This article originally provided by The Williamson Daily News

February 17, 2006

Residents worry about potential pond hazards

What would happen if one of these facilities were to break above a populated community?

Many people worry about this potential hazard. Walter and Carol Young, who live on Hell Creek near Delbarton, have been concerned for several years about such a structure above their community.

One is located at Hell Creek (Bias) near Delbarton, while the other is at Ragland.

“It looks like if the trend keeps going like it is,” Mr. Young said, “we will have so many coal waste impoundments that we will be one of the most dangerous places in the world to live.”

The Mountain State has over 130 coal slurry impoundments, many in the southern counties. In neighboring Kentucky, several impoundments are located in both Pike and Martin Counties.

“I'm really concerned about this and have been for about four years,” Young added. He said that the Delbarton Mining Company applied and received a permit for a 56-acre slurry dam above Hell Creek.

“If it were to break, it would come down through this community, into Pigeon Creek and all the way to Naugatuck,” a concerned Young says. “We would be buried alive under coal sludge.”

“Lots of people in the area don't even know these exist,” he added.

He is also worried about sludge being injected into old underground worked out mines, and thus affecting the water supplies for hundreds of people. He said the people of Lick Creek and Rawl have suffered a similar plight.

The www.coalimpoundment.com Web-site has information on all of the slurry dams throughout the region. It is complete with contact information for the coal companies, emergency services and evacuation routes.

Young says that the Mingo County Emergency Services office has been working on an alert system and an evacuation plan. It is up to the county and local emergency services to implement such a strategy, in case a break did occur.

Jack Spadaro was asked by the Clinton Administration to investigate the Martin County slurry spill in 2000. He is a former MSHA inspector and now a consultant.

His Web-site says, “He is an expert witness on services related to mining accidents and environmental damage caused by mining. He conducts investigations and provides testimony in administrative, local, state and federal courts on behalf of citizens and workers who have been adversely affected by mining activities.”

He is also a lecturer and speaker and conducts workshops in the academic environment to educate high school, college and university students and the general public, regarding the adverse environmental impacts of mountaintop removal mining and other damaging types of mining practices.

“There were conflicts into that investigation that are well documented,” he added.

“The fact remains, that Massey Energy, the company responsible for the spill, has one of the poorest environmental records in Appalachia,” Spadaro says. “They have a less desirable mine health and safety record.”

Spadaro noted that while Massey was being investigated on the spill, it contributed $100,000 to the National Republican Senatorial Committee.

“Massey was ultimately fined $5,600 for the Martin County coal slurry spill,” Spadaro says.

He worries that other accidents like the one in eastern Kentucky can happen in others states, especially West Virginia. Spadaro also experienced and investigated the Buffalo Creek disaster in Logan County.

Will another accident like that ever happen? Or even a spill like the one in Martin County, which didn't claim lives, but damaged property and was a major environmental disaster.

Many experts like Spadaro, and residents like the Youngs at Hell Creek in Mingo County, think that it is a distinct possibility.

They all just cross their fingers and hope for the best. But they know that once the structures are built, they will never go away.

The slurry coal impoundments will be there forever, always looming over mountain communities in Appalachia.

By KYLE LOVERN/Daily News Staff