This article originally provided by WV Metro News

September 28, 2009

Don't Drink the 'Coalfield Cool Ade'

MetroNews
Charleston

Environmental activists have issued an ultimatum for the Secretary of West Virginia's Department of Environmental Protection.
"Randy Huffman either needs to resign or he needs to give us some assurances that he is going to make sure the Department of Environmental Protection is doing they're job," said Bill Price with the Sierra Club.

At a protest Tuesday in front of the Kanawha City headquarters of the DEP, Price and another man were dressed in white jumpsuits and wearing white protective masks. The other man was sitting behind what looked like a lemon aid stand with a sign that read 'Coalfield Cool-Ade.' Each had a gallon jug of black liquid they said represented the water quality in communities through out West Virginia's coalfields.

"This is a gallon jug with black water and a poison sign on the outside because this is actually toxic material. Unfortunately, it is coming out of the tap water in southern West Virginia," Price said as he held up the jug.

Others also held up their own signs along MacCorkle Avenue bringing light to the black liquid that they said the DEP was allowing to be produced as a by-product from the coal industry. Among them was Chuck Wyrostock of the West Virginia Environmental Council who says the agency has been too lenient in granting permits for surface mining in the state.

"Whole communities have had to leave because of blasting, dust, coal dust, water wells being poisoned. That kind of sums it for me and that's just one aspect of it," Wyrostock says.

Additional groups participating in the protest Tuesday included Sludge Safety Project, Ohio Valley Environmental Coalition, and Coal River Mountain Watch. Organizers said the protest was part of a national day of action against coal-related pollution.