all means necessary to right this wrong deed.

Your Director,
><(John{(°>

It is not the critic who counts; not the man who
points out how the strong man stumbles, or where
the doer of deeds could have done them better. The
credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena,
whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood;
who strives valiantly; who errs, who comes short
again and again, because there is no effort without
error and shortcoming; but who does actually strive
to do the deeds; who knows great enthusiasms, the
great devotions; who spends himself in a worthy
cause; who at the best knows in the end the triumph
of high achievement, and who at the worst, if he fails,
at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall
never be with those cold and
timid souls who neither know
victory nor defeat.
-Theodore Roosevelt,
"The Man in the Arena,"
Given April 23, 1910

The mission of the Pennsylvania Fish & Boat Commission is to protect,
conserve and enhance the Commonwealth's aquatic resources and
provide fishing and boating opportunities.
PFBC website: www.fishandboat.com

Pennsylvania Angler & Boater * November/December 2013

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Pennsylvania Angler & Boater - November/December 2013

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