Legislative Update - Sludge Safety Project for Coal Sludge Impoundments

Our work to demand a Ban on Toxic Coal Slurry continues this month at the Legislature!

Join the Sludge Safety Project and our allies on Monday Aug. 9 at 11 a.m. in Room 215E for the third legislative hearing this year on slurry injections, sludge impoundments and protecting safe drinking water for all West Virginians.

The August Slurry Hearing will feature speakers from WVU presenting on the Dept. of Health and Human Resources (DHHR) findings for the 2007 Slurry Study SCR-15. In addition, medical experts working with communities in Mingo County battling slurry injection-contaminated water will speak and respond to the DHHR findings.

The purpose of these hearings is to present a comprehensive picture of the slurry issue to the state legislators, from health and safety impacts, to the economic feasibility of alternatives to slurry injections and sludge impoundments. As we move into the fall, the hearings will shift towards crafting a bill to ban slurry production and shift the coal industry away from wet processing of coal in preparation plants.

It is essential that we demonstrate the public support for banning toxic coal slurry to our elected officials! We know that all water flows downstream and the chemicals and heavy metals that we dump into waters eventually end up in all of our homes. Now we must continue the work to push state legislators to see the light.

Come to the August Slurry Hearing in Charleston and call on YOUR elected official to protect our water and preserve the health and safety of West Virginians!

Sludge Safety Project requests your presence at 10 a.m. on Monday, July 10. The WV Legislatures' Judiciary Subcommittee A and the Joint Legislative Oversight Commission on State Water Resources will hold a joint hearing on slurry issues in the Government Organization Committee Room (215 E) at the State Capital Building in Charleston. That room is in the East Wing (House side), on the second floor.

Speakers include a representative from the WV Department of Environmental Protection and Wheeling Jesuit University professor Dr. Ben Stout. The subcommittee may also hear information on why some households in the Boone County community of Prenter do not yet have piped-in water.

This should be another very interesting hearing, and we really need you in the audience - to demonstrate to legislators the high level of public demand for clean water

What / Who: The West Virginia Legislature's Joint Judiciary Interim Subcommittee A will hold the first of several hearings on the impacts of coal slurry and alternative methods of coal processing. Speaking at this first hearing will be representatives of the Sludge Safety Project and the WV Coal Association, and Dr. Roe-Han Yoon of the Center for Advanced Separation Technologies at Virginia Tech, who will discuss alternative slurry production methods

Senate Concurrent Resolution 46 directs the committee to study impacts on the environment and public health from underground injection and slurry impoundments, alternatives to injections and impoundments, re-mining coal waste and abandoned mine lands funding, with the goal of crafting legislation to transition West Virginia away from the production and storage of wet coal slurry.

These hearings are the result of years of tireless lobbying by SSP and our supporters. We need your help now more than ever to push this committee to draft legislation (for the 2011 legislative session) that will address the problems of coal slurry and transition the industry to safer coal waste practices. For years, we've shown legislators scientific evidence and given community testimonials on the impacts of slurry. This is the best opportunity yet to make our case to the legislature that there is no such thing as safe coal slurry. Please come to the hearing to show your support for clean water for West Virginia’s mountain communities.

Thanks for coming out during the 2010 WV Legislative Session. There's much more to come throughout the year from SSP, during the Interims and more, so please stay tuned...

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ARCHIVES

Legislative Update - Feb. 24, 2010

Our Next Regular Lobby Day: Thursday, March 4, 8:30 a.m.

Meet Thursday at 8:30am in the Capitol Cafeteria, basement of the State Capitol. Bring yourself and a neighbor or friend!

We'll brief for the morning's lobbying. It is essential that our legislators see that West Virginian communities care about their health and will not settle for toxic water!

Call Stephanie at 304-360-2110 or e-mail stephanie@sludgesafety.org for more information.

Join us every Thursday during the 2010 WV Legislative Session for SSP Lobby Days ~ We will be meeting throughout the 2010 WV Legislative Session to lobby our state legislators for a law protecting West Virginians household water and banning toxic coal slurry.

Please let us know if you plan to come either day - or if you can come for both days!

We need your help! We need your voice at these meetings! And we need your participation to show legislators the extent of support there is in WV for sludge safety! They won't know if you don't tell them... remember, democracy is not a spectator sport.

Hello! As you all know, SSP experienced a transition this summer, with long-time organizer Patricia Feeney moving to Tennessee to pursue her goal of going to med school. I'm Stephanie Tyree, a native of Charleston, and have moved back to WV after being gone for 9 years to work as OVEC's SSP Organizer in Mingo Co. I'm completely thrilled to be back in WV working with SSP and really looking forward to meeting all of you in person someday soon.

Even with the summer transition, SSP has been steaming ahead and is now gearing up for another season of lobbying for a sludge safety bill. Between now and the start of the 2010 session, one of our major goals will be to shore up supporters in the Legislature who will stand with SSP and sludge safety legislation.

We're continuing toward that goal this month by meeting with legislators during the September interim session, making sure that sludge safety is still on the legislative radar and that friendly legislators become strong advocates for SSP. The SSP Committee is setting up meetings with a number of legislators for Monday, September 14 and Tuesday September 15.

If you'd like to participate in meetings with legislators this month, please contact me by Friday Sept. 11 - we are always looking for as many SSP advocates as possible!

SSP's Response to the DEP's SCR 15 Study
DEP’s Study Inadequately Answers the Questions Mandated in SCR-15:

· The study is based on one time sampling resulting in a “snapshot” determination of the water quality at the sample sites. The study does not account for any seasonal variation.

· Independent scientists were not allowed to collect their own samples. The DEP did split a small number of samples with Dr. Ben Stout; however, the DEP's results and Dr. Stout's results are so wildly different that it raises questions about either the process of sample collection or the accuracy of the testing methods.

· All study sites reflect alkaline mine pool chemistry; none of the sites evaluated for this study were injecting coal slurry into abandoned underground workings with acidic mine pools. Acidic mine seams will react differently with slurry injections. It is likely that the acidity would force the metals back into solution, therefore creating a very different scenario.

· The study did not complete extensive testing of communities’ drinking water supplies surrounding study sites.

· The studies for each site lacked any standardization of presentation, making it extremely difficult to compare the different case studies, spot trends and draw broader conclusions between the sites.

· All sites selected were below or partially below drainage; therefore, slurry transfer was less likely. Only one community where residents have raised concerns about water quality and health problems was selected for the study.

· The study reveled that Panther Prep plant has been using filter press since 1995; therefore, the site is not representative of typical coal slurry injections. Overall, the study did not look at a large enough population to make representative conclusions.

· By the DEP's own admission, the study could draw no strong conclusions about migration of slurry into surface and/or ground water as mandated in SCR-15.

· The slurry liquids exceeded safe drinking water standards for aluminum, antimony, iron, lead, manganese, sodium, sulfates, and total dissolved solids for at least one site in the study.

· The study found degraded water quality in mine pools that were injected into, particular downgradient of the injection point. In some cases, organic compounds from the preparation process were detected in mine pools

· The study found degraded water quality downstream of surface impoundments and refuse disposal areas.

The Study Demonstrates DEP's Failure to Successfully Oversee Slurry Injections:

· Every single site studied had at least one major slurry spill over the course of operation. Southern Minerals had 6.

· Three of the four sites showed repeated violations of contaminant limits in the slurry. Petroleum compounds, arsenic, aluminum, beryllium, chromium, lead, selenium and nickel were found in excess of permitted limits on at least one sites. Injection sites were often in violation for the better part of year before being corrected. One site had a violation for petroleum compounds that exceed the limit by over 400 times. In the case of Loadout, LLC, the study says that the violations were so bad the author question whether the permit could be renewed. Why was it not revoked?

· At the Panther site, the study admits “in effect, there are no ground water monitoring sites for the ... permits. There is no way to determine if any impacts to the groundwater have, or will occur from any past slurry injection activities in the Wet Branch- Cabin Creek watershed.” Why is this mine still allowed to inject slurry?

· The study admits that many of the sites were found to be using chemicals in the preparation process that were not included on their permits. The recommendation that DEP inspectors be trained to recognize and check the chemicals used at the plant is troubling as it suggest that the DEP did not do this prior to this study.

· Current injections must be halted until the companies holding the permits can complete the more rigorous application process recommended by the DEP in SCR-15. If the old application process is not sufficient to protect the public for new permits, why should we think that it is sufficient for existing ones?

· The current moratorium on slurry injections must be made permanent and extended to slurry impoundments. Coal slurry injections and impoundments are not necessary. Alternative dry methods exist and are prevalent in other parts of the country and world.

· All wet wash preparation plants operating in West Virginia should be required to install filter presses immediately and all new preparation plants should be required to utilize fully dry coal processing technologies.

SSP's Official Statement on DEP's Study:
We're very pleased the DEP has admitted that slurry is dangerous while only testing 4 Slurry Injection Sites and 2 Prep Plants. Although the DEP is making some progress by implementing a 2 yr moratorium on new slurry
injection sites, the DEP's recommendations are inadequate because people are going to be left with the same health issues for as long as companies are allowed to inject slurry under existing permits. The solution the DEP has come up with is inadequate because it does not stop the injection of slurry going on right now. There is one solution to fixing the problem of coal slurry contamination in West Virginia : a ban on all slurry. This solution would cost companies a mere 50 cents to one dollar per ton-- pennies for the sake of saving human lives. We will continue to work with the West Virginia legislature to protect West Virginians from water poisoned by coal slurry.

- Maria Lambert, Prenter, Boone County
Representative of the Sludge Safety Project

Thank you for all of your letters, calls, and hours spent filling committee rooms and pressuring the DEP to halt injection permits. Working together, we all made this important step a reality. Thank you to SSP Citizen Lobbyists and Volunteers, the West Virginia Environmental Council, the West Virginia Council of Churches, Senator White and other supportive legislators. We have proven once again that when we organize, we get things done together that we can't do alone.

Share your comments on Ken Ward's Jr.'s blog here

Share your comments in the Gazette. Call the Readers' Speak Hotline to leave a message: 304-357-4451.

Sludge Safety is a project of the Ohio Valley Environmental Coalition, Coal River Mountain Watch and West Virginia communities working for clean water and community safety near toxic coal waste injection sites and coal sludge dams.