EPA Report - Streams @ Surface Coal Mining Sites Up To 50X Legal Toxic Limits - "No Comment" From KY

[hatrack]

CHARLESTON, W.Va. -- Water quality downstream from surface coal-mining operations in West Virginia and Kentucky greatly exceeds recommended toxicity limits, according to previously unreleased sampling data from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.

EPA scientists found toxicity levels as high as 50 times the federal guidelines in water downstream from mining operations. In-stream water samples from 14 of 17 sites EPA tested exceeded the agency's guidelines. Government officials took the samples in 2007 and 2009, but have never released their own report to outline the findings. Environmental groups obtained the data under the federal Freedom of Information Act, and had Carys L. Mitchelmore, a toxicologist from the University of Maryland Center for Environmental Science, analyze it.

Mitchelmore's report was made public Monday when it was attached to a petition asking EPA to take over water pollution permitting for mining from the state of Kentucky. The findings are important because the type of testing provides a more complete and accurate picture of the toxicity of water than sampling for any one pollutant alone. "This is the first-line red flag," Mitchelmore said in an interview. "This is the best way to show what the whole toxicity of that pollution is." EPA conducted what is known as whole effluent toxicity, or WET, testing. This type of testing is designed to investigate the total toxicity of water that may contain many toxic compounds.

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Bill Bissett, president of the Kentucky Coal Association, said the petition was just another step in a legal strategy to "stop Kentucky's coal production and our use of this abundant and reliable natural resource." Bissett said Kentucky's permitting of coal mining has previously been approved by EPA as "being consistent with the Clean Water Act." Officials from the Kentucky Department for Environmental Protection declined comment on the EPA petition and the new toxicity testing. Kathy Cosco, spokeswoman for the West Virginia Department of Environmental Protection, said DEP officials hope EPA conducts a further study to "understand the root cause of the toxicity" identified in the federal testing.

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http://sundaygazettemail.com/News/201003150780

[Statistical]

1. What is the half-life of coal toxins?

[Nihil]

2. Considerably longer than the life expectancy of those who drink that water ... (n/t)