Residents of Mingo, Boone, Raleigh, Kanawha counties again packed the Senate Judiciary Committee room to hear more testimony about the underground injection of coal slurry and groundwater contamination.

(At prep plants, coal companies use chemicals to wash coal for market. The waste from the coal washing process is called slurry. Slurry is stored behind earth dams or injected underground--by the billions of gallons.  Some coal prep plant workers are very ill, and suing the manufactures of the chemicals used in the coal prep process.)

William Orem, a research geochemist for the U.S. Geological Survey in Reston, Va., told the joint interim subcommittee studying the issue about a high incidence of pelvic cancer and a disease that causes renal failure in coal-producing areas of Louisiana and western states. A study of coal slurry sites in Tennessee found nearby declines in freshwater mussels, which filter water. "They are a sort of the canary in the coal mine," Orem said.

"We don't know much about coal slurry chemistry. We need to have a better handle on what happens when you inject this into the subsurface," Orem said.

That's why members of the Sludge Safety Project asked for these legislative meetings. What we are asking the Legislature to authorize a study that will tell the public:

-  How much ground water has been contaminated by underground injection of coal slurry (we know of at least 400 injection points around the state);

-  How underground injections have impacted human health and safety;

-  What specific chemicals are in coal slurry.

Officials from the WV Department of Environmental Protection seem to know what chemicals are in the slurry.  They essentially told the legislators, and the jam-packed hearing room, "Trust us, trust the coal industry, too."

Chad Board, who manages DEP's underground injection "control" permit program, told lawmakers that DEP assesses every chemical used to process the coal, and that coal industry tests the chemicals at the injection sites. He said there are about 100 chemicals the coal industry can use to clean coal for market. (Yes, Sludge Safety Project will be asking DEP for a listing of those chemicals. So far, we have only been able to identify about 60, and we can't get safety information on all them because what's in these chemicals can be "trade secrets.")

Diesel fuel, which apparently can be used to float coal as it is being washed, is not allowed to be injected underground, Board told the committee. He did not say since when. DEP has only been "regulating" underground injection of coal slurry since 2000, but the practice has been going on since at last 1980. So, maybe that oily sheen with the diesel smell people sometimes report in their well water is from before the DEP got everything under control. Guess we can believe them that they now will forbid the coal industry from using diesel fuel in prepping coal. That only leaves 99  chemicals to worry about.

George Jenkins, a DEP hydrologist DEP, told the committee no proof has emerged to link contaminated well water with underground injection of coal slurry. "Scientific evidence doesnt back that up," he told lawmakers. "Were not seeing that those slurry things are the contaminants."

Hey, if you don't look for those slurry things, how can you see? What's so scary about authorizing a study?

Jenkins said water within a half-mile radius is constantly monitored during the permitting process.

"You know that water doesnt necessarily stop within a half-mile radius," Delegate Robert Tabb, D-Jefferson, noted to Jenkins.

The coal industry will present its side of the story at the December Interims, but WV Coal Association vice president Chris Hamilton was already spinning to the receptive media. He suggested what is happening in Mingo County is just an isolated thing. Maybe the slurry just hasn't bubbled up elsewhere yet. Hamilton also maligned the scientists that spoke in October. Gee--imagine the Legislature actually hearing from scientists not on the coal industry's payroll. What a concept!

Hamilton also tried to link the citizens pleas to the legislature with the lawsuit on this issue that is ongoing in Mingo County. Both have been a long time coming. People have been trying to be heard on this issue for at least 14 years. Last time we checked, Americans could still petition both the courts and their so-called representatives in government for redress of grievances. 

Hamilton went so far as to suggest that taxes the state levees on coal industry (which the industry regularly lobbies to reduce) be used for installing drinking water lines around the state. Great--the coal industry profits by polluting the groundwater at will. The state pays to install city water everywhere. Brilliant. And, wow, groundwater and surface water never interact, so we will all live happily ever after.

Sorry, Hamilton, but in this fairy tale, the citizens demand to be heard. What a minute, pinch me--this is reality, and the people are standing up to the coal industry's bullying ways. The people's fairy tale comes true, and that is apparently the polluter's nightmare.

Pictures from the second meeting are below.