This article originally provided by The Register Herald-Leader

December 13, 2003

Proposed state park threatened Virginia coal waste spill rolling down Levisa Fork

By Lee Mueller EASTERN KENTUCKY BUREAU

PIKEVILLE - Black-water spills from separate Virginia mining operations pose possible downstream problems for a proposed state park in Kentucky, officials said yesterday.

"It's pretty bad," said Rodney Holbrook of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, which this month leased 310 acres near Fishtrap Dam outside Pikeville to Kentucky for what would be its 51st state park.

Virginia officials had not calculated how much coal waste had been discharged into the Levisa Fork of the Big Sandy River on Wednesday and Thursday, but Kentucky officials said yesterday a 12-mile-long plume of sediment from the first spill had reached Lick Creek, 14 miles upstream from the dam. At Fishtrap Dam, Corps officials controlling the spillway tried to slow the current of the river upstream so the solids would settle to the bottom before reaching the dam area.

"It's just another lick on Fishtrap," said Holbrook, manager of the Corps' 1,132-acre lake, located inside 15,000 acres of government-owned property.

But there were no fish kills reported in Virginia or Kentucky, said Mike Abbott, a spokesman for the Virginia Department of Mines, Minerals and Energy.

Abbott said both spills came during heavy rains in Buchannan County, Va., near the Levisa Fork. A citizen reported the first spill Wednesday at Black Diamond Coal Co. near Big Rock, owned by the Rapoca Group of Bristol, Va.

The spill occurred after a catch basin for road drainage overflowed, Abbott said. Black Diamond was issued a notice of violation for failure to properly maintain the road, he said.

The second spill, at Island Creek Coal Co. VP-8 near Oakwood, was reported by a citizen Thursday, Abbott said. A valve left open in a line carrying "black thick water" from a preparation plant to a sediment pond caused the pond to overflow into Garden Creek, which empties into the Levisa, he said.

Black water from that spill was still 20 miles upstream from the Kentucky border, officials said.

In Kentucky, the state Natural Resources and Environmental Protection Cabinet is taking water samples and evaluating the environmental impact, said spokesman Mark York.

"The good news is that there are no public water supply intakes in the area," he said. "We're working with the Corps and hoping material from the first spill will settle to the bottom of Fishtrap Lake."

This was not exactly good news to Holbrook, who said the lake already has a "terrible sedimentation problem."

During the 1970s' coal boom, many strip-mining operations were allowed inside the Fishtrap Lake watershed. Current mining along the Levisa also contributes to the problem, he said.

"It's filling up a lot faster than what was anticipated," Holbrook said. So much silt has filled the bottom of the river, "We had to raise the normal winter pool level (in the lake) this year by 10 feet."

Holbrook said Corps officials think a lot of the damage has come from mining performed before the 1977 federal strip-mining act began requiring stricter reclamation practices. "Of course, nobody anticipated mountaintop-removal mining on the scope that it's reached," he added.

Fishtrap also has other mining-related problems, he said. "We've still got several hundred acres of the project closed off because of a mine fire that's been burning since 1992, about 400 yards from the lake," he said.

State officials have said it's not economically or technologically feasible to extinguish the blaze, Holbrook said.

Meanwhile, former Gov. Paul Patton -- who signed a lease with the Corps shortly before leaving office -- set aside $800,000 for staffing and development of the park, said Jim Car-roll, a spokesman for the state Department of Parks.

"We'll have a park shelter, a park playground and we'll have camping," Carroll said. Most of the necessary paperwork has been completed, he said, "and it will soon be finalized."