SSP - Slurry Study Before Legislative Subcommittee

The message is clear, but our water isn’t; it’s been tainted with coal waste and has poisoned our community.

N The time for truth of what is in coal sludge waste is now.

N The time for the mining industry to take responsibility is Now.

N The time for our lawmakers to act and pass laws to prevent such environmental wrong is NOW.

N We ask all southern West Virginians to beware of the groundwater you assume is clean and usable, for it may not be.

The people of Rawl, Sprigg, Lick Creek and Merrimac have consumed sludge-tainted water – without knowing its harmful effect – that has affected their health for years.

Now they are speaking out and saying, "Don’t do to other communities as you have done to ours."

This was emphasized Monday, Oct. 16, in Charleston at the legislative subcommittee hearing on sludge safety.

One would have to think they now know for sure not to consume their well water. So their only motive is to warn others who may be next.

I, for one, am very grateful to the good, outspoken people of Rawl, Sprigg, Lick Creek and Merrimac for their efforts to correct this problem for all West Virginians.

A word about this map: A group of highly dedicated volunteers has spent months collecting WV Department of Environmental Protection data on coal slurry injections, plotting the information and creating maps of slurry injection points across the state. Because the DEP’s data is incomplete, out of date and possibly inaccurate, we will never know where all the injection sites are.