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Press Release
February 27, 2007
Contact: Patricia Fenney, Sludge Safety Project 304-235-2618
For Photos of Lobby Tuesdays: Vivian Stockman, vivian@ohvec.org
Resolution to study coal slurry and groundwater contamination advancing
Constituents organize “Lobby Tuesdays” to tell their stories
CHARLESTON, W.VA. – At 6 a.m. each of the last seven Tuesdays, groups of Mingo County residents have set out for the State Capitol.
Equipped with jars of black and orange water straight from their kitchen faucets, the Mingo County residents have sought to educate state legislators about groundwater contamination and coal slurry injection.
“This is how you get things accomplished,” said Lick Creek resident B. I. Sammons, who traveled to Charleston with members of the Sludge Safety Project.
Sammons and his counterparts have met with dozens of legislators and asked them to support Senate Concurrent Resolution 15. The resolution would mandate that the state Department of Environmental Protection and the Department of Health and Human Services perform studies to determine exactly what is in coal slurry, whether it is getting into people’s well water when it is injected underground and what effects the slurry is having on human health.
The House passed one version of the resolution on Thursday, Feb. 22. The Senate passed an amended version of the resolution out of its Energy, Industry and Mining committee last week and is now working on combining the two resolutions.
Sludge Safety Project members urge everyone to call their senators asking them to support Senate Concurrent Resolution 15.
“Once they pass this resolution and do the study, I believe they will find heavy metals all over the state,” noted Ernie Brown of Rawl. “I believe they will have to stop underground injection of coal slurry.”
“Can you believe this black water comes from our sinks?” asked Rawl resident Donetta Blankenship. “Me and so many of my neighbors are sick and you can bet it is because of the water. That’s why this resolution is very important to us. It could mean that other communities won’t have to watch their children suffer like we have.”
Blankenship and many of her neighbors from Rawl, Lick Creek, Sprigg and Merrimac believe coal prep plants have contaminated area groundwater with the decades-long practice of injecting coal prep plant waste into underground mines.
“We don’t have an easy time finding our legislators and some of them don’t act like they want our input, but we sure are letting them know that coal waste and drinking water should not be mixed,” said Raleigh County resident Chuck Nelson. Nelson, a disabled coal miner, volunteers with the Huntington-based Ohio Valley Environmental Coalition (OVEC), which is organizing the “Lobby Tuesdays” with Sludge Safety Project allies from around the state.
“We have a responsibility to make sure groundwater contamination doesn't happen to other communities. This study is a first step for that, and it really isn’t much to ask,” said Patricia Feeney, who coordinates OVEC’s work on the Sludge Safety Project.
“We all have a right to clean, fresh water in our taps and in our streams,” Feeney added. “Over half a million West Virginians still rely on their well water, yet the state continues to allow coal companies to pump sludge underground.”
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More information at www.sludgesafety.org.
Photos of Lobby Tuesday participants at work available from vivian@ohvec.org.
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