SLUDGE: Legislators Get an Earful From People Who Live With It Every Day in WV

It was standing room only for a presentation at the State Capitol on Oct. 16. Mingo County residents turned out in strength to hear two of their own, Donetta Blankenship and Debbie Sammons, address state senators and delegates. They were joined by members of the Sludge Safety Project from Logan, Boone, Raleigh and other counties. DEP staff and coal industry lobbyists and lawyers also crowded into the room.

	Donetta Blankenship answers a reporter’s questions after the sludge hearing, her black water and clogged water filter samples in front of her.

Both affected residents and scientists addressed the legislature’s Interim Judiciary Subcommittee B about grave concerns over the underground injection of coal slurry and groundwater contamination.

Mine safety expert Davitt McAteer, who heads up the federal Coal Slurry Impoundment Location and Warning System, opened the hearing. While meeting with the public about sludge dam safety, McAteer’s staff were surprised to learn that folks were not only worried about coal dams possibly failing one day, but also worried right now that coal slurry injected underground is making its way into their wells. At a meeting in Delbarton about coal sludge dams, 20 of the 21 citizen questions were about water quality. So McAteer sent Dr. Ben Stout, a biologist at Wheeling Jesuit University, to sample well water in several Mingo County communities.

Stout told the committee that high levels of assorted contaminants were found in many of the wells. Stout and his research assistants witnessed black and sometimes orange water streaming out of people’s taps. Stout noted that we don’t know what exactly is in coal slurry. There are no definitive studies of groundwater around injection sites, but there is sufficient evidence to suggest possible contamination.

Stout reminded everyone that a 2002 National Academy of Sciences study recommended that research be conducted to identify the chemicals in coal slurry and the hydrogeologic conditions around coal sludge dams.

Stout and other scientists have some funding already available for sampling coal slurry, but they do not have access to injection points on coal company property.

Left to right, Debbie Sammons, Jack Spadaro, David McAteer, Dr. Ben Stout, Dawn Seeburger and Dr. Scott Siminton listen intently as Donetta Blankenship (off camera) addresses the legislative committee about coal slurry, groundwater contamination and her family's health.

Mine safety expert Jack Spadaro spoke next, noting that over the years, one coal prep plant near Williamson injected 1.4 billion gallons of slurry underground. However, this area may not be the only one at risk, as there are currently more than 400 injection wells in both northern and southern coal bearing counties.

Spadaro said dry filter press systems for processing coal were refined in the 1970s after the Buffalo Creek disaster, where a coal waste dam failure killed 125 people. Spadaro advocated that the industry return to using this method. While it’s slightly more costly, it is still economical and can be used at any prep plant, eliminating the need to store liquid waste behind dams or underground.

Dr. Scott Simonton, Assistant Professor of Environmental Science at Marshall University, has sampled drinking water in some Mingo communities. He told the committee, "Quite frankly, it is the worst I have ever seen." Not only do residents have to contend with bad water, but also sulfide gas, produced when naturally-occurring bacteria feed upon the contaminated water. He measured a running shower giving off double the levels considered safe by federal workplace standards. Long-term exposure to that gas cannot be healthy, he said.

"There’s really no better way to move a contaminant from a solid than to grind it up and mix it with water" – which is exactly what coal prep plants do. "We are injecting that into old mine workings, which are not sealed tubes." The mountains have been dug and blasted for coal. "Cracks and holes allow migration of now-contaminated water into the surrounding hydrogeologic system, which is connected to water wells and surface water supplies," Simonton said.

"I truly believe that the water quality problems in the drinking water wells in this area – the Rawl, Merrimac, Lick Creek area – are from 30 years…of injection of slurry. Certainly further study needs to be done," he added.

After passing around jars of black tap water from the Mingo communities, Dawn Seeburger, a toxicologist, told the committee, "This water is causing health effects. Slurry is impacting the groundwater." She recited a litany of health troubles in the area – gall and kidney stones, thyroid failure, neurological and developmental problems, and more. She noted that although most people no longer drink the area’s water, they still use it for cooking and bathing.

Rawl resident Donetta Blankenship spoke next, on behalf on her family and community. The audience listened intently – even a representative of Massey CEO Don Blankenship (who was videotaping the event, you guess why), coal industry lobbyist Chris Hamilton and DEP chief Stephanie Timmermeyer.

Donetta’s neighbor, Lick Creek resident Debbie Sammons, was the final speaker. She detailed her family’s health problems, which she believes have been caused by slurry-contaminated water.

Her entire family has had kidney stones, including her then 6-year-old son. She spoke of a high rate of miscarriage in her area. She quietly announced she too had miscarried. When she first found out she was pregnant, her doctor told her to drink lots of water.

"It was the water God had provided for me," she told the committee. "I thought it was safe. I was wrong. I probably killed my baby! Again, I am just one of many."

One legislator called the two hour hearing "compelling." On Nov. 15 at 9 a.m., as we go to press, the subcommittee is to hear from the coal industry and government regulators on this issue. Check the OVEC website’s daily news section for news arising from this meeting, www.ohvec.org/ovec_news.html.

Many thanks to the West Virginia Environmental Council and the West Virginia Council of Churches for their help in making certain the legislature begins to address this threat to human health.

Check the OVEC website’s "People in Action" galleries for Oct. 16, for a transcript of the slurry injection hearing.