Another Coal Waste Spill In West Virginia, This Time From Abandoned Scene Of Major 2002 Accident
CHARLESTON, W.Va. -- As West Virginia environmental regulators plan more steps in response to last month's coal-cleaning chemical leak into the Elk River and a coal-slurry spill last week, state inspectors were on the scene Wednesday of another mining-waste accident.
Department of Environmental Protection inspectors reported a spill of polluted water from a former McDowell County slurry impoundment that had been reopened by a company re-mining the site for leftover bits of coal. DEP officials said runoff from melting snow overran the site's sediment control ponds, sending "blackwater" running into an adjacent creek.
The incident occurred at the Antaeus Gary impoundment site, formerly owned by U.S. Steel Mining, at Gary. The facility had been abandoned, and the impoundment reclaimed by the DEP, following a major accident in May 2002.
Earlier in the day, DEP officials had been discussing their continued response to the Jan. 9 chemical leak at Freedom Industries in Charleston and to last week's coal-slurry spill at a Patriot Coal processing site in Eastern Kanawha County.
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