This news story originally provided by The Herald Dispatch

October 28, 2005

Guest column: W.Va. leaders working to prevent threat of flooding

Recent history has sadly shown us that disasters and tragedies strike unpredictably and without regard to race, politics, geographic location or economic status.

In the Ohio Valley on Sept. 17, 2004, torrential rains from Hurricane Ivan caused widespread flooding and millions of dollars' worth of damage. Homes and businesses were destroyed, lives were changed, and "preparedness" became standard lexicon in the emergency response community.

County and state governments, though, don't need to wait for assistance from the federal government to find ways to warn citizens of the potential for disaster flooding. Thanks to the vision of West Virginia's political and educational leaders, led by U.S. Sen. Robert Byrd, our area is in a position to communicate emergency information before disaster strikes and adapt it to other communities around the nation.

The Coal Impoundment Location and Information System (www.coalimpoundment.org) is a pilot project developed by the National Technology Transfer Center, Wheeling Jesuit University, the Center for Educational Technologies, West Virginia University and the National Energy Technology Laboratory, and funded by Sen. Byrd. It is designed to identify coal impoundments in West Virginia, alert residents of emergency situations and evacuation plans, improve safety and examine alternatives for impounding coal waste and sludge in the Mountain State.

Impoundments are slurry deposits created by the coal mining and preparation process. West Virginia residents are no strangers to impoundments and the damage they can cause when they break. A breach in eastern Kentucky in October 2000 caused 250 million gallons of coal slurry, part of the waste left after coal is mined and cleaned, to spill into the tributaries of the Tug Fork and Big Sandy River along the West Virginia-Kentucky border.

The worst accident was the Buffalo Creek spill in 1972, when after days of rain, a sludge pond owned by the Pittston Coal Co. burst and released millions of gallons of black water upon the residents of Buffalo Creek, W.Va. A 30-foot-high wall of water, coal and mud came rushing down the creek, killing more than 125 men, women and children, destroying more than 1,000 homes and leaving 4,000 people homeless.

This project has led to other initiatives, such as Community Alert Online (http://communityalertonline.com). Developed through Wheeling Jesuit University, led by its Center for Educational Technologies, Community Alert Online provides real-time emergency information from the Wheeling-Ohio County Emergency Management Agency and Ohio County schools.

As these valuable resources take hold in West Virginia, we hope counties throughout the United States join us in capitalizing on their benefits rather than creating new programs. County governments searching for ways to protect their citizens, without waiting for assistance from the federal government, can quickly adapt these programs to their areas.

J. Davitt McAteer, vice president for sponsored programs at Wheeling Jesuit University, is former chief of the U.S. Department of Labor Mine Safety and Health Administration.