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Mountain Holler

The Ever Colorful Coal River

After a month and a half of no rain, Vernon finally gave in and watered his garden, summoning a two day downpour.  Many tributaries of the Coal River were bone dry before the storm and several old timers told me they hadn't seen the Coal River this low in years.  We needed the rain.  What we didn't need was the torrent of black and milky waters released into the Coal River.

I noticed the milky water on the way into work, but as soon as we arrived at the office, we got a call from our friend Rick Bradford, who said the Coal River in front of his house was running Black.  We told him to take pictures and call the DEP.  And off I went to take pictures and samples of the coal river.  I stopped at an outlet from a Massey surface mine that had been in violation the last time it rained, and sure enough it was running milky.  Last time they said it was because of a drainage ditch that hadn't been cleaned out.  What could it be this time?

Then I got to Edwight, where I saw that the Coal River was in fact as black as it's name implies.  It doesn't come through in the photos, but that water was very black.  The river starts turning black coincidentally, right where the outfall of the 2.8 billion gallon Shumate Dam is (That's the one behind the Elementary School).

On the way back to the office I thought I should stop by the outfall of the largest dam in the hemisphere, the Little Marsh Fork Creek.  Sure enough, it was looking like a latte.

I called the DEP Spill hotline (that's 1-800 642-3074) as soon as I got back and reported all of these occurrences of suspicious water.  Then, just for good measure I called the field office responsible for the Shumate Dam.  They called back, saying they'd be down there in 2 hours.  That makes it 6 hours after we were first alerted to the discoloration.  Needless to say, there was no more black water.  But the DEP took samples and everything to assure me that it wasn't blackwater.  Of course, any grade schooler with sense would tell you that by that time it had all surely reached the drinking water intake for Whitesville. 

And if you though that was poor turnaround time, the complaints on the tributary with a history of problems weren't even received by the field office until the next day at 3:00 in the afternoon. He gave me a whole slew of reasons why the complaint got lost, including homeland security.  But he assured me that the DEP inspectors went out as soon as they got the complaint and reported back that there were no signs of a spill.  No Kidding? 

Maybe I'm too hard on the DEP Inspectors.  They tell me that they are responsible for lots of mines and I'm sure that when it rains, lots of surface mines have problems.  And I've been told that the DEP really relies on citizens to let them know about spills, which really brings up the point that if they can't keep track with the permits they have issued, they have no business issuing new ones.

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