Winds of Change Newsletter, February 2006     See sidebar for table of contents

Injecting Coal Wastes Underground Harmful, Not Well Regulated in WV

Underground injections of coal sludge into old mines have been recorded since the 1980s. It is a permitted process for storage of coal sludge. There are 428 issued permits for underground injection of waste from coal mining operations in West Virginia alone, with similar numbers plaguing eastern Kentucky. 338 of those permits are for coal slurry (others are for acid mine drainage (AMD) sludge, usually the semi-solid material that settles out in AMD settlement ponds; for untreated AMD; for surface runoff from an impoundment; or for seepage from an underdrain). We have no idea how many injection points there are that are illegal or that pre-date the DEP’s Underground Injection Control program. DEP employs only one person to permit and document all coal-related underground injections in the state.

Coal companies continue to inject sludge underground, bury streams, fill in headwaters, and discharge blackwater or coal sludge into our waterways. The United Nations reports that over 1 billion people in the world do not have access to clean drinking water. A representative of the World Bank declared that the wars of the next century will be fought over water.