WVDEP Finds Coal Slurry Did Not Affect Prenter Drinking Water

The State Journal
24 January 2012
By Pam Kasey

A year-long study on water supplies in the Prenter-Sand Lick area of Boone County did not show evidence of widespread mining-induced impacts to groundwater quality, the West Virginia Department of Environmental Protection said Jan. 24.

The study follows by one week opposite findings publicized by the nonprofit Sludge Safety Project.

The group released research on Jan. 17 by Eckstein & Associates of Kent, Ohio concluding that coal slurry leaking out of underground impoundments in old coal mines in the Prenter area leaches metals while percolating through the aquifer and "the metals are thus transported downstream to the location of the residential water wells."

Residents in the area have long argued that stored coal slurry — the heavy metal–laden sludge left behind when coal is washed for market — contaminated their aquifers and made people sick.

WVDEP hired Triad Engineering of Scott Depot in October 2010 to determine what human activity, including coal mining and mining-related activities, might have negatively affected drinking water sources.

Triad said in its Jan. 13 report that it visited more than 100 homes and received permission to collect samples from 33 domestic wells that DEP said were distributed across the watershed.

The consultants reviewed the geology and hydrology of the study area as well as previously collected water quality data and also collected samples from surface water, mine discharges, valley fill discharges and coal slurry.

Water samples were analyzed for metals in EPA's primary drinking water standards, which relate to health risks, as well as to all secondary drinking water standards, which are related to taste and odor. The samples also were analyzed for indicators of bacterial contamination, acid mine drainage and other problems.

None of the 33 domestic wells sampled for water quality exceeded the primary drinking water standards for metals, the report said.

Two wells had elevated levels that might point to surface-mine impacts. Neither well owner uses groundwater as a drinking water source.

The consultants found poor correlation between resident complaints about odor and color and lab analytical results. They suggested that the complaints are most likely related to iron- and sulfate-metabolizing bacteria rather than to human impacts.

"Our investigation did not identify evidence of widespread human-induced impacts to groundwater quality in the Prenter Road area," the Triad report concludes.

Geologic flow in the area is relatively localized, the consultants found, making widespread impacts unlikely.

The Eckstein and Associates' report, by contrast, refers to "one continuous aquifer."

The Sludge Safety Project had not yet reviewed the Triad Report in time for this story.