Published: November 15, 2006 06:43 pm         

No proof slurry is harming water, DEP hydrologist says

CHARLESTON — An industry leader says West Virginia lawmakers need to spend extra cash generated by the coal boom to install more water and sewer lines, rather than usurp the court’s power in a dispute over water in Mingo County that some residents insist was soiled by mining practices.

Witnesses went before Judiciary Subcommittee B in a two-hour hearing Wednesday to say slurry injections in worked-out deep mines are rigidly monitored and must pass through a stringent permitting process.

Last month, coalfield residents displayed jars filled with contaminated water taken from the Lick Creek area, blaming it for a variety of disorders from frequent dental problems to liver malfunctions.

In the latest go-round, however, George Jenkins, a hydrologist with the Department of Environmental Protection, told the panel no proof has emerged to link dirty water with slurry, the mushy substance that results when water is mixed with coal in a cleaning process to prepare it for the market.

“Scientific evidence doesn’t back that up,” he told lawmakers. “We’re not seeing that those slurry things are the contaminants.”

Jenkins suggested metallic particles naturally seep into water wells, along with other matter, and for that reason such sources of water must be cleaned out on a regular basis to keep them free of contaminants.

“People don’t understand, but you have to maintain wells just like your car,” he said.

Jenkins said water within a half-mile radius is constantly monitored during the permitting process.

“You know that water doesn’t necessarily stop within a half-mile radius,” Delegate Robert Tabb, D-Jefferson, said.

Chad Board, a groundwater supervisor for the DEP, told the committee all slurry permits must meet federal safe water standards, and no injections are allowed within a quarter mile of a private water system. No fuels are permitted in the injection process, he said.

Time expired before the panel could hear from Chris Hamilton, vice president of the West Virginia Coal Association, but afterward, he said the Mingo County issue “appears to be a very isolated issue.”

Hamilton alluded to testimony that contaminated water isn’t a problem statewide, but is “very localized,” and in that instance is in litigation.

“Which causes me to question the appropriateness of this matter being before this committee or the Legislature,” the industry leader said.

A number of lawmakers recalled the testimony of October’s witnesses, causing Hamilton to criticize the process.

“And we did not hear objective scientists speak last month,” he said. “What we heard, in fact, were paid consultants and expert witnesses for the petitioners in this matter that’s currently being litigated in Mingo County.”

Hamilton said he was struck by government officials telling the panel that impoundments and slurry systems undergo “some of the more stringent requirements found anywhere in the nation or, for that matter, the world.

“They’re carefully engineered, carefully and continuously monitored and heavily regulated,” he said.

Hamilton acknowledged a problem with Mingo’s water but said a public system is being installed.

Rather than sit in place of the judicial system, Hamilton suggested the committee look into the prospects of spending “all the current surpluses generated by the high energy market and high coal prices to invest every single penny of that surplus into drinking water and for sewer projects around the state.”

“We have an unacceptable percentage of our residents without fresh drinking water and, in many instances, these are in rural areas where there’s no mining within close proximity,” Hamilton said.

Hamilton challenged the committee to change course and look for ways of making public water accessible to all West Virginians.

In December’s interims, Hamilton said he would be willing to appear before the panel to expound on Jenkins’ findings.

“If they want to substitute themselves for the judicial branch of government, we will bring our expert witnesses ...” he added.

William Orem, a research geochemist for the U.S. Geological Survey in Reston, Va., testified about high incidences of kidney dysfunction and renal cancer in other states, notably the Powder River Basin in Wyoming, but no such link has been established in West Virginia.

“We’re not saying it does not occur,” he told the panel. “We’re saying, ‘Let’s look at it and see what’s there.’”

— E-mail:

mannix@register-herald.com