Winds of Change Newsletter, December 2005     See sidebar for table of contents

Mining pollution in Coal River needs drastic cut, state says

By Ken Ward Jr., Sept. 28, Charleston Gazette

Mining operations along the Coal River need to cut their toxic metal discharges by nearly two-thirds to meet pollution limits, according to a draft state cleanup plan being released this week.

Coal mines need to eliminate nearly 2.5 million pounds per year of iron, aluminum and manganese that they pour into the Coal and its tributaries, according to the state Department of Environmental Protection proposal.

"Reductions in discharges from mining operations are an important part of this picture," said (A DEP official).

To clean up the Coal, DEP officials say that the state also needs to eliminate raw sewage discharges, reclaim abandoned coal mines and reduce runoff of contaminated sediment…

The Coal River watershed drains nearly 900 acres in southwestern West Virginia, mostly in Boone and Raleigh counties. From its headwaters to the mouth at St. Albans, the Coal includes more than 1,118 miles of streams…

The new DEP plan is called a Total Maximum Daily Load. Under a federal court lawsuit settlement (Ed. note: from a case filed by OVEC, WV Rivers Coalition and others), state officials are writing hundreds of TMDLs to clean up state waterways that are polluted beyond their legal limits.

…To fix…problems, dozens of active mining permits will have to be rewritten to tighten discharge limits, the DEP report says.
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This is OVEC asking, how will the DEP reconcile that with DEP chief Stephanie Timmermeyer's lust to speed up mining permits? Hmm, maybe the people who wrote the TMDLs will be axed and replace with industry lobbyists--even though the pink slip best fits Timmermeyer!