This article originally provided by The Williamson Daily News

February 16, 2006

Ponds Threaten Appalachia

(EDITOR'S NOTE: This is the first of a 2-part series on the on coal impoundment dams located in the area.)

LOBATA - There are at least 12 communities in Mingo County that have coal slurry impoundments located above them, according to official sources.

Many local residents are probably unaware, that the dams holding back billions of gallons of coal sludge, or that the impoundments even exist.

Regardless, many environmentalists and other experts believe that citizens of Appalachia still face the threat of spills and other impoundment failures.

Some of these coal impoundments in Mingo County are near Rawl, Ragland, Bias, Kermit, Thacker, Lobata and Dingess.

Two large impoundments are located on Ben Creek in Mingo County.

Of course the most recent breach was on Oct. 11, 2000, when Martin County Coal Corporations coal waste impoundment broke through and released 250 million gallons of slurry into a subsidiary of the Tug Fork River near Warfield, Ky. and Kermit, W.Va., which buried parts of the community under 7 feet of coal sludge. It eventually bleed into the Big Sandy and Ohio Rivers.

During that spill approximately 1.6 million fish were killed.

Over 27,000 people had their public and private water supplies contaminated, according to Jack Spadaro, a former inspector for the U.S. Mine Safety and Health Administration (MSHA).

Spadaro says that about 225 of the coal slurry impoundments are sitting on top of abandoned underground mine workings where the potential for additional breaks, such as took place in Martin County.

The former mine inspector said that in October of 2000 he was asked by the Assistant Secretary of Labor for Mine Safety to participate in an investigation into the Martin County slurry spill.

These impoundments are built after waste is created during the process of cleaning coal and must be permanently disposed of in a man-made facility, usually an earthen dam.

Larger materials such as rocks and pieces of coal are defined as course refuse. Slurry, a combination of silt, dust, water, bits of coal and clay particles is considered fine refuse, and is the most commonly disposed of material held in impoundments.

Some impoundments are constructed using natural basins, but they are often built up on an embankment at the mouth of a watershed. Then they are reinforced with course refuse and are similar to a typical dam.

After the waste is spilled into the basin, the coal particles settle to the bottom, leaving the leftover water on top. Many times this water is often recycled and used once again by the preparation plant operations.

Other settling ponds are constructed nearby to catch the runoff of excess water through a pumping system, and excess water from these ponds is discharged into a local waterway.

The worst disaster from a slurry dam occurred in 1972 in nearby Logan County on Buffalo Creek when 125 people drowned after an impoundment burst.

Some engineers feel that undermining where an impoundment has been built a few feet above a mine can weaken the ground beneath it, causing it to seep through. This is considered a major risk for failure.

Breakthroughs into underground mine workings have been the cause of more recent catastrophic failures.

(To check on where coal slurry dams may be in your area, go to the web-site www.coalimpoundment.com.)