In yet another unfortunate event for the big coal-industry public relations campaign, Patriot Coal accidentally spilled more than 100,000 gallons of toxic waste from a coal processing facility in West Virginia recently. Roughly six miles of Fields Creek, a body of water which flows through into the Kanawha River, was blackened by the spill. The toxic waste contained fine particles of processed coal, composed of heavy metals and coal-cleaning chemicals.
“When this much coal slurry goes into the stream, it wipes the stream out,…. This has had significant, adverse environmental impact to Fields Creek and an unknown amount of impact to the Kanawha River.” – said Randy Huffman, head of the West Virginia Department of Environmental Protection (DEP).
According to DEP, the spill was allegedly caused by a malfunction of a valve inside the slurry line, which was carrying material from the preparation plant to a separate disposal site. The valve broke between 2:30 and 5:30 Tuesday morning, and although companies are required to immediately report any spills to the DEP, Patriot Coal didn’t properly notify DEP until 7:40 the same morning. The alarm system which was in place to send alert notifications failed, and therefore pumps continued to send toxic slurry through the system.
The spill adds to other recent coal power industry disasters with the spill of toxic coal-cleaning chemicals that was responsible for poisoning drinking water for hundreds of thousands in West Virginia, as well as the monstrous coal-ash spill which occurred in North Carolina (where 80k tons of coal ash and other chemicals were released into the Dan river), among many others.
The number of accidents continues to rise while the effects of older ones are still not remotely under control. As many as 1/3 of the residents of West Virgina are still without clean drinking water, and despite repeated claims that such chemical leaks will not affect water quality: experience seems to dictate otherwise. Isn’t it time environmental crimes and disasters are taken at least as seriously as, well, stealing cows?
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