Department of Environmental Protection Secretary Randy Huffman will have to get used to visiting lawmakers: The water resources commission intends to demand monthly updates on coal slurry injection and whether it's making people sick.
MORGANTOWN, W.Va. -- Department of Environmental Protection Secretary Randy Huffman will have to get used to visiting lawmakers: The water resources commission intends to demand monthly updates on coal slurry injection and whether it's making people sick.
"If this was an outbreak of any other source, the Centers for Disease Control would be in there to find out what's happening and what's causing it,'' Sen. John Unger, D-Berkeley, said Friday.
The practice involves pumping wastewater from the washing of coal into worked-out underground mines. Many Southern West Virginia residents say the toxic soup has bled into aquifers, poisoned their wells and wrecked their health - a claim the industry disputes and the DEP says it has been unable to verify.
At a recent hearing, legislators blasted Huffman for DEP's failure to meet multiple deadlines on a study that examines the safety of slurry injection and whether it's a risk to human health.
They also pressed him to conduct a separate study on the Boone County towns of Prenter and Seth, where about 250 residents are suing eight coal companies over foul water.
On Friday, DEP spokeswoman Kathy Cosco said that study will be conducted by a third party who will first examine past investigations into Prenter, "whether by the DEP or other parties,'' then determine what other information is needed.
"Our goal is to determine, to the extent possible, the source of any drinking water problems that may exist,'' she said.
Why a third party will be hired was not immediately clear.
MORGANTOWN, W.Va. -- Department of Environmental Protection Secretary Randy Huffman will have to get used to visiting lawmakers: The water resources commission intends to demand monthly updates on coal slurry injection and whether it's making people sick.
"If this was an outbreak of any other source, the Centers for Disease Control would be in there to find out what's happening and what's causing it,'' Sen. John Unger, D-Berkeley, said Friday.
The practice involves pumping wastewater from the washing of coal into worked-out underground mines. Many Southern West Virginia residents say the toxic soup has bled into aquifers, poisoned their wells and wrecked their health - a claim the industry disputes and the DEP says it has been unable to verify.
At a recent hearing, legislators blasted Huffman for DEP's failure to meet multiple deadlines on a study that examines the safety of slurry injection and whether it's a risk to human health.
They also pressed him to conduct a separate study on the Boone County towns of Prenter and Seth, where about 250 residents are suing eight coal companies over foul water.
On Friday, DEP spokeswoman Kathy Cosco said that study will be conducted by a third party who will first examine past investigations into Prenter, "whether by the DEP or other parties,'' then determine what other information is needed.
"Our goal is to determine, to the extent possible, the source of any drinking water problems that may exist,'' she said.
Why a third party will be hired was not immediately clear.
While questions about slurry may have been allowed to linger in the past, Unger said that's not going to happen anymore. He and Delegate Tim Manchin, D-Marion, plan to summon both Huffman and a representative of the Department of Health and Human Resources to monthly meetings of the Joint Legislative Oversight Commission on State Water Resources, which they co-chair.
"I'm not going to let it go,'' Unger said, vowing to visit people in Prenter and Seth soon. "When they run their bath water for their babies, they're fearful. They're not trying to shut anyone down; they just want clean water.''
Sen. Ron Stollings, D-Boone, will accompany him on the trip, Unger said. Stollings, a physician, is vice chairman of the Senate Health and Human Resources Committee.
"Everyone deserves clean, drinkable water, and the water they drink should not make them sick or kill them,'' Unger said. "And if that is the case, the government should be in there documenting it. And if it is the case, we should stop it.''
Huffman has said the DEP is still working on the first phase of a slurry study with the federal Office of Surface Mining. The second phase, led by DHHR, will examine whether slurry in groundwater can harm human health.
The Legislature demanded the study in 2006, with an original deadline of Dec. 31, 2007. The department missed that, and subsequent deadlines in June and December of 2008. The first phase of the study is now expected to be done by April or May, Huffman said.
The delays, he said, were regrettable but unavoidable, given the size of the task and how much data must be gathered and analyzed.
On the Net: Prenter Water Fund, www.prenterwaterfund.org/pictures-and-video/slideshow
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