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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsFormer West Virginia Miner: We've Been Dumping Those Chemicals In The Water For Decades
Former West Virginia Miner: We've Been Dumping Those Chemicals In The Water For Decades
Robert Johnson and Gus Lubin Jan. 21, 2014, 1:59 PM 52,489 13
Robert Johnson for Business Insider
When up to 7,500 gallons of toxic 4-methylcyclohexane methanol (MCHM) spilled into the Elk River in West Virginia, leaving 300,000 people without tap water for around a week, former miner Joe Stanley was well prepared. He hadnt been drinking the water for years.
Stanley, 64, worked at West Virginia's Marrowbone Coal Mine from 1981 to 1996. His employer was Massey Energy, the same company responsible for the Upper Big Branch Mine Disaster in 2010 that killed 29 miners and which was bought out in 2011.
Stanley says he lost his job after a conflict with management, when he, as union president, demanded an inquiry into certain chemicals that were being used in the mine. He claims that mine workers, particularly electricians and pinners, were getting sick.
Decades later, the truth is hard to determine; however, we're more interested in his bleak outlook on pollution.
"I watched the coal industry poison our water for years. Now they're telling us not to drink the water? We've been dumping this stuff into unlined ponds and into old mines for years," he says. "This MCHM was just one of the chemicals we were told was highly toxic but that we dumped into old mine shafts and slurry ponds, and it's been seeping into the groundwater for years."
It sounds bad even before Stanley explains that coal mines are constantly pumped to clear ground water, aquifers, and underground streams: "As soon as we're out of that mine it immediately fills with water. And where does it go from there? I don't know, you're guess is as good as mine."
"I haven't drank the water here in years, and I suggest you do the same," he says, pausing and then reiterating. "Don't drink the water. Just don't do it."
There's plenty of evidence to support Stanley's claims.
more...
http://www.businessinsider.com/mchm-is-nothing-new-in-our-water-2014-1?fb_action_ids=249647505197507&fb_action_types=og.recommends&fb_source=other_multiline&action_object_map=[386468468164631]&action_type_map=[%22og.recommends%22]&action_ref_map=[]
Octafish
(55,745 posts)Sunlei
(22,651 posts)spinbaby
(15,088 posts)The chemicals that leaked into the Elk River were foaming agents that are used to separate coal from rock. After it's used, it's dumped in settlement ponds.
babylonsister
(171,035 posts)that might be a yes considering how this mess is supposedly traveling.
niyad
(113,076 posts)Scootaloo
(25,699 posts)Alamuti Lotus
(3,093 posts)progressoid
(49,951 posts)it's spelled "freedumb".
2pooped2pop
(5,420 posts)freshwest
(53,661 posts)Mopar151
(9,975 posts)Cav-ins, fires, silicosis (black lung), gas.........
freshwest
(53,661 posts)From what he described, the state is being treated as a national sacrifice area and its ecology destroyed. And that it is the oldest living ecosystem in North America.
The Idiocracy wins.
johnnyreb
(915 posts)(Sigh.)
marble falls
(57,013 posts)Akron, Ohio.
My prayers are with WV citizens. Clean water IS a right,
ReRe
(10,597 posts)... the Capitol of WV. There, but for the grace of God, go we... Our environment reeks of chemicals. Water and air, in the ground, in our food. This, or something similar, can happen anywhere,
and probably is every day as we speak, breathe, drink and eat our franken foods.
marble falls
(57,013 posts)that will sell "clean" water and filtering equipment in the aftermath. This is a set piece operation by big money to rob us of everything that can be metered.
ReRe
(10,597 posts)We live in diabolic times in the USA.
JaneyVee
(19,877 posts)blackspade
(10,056 posts)I worked with an old coal miner in Pike Co, KY years ago and he told me the same thing.
I asked him what he drank. Beer. It was safer than the water.
It's like medieval times again!
leanforward
(1,076 posts)Maybe, this time it is time for change. There should be an accounting for any chemical used in coal mining and related activities. BTW, did they respond to the legal deadline earlier today for all chemicals leaked out of that tank. Unlined ponds should be lined. Anything (chemical) that could possibily be sucked up the backyard well head should be accounted for. If the fish can't live in it, then the coal company must fix it.
It would seem that the coal companies wants to treat me and everybody else in WV like mushroom people, kept in the dark and fed stuff.
n2doc
(47,953 posts)If you did this, while remaining silent, while taking steps to protect yourself (and confirming that you knew it was wrong)- Go to Hell. You fucked over your fellow citizens just as much as the Kock Bro's did, all for a buck.
theHandpuppet
(19,964 posts)Appalachian Voices
http://appvoices.org/
For those who are interested in the economic and environmental issues affecting Appalachia and her people.