By Mike Tony
Charleston Gazette-Mail
Editor’s note: This report was supported by the Pulitzer Center and is part of a Gazette-Mail series on drinking water quality in West Virginia.
West Virginia lawmakers took a familiar stance Wednesday.
They backed weakening state water quality standards.
The West Virginia Legislative Rule-Making Review Committee —a panel of state delegates and senators that makes recommendations to the full Legislature on legislative rules proposed by state agencies — signed off on weakening a standard for how much selenium, an element with toxic effects for West Virginia’s aquatic life, is allowed in fish tissue.
Selenium is an essential mineral that is critical to human health in small amounts, helping prevent damage to cells and aiding heart and thyroid health. But excessive levels of selenium are linked to chronic health impacts that include lack of mental alertness and listlessness, skin discoloration, hair and nail loss, and acute health effects like pulmonary edema and bronchial pneumonia, according to the United States Environmental Pro-tection Agency.
Toxic human exposure can happen when selenium levels build up in ecosystems via leaching from mining waste into aquatic systems and emissions from burning coal or other industrial activities.
Read the rest of the story at the Charleston Gazette-Mail