The West Virginia Department of Environmental Protection is seeking input on a protocol for implementing and enforcing the state’s narrative water quality criteria.

By contrast with numeric criteria in the state’s water quality standards, which set specific, measurable limits on contaminants, the narrative criteria permit “no significant adverse impact to the chemical, physical, hydrologic, or biological components of aquatic ecosystems.”

The lack of a solid plan for enforcing the narrative criteria is the main criticism the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has had with the state of West Virginia’s regulation of mountaintop mining activities over the past year.

As part of the process for establishing a state protocol, the DEP is researching what other states are doing as well as seeking input from interested parties within the state.

Cabinet Secretary Randy Huffman called March 3 for “well-thought-out ideas on how we can measure aquatic life impacts and tie those impacts back to the problem where we can then fix it, using the tools of the Clean Water Act.”

Those who would like to submit ideas or scientific theories for how the agency should implement and enforce the narrative water quality standard are invited to do so by March 26. Submissions can be emailed to

DEP.comments@wv.gov or mailed to:

The Department of Environmental Protection
601 57th Street SE
Charleston, WV 25304

All submissions will be placed on the agency’s Web site for public review.