Meeting Three: Is Coal Slurry Poisoning Well Water?

December 10, 2006
Photos by Vivian Stockman

(Click here to read about the first meeting and here to read about the second.)

Coal Industry a No Show

The West Virginia Coal Association apparently had been notified on Friday that the meeting would be Sunday, the same as the rest of us. Despite the lack of advance warning, Sludge Safety Project supporters turned out in force for the 5:30 p.m. meeting, again filling the room. But the Coal Association refused to appear. Yes, they snubbed the Senators and Delegates who had set up this meeting so the Joint Interim Subcommittee B could hear from the industry on its views on coal slurry injection and groundwater contamination. The Industry said it will speak in January. Well, all righty then. Coal industry does want it wants.

The only person to address the committee was DEP chief Stephanie Timmermeyer. She echoed the coal industry's statements to the press--that  the only troublesome area is around Rawl, WV. (We have folks around Wharncliffe in Mingo County and also in Preston County who have similar water problems and, given the injection maps, we suspect the problems are far more widespread than DEP is saying.) Timmermeyer said the Rawl Sales Processing plant was injecting underground before DEP began "controlling" underground injections through the permitting process. That facility would never have been permitted for underground injection, and has no underground injection permit now. Locals marvel that the coal sludge impoundment associated with the prep plant seems to stay the same size year after year. Where is that slurry the plant generates going?

Timmermeyer did allude to the fact that DEP is hearing the people on this. DEP has met with the Office of Surface Mining recently to discuss slurry.  DEP can do its own testing of what is in this stuff, she said. Sludge Safety Project would like to see an independent lab do the sampling and analysis. We'd like studies of whether or not slurry is moving from where it is injected and on into underground aquifers. We want to know the health effects of slurry on people whose water is contaminated. Thee are the studies we are asking the legislature to authorize. We'd also like a moratorium on coal slurry injection permits until the studies are complete. The results of the studies could dictate next steps. If slurry is harming people, and there are alternatives, why not employ those alternatives?--

Timmermeyer said she would ask for an emergency rule change to alleviate leaking slurry pipelines laying on the ground (see article in sidebar).
 

Another full room for the Joint Subcommittee B's latest hearing on coal slurry injection.

After the hearing, Ira Evans, from Lick Creek in Mingo County, shows a couple of legislators samples of his family's well water.

Ernie Brown, back to camera, speaks with legislators about his black well water.