Public News Service-WV

April 01, 2010

Coal Slurry Battle Brews Across the Ohio River From Wheeling

CHARLESTON, W.V. - Two years after environmental regulators denied a petition by Ohio's largest coal mining company to build a coal slurry impoundment, Murray Energy is trying again. The company has submitted plans to that state's Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to build a coal slurry facility in Belmont County, across the river and to the south from Wheeling. Opponents say the slurry would pose an environmental threat.

Nachy Kanfer, spokesperson for the Sierra Club's Beyond Coal Campaign, says it would contain billions of gallons of water, slate and mud polluted with mercury, lead, arsenic and cyanide.

"The Ohio EPA and the Strickland administration showed a lot of courage in 2008 when they upheld the law and they upheld strong public health standards and protected communities in southeast Ohio. They need to be that courageous again."

Murray Energy and some members of the surrounding communities argue at least 62 percent of the local jobs rely on the Powahaton No. 6 and American Century Mines, and hundreds of jobs could be lost if those mines closed because the slurry project didn't move forward. Kanfer suggests Ohio instead look at the broader picture of how cleaner forms of energy can create jobs.

"We need to be thinking about how to bring jobs to coal field communities in the state because, otherwise, this is what we are going to be faced with; unpleasant choices either to build a disaster-waiting-to-happen - like a coal slurry impoundment - or to do nothing at all."

Other critics of Murray and it's controversial owner say the company has a history of mine safety and environmental violations. At a public hearing this week, resident Margaret Tomblin said her land already has been damaged from suspected coal blasting, which Murray Energy has denied.

"There's a 200 year-old house that has shifted and the doors won't shut anymore and the barn doors have fell over and animals are running scared and the environment is changing."

A state task-force has recommended over a dozen other ways to handle the waste, but Murray Energy claims this proposal is the only feasible option, and also states it would manage the operation safely.

More information at www.sierraclub.org/coal/oh.

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