The West Virginia Legislature passed several laws during the 2015 Regular Legislative Session changes which may impact the legal community. This Article is the second in a two part series that discusses several of those laws and the possible effects. The first part discussed the election of judges, the West Virginia Consumer Credit and Protection Act, premises liability, and the Medical Professional Liability Act. This second part will focus on the limitations on punitive damages, deliberate intent, choice of law in products liability suits, comparative fault, wrongful and retaliatory discharge, and the Wage Payment and Collection Act.

The West Virginia Legislature passed several laws during the 2015 Regular Legislative Session which may impact the legal community. This Article is the first in a two part series that discusses several of those laws—including election of judges, the West Virginia Consumer Credit and Protection Act, Premises Liability, and the Medical Professional Liability Act—and the possible effects. The second part of this Article will focus on the limitations on punitive damages, deliberate intent, choice of law in products liability suits, comparative fault, wrongful/retaliatory discharge, and the Wage Payment and Collection Act. 

Two main statutes in the United States govern the processes for treating and discharging water that has been affected by coal mining: the Clean Water Act (CWA) ¹ and the Surface Mine Control and Reclamation Act (SMCRA). ² The CWA governs the discharge of that water from a point source into waters of the United States, ³ and the SMCRA governs the process of surface mining and treating the water that comes into contact with the disturbed area. ⁴

In 1984, the West Virginia Department of Natural Resources consolidated the surface mine and water protection programs into one scheme for coal mining facilities.⁵ This paper argues that the consolidation of these two regulatory programs brought forth a storm of negative effects the state is still facing today.  Specifically, this paper argues that the switch caused an inconsistency in application of the regulations across industries and an inconsistency in interpretation between federal and state governments.