West Virginians fear log plant's potential health risks

Residents of a small West Virginia town less than two hours from the nation's capital are worried that their health and quality of life in the Allegheny Mountains will be upended by a logging company's plans to relocate a toxic-spewing fumigation factory to their backyard.

Regulators will hold a public hearing next week in response to outrage over Allegheny Wood Products' proposal to move the factory 16 miles within the same county from Moorefield to Baker. An existing air permit allows the Moorefield facility, which treats logs before overseas shipment, to annually emit nearly 10 tons of the ozone-depleting pesticide methyl bromide into the atmosphere.

Hardy County, which is along the Virginia border, has about 14,000 residents, considerable poultry and other agricultural operations, and offers tourists a network of river float trips and hiking and cycling trails.

Allegheny Wood Products applied for an air quality permit for the Baker plant in January. The state Department of Environmental Protection told the company that all state and federal air quality requir...