Speak Up for West Virginia’s Fish and Wildlife!
West Virginia Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) is proposing to weaken protections against selenium pollution — a toxic byproduct of coal mining that harms fish and waterfowl — at the request of the coal industry.
Instead of cleaning up their pollution, industry wants to rewrite the rules to allow more selenium in our streams. Their proposal would raise the limit from 8.0 to 9.5 micrograms per gram in fish tissue, despite the fact that we know selenium builds up over time and causes serious deformities, such as crooked spines in fish.
That’s what you’re seeing in the image of the Creek Chub above, collected by our Senior Scientist, Than Hitt, in West Virginia’s Mud River during his time at the United States Geological Survey.
This is what happens when polluters write the rules — and we’ve seen it before. During the 2025 legislative session, industry lobbyists successfully rolled back Category A drinking water protections.
If you have questions, reach out to us at wvrivers@wvrivers.org. You can also send your comment directly to Dawn Newell at Dawn.A.Newell@wv.gov.
Thank you for speaking up for clean WV streams for fish and wildlife,
WV Rivers Team
