OSM finds fault with W.Va. coal dam enforcement
CHARLESTON, W.Va. - OSM investigators found DEP officials did not require proper drilling to identify nearby mine workings at two of three impoundments examined for the study.
CHARLESTON, W.Va. - Federal investigators have identified serious deficiencies in West Virginia's effort to ensure coal slurry impoundments do not break into nearby underground mines.
Department of Environmental Protection officials do not properly apply "safety zone" rules for impoundments built on top of underground mine workings, according to the report by the federal Office of Surface Mining, Reclamation and Enforcement.
Related story: W.Va. seldom inspects coal-ash dams
OSM investigators found DEP officials did not require proper drilling to identify nearby mine workings at two of three impoundments examined for the study.
OSM also found DEP approved one Massey impoundment in Logan County, despite the serious concerns raised by the state agency's own permit review engineer.
"There is no way an impoundment in this area can satisfy the laws with regard to the dimensional requirements for safety zones," the DEP engineer wrote, according to OSM's report.
The OSM report comes as regulators and environmentalists around the coalfields are focused on the potential dangers of impoundments utility companies use to dispose of coal-fired power plant ash. In late December, a coal-ash dump in Eastern Tennessee failed, sending more than 1 billion gallons of wet coal ash pouring onto 300 acres of nearby homes, fields and streams.
Roger Calhoun, director of OSM's Charleston field office, said Friday his staff has so far been unable to resolve the problems raised by its review of DEP coal-waste impoundment enforcement.
CHARLESTON, W.Va. - Federal investigators have identified serious deficiencies in West Virginia's effort to ensure coal slurry impoundments do not break into nearby underground mines.
Department of Environmental Protection officials do not properly apply "safety zone" rules for impoundments built on top of underground mine workings, according to the report by the federal Office of Surface Mining, Reclamation and Enforcement.
Related story: W.Va. seldom inspects coal-ash dams
OSM investigators found DEP officials did not require proper drilling to identify nearby mine workings at two of three impoundments examined for the study.
OSM also found DEP approved one Massey impoundment in Logan County, despite the serious concerns raised by the state agency's own permit review engineer.
"There is no way an impoundment in this area can satisfy the laws with regard to the dimensional requirements for safety zones," the DEP engineer wrote, according to OSM's report.
The OSM report comes as regulators and environmentalists around the coalfields are focused on the potential dangers of impoundments utility companies use to dispose of coal-fired power plant ash. In late December, a coal-ash dump in Eastern Tennessee failed, sending more than 1 billion gallons of wet coal ash pouring onto 300 acres of nearby homes, fields and streams.
Roger Calhoun, director of OSM's Charleston field office, said Friday his staff has so far been unable to resolve the problems raised by its review of DEP coal-waste impoundment enforcement.
"We'll follow up on these issues, and look at a bunch more permits," Calhoun said. "We're going to see if there is a systematic problem."
DEP Secretary Randy Huffman said his staff is still reviewing the OSM report, which was provided to the state in final form in August 2008.
"There are some concerns OSM has about inconsistencies," Huffman said. "We're looking at that right now."
The OSM review is part of a continuing examination by federal officials. OSM launched the project in 2001, after the October 2000 breakthrough of more than 300 million gallons of slurry from a Massey Energy impoundment in Martin County, Ky.
After the 1972 Buffalo Creek disaster, mining regulators focused mostly on making sure the dam structures themselves at coal-waste impoundments were safe. The Martin County disaster prompted a much closer look at whether impoundment basins were located close to underground mine workings. Regulators wanted to see if basins were susceptible to "breakthroughs" that could endanger underground miners, or cause spills that threatened nearby communities.
After Martin County, a National Academy of Sciences study also urged federal and state officials to look for alternative slurry disposal methods - to avoid building huge waste dams in the first place. But those recommendations have been mostly ignored.
Instead, OSM has been looking through DEP permit files and conducting its own field inspections to gauge how well the state is enforceing state and federal dam safety rules.
Reach Ken Ward Jr. at kw...@wvgazette.com or 304-348-1702.
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Why must laws be written in our blood? Why can't we have decent, ethical law enforcement without people dying and being poisoned first? Living in WV is like watching a train wreck--any idiot with two eyes to see could tell you that we are headed for disaster, but we continue on anyway.