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This article originally provided by WBOY
February 18, 2005
Coal sludge spills into Pines Creek
[Click here for pictures of this spill]
40,000 gallons blacken miles of water; resident wants stiffer fines
By Jessica Farrish
REGISTER-HERALD REPORTER
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Mike Holshouser's Bell Mason jars weren't filled with canned peaches or apple
butter Thursday.
Nor did a moonshine brew of Appalachian folklore dance inside the jars.
"It's coal sludge," the Josephine man said of the black, gritty liquid sloshing
inside two canning jars.
"I'm worried what it's going to do to the animals - not just my livestock, but
wild animals and people's pets that drink out of the creek."
Holshouser, a Raleigh County school bus driver, lives along Pines Creek and
downstream from a coal sludge pond at a mine site owned by White Mountain
Mining.
When an excavator ripped a hole in a pump line at the pond Wednesday, around
40,000 gallons of coal sludge spilled into Pines Creek, Department of
Environmental Protection spokeswoman Jessica Greathouse said Thursday.
The sludge entered Stone Coal Creek and blackened streams as far as 20 miles
away to about 31/2 miles below Mullens in Wyoming County, Greathouse and
residents reported.
Greathouse said mining officials notified DEP of the line break about 4:30 p.m.
Wednesday and an investigator arrived at the site immediately.
It was unclear Thursday whether all the sludge water had spilled from the pond.
It was also unclear whether chemicals were released into the creek along with
coal sediment.
Evergreen - a chemical spill cleanup company - was building a filter at the
intersection of Pines and Stone Coal creeks Thursday in an effort to catch and
confine the coal sediment.
Greathouse said there had been no reported fish kills and that no public
drinking water intakes were located along the affected waterways.
DEP issued a cessation order at the mine site until the problem is corrected,
she said.
Security guards posted at the mine site were instructed by White Mountain
officials not to allow media to enter company property.
Holshouser said the water in Pines Creek had cleared slightly Thursday.
He said he believes that stiffer fines should be leveled against coal companies
when sludge is spilled into streams.
"I've been on the phone with legislators down in Charleston and told them we
need some laws here to really slap them hard to get them to understand they're
doing wrong," Holshouser reported.
"One legislator flat out told me that's like trying to kill somebody - 'you
ain't supposed to do that in Charleston.'"
- E-mail: jfarrish@register-herald.com
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