CHARLESTON – State regulators do not believe coal slurry injected underground is responsible for tainted water coming from the taps in some Mingo County homes.

Regulators with the state’s Department of Environmental Protection testified Nov. 15 before a special legislative subcommittee that Delbarton area residents’ complaints about red, black or brown water are not linked to a local mine’s practice of injecting wastewater from coal processing back into the ground.

“We’re not saying the water isn’t contaminated, it is. But in this case, it’s not linked to the injection process,” said George Jenkins, a hydrologist with the West Virginia Department of Environmental Protection.

Instead, officials with the DEP and other agencies believe an abandoned mine may be responsible for the high levels of heavy metals in residents’ well water. The metals include arsenic, beryllium, barium, lead, calcium, copper, nickel, magnesium and manganese.

Jenkins said coal companies started injecting slurry underground in the 1970s as a way to dispose of waste. The other option for coal companies was piling the waste on the earth’s surface, which was sloppy and dangerous. The DEP and other regulatory agencies started monitoring the injections in the 1990s.

Now injection sites must go through a stringent application process before a permit can ever be given. The sites are then monitored and tested every month after injection begins.

Chris Hamilton, senior vice president for the West Virginia Coal Association, said slurry injection sites are carefully engineered to make sure the underground systems do not impact the groundwater or nearby neighbors.

“They are continuously and heavily monitored,” Hamilton said following the hearing. “We have the most stringent rules in the world regarding this.”

The Coal Association was expected to testify during the hearing to refute studies and testimony offered during a similar hearing on Oct. 16. However, the subcommittee ran out of time on Nov. 16 and opted instead to allow the Coal Association to come back in December to provide information.

Hamilton said there is no question that water in some parts of Mingo County is contaminated.

“But there is no link to active or inactive mines,” he said.

Coalfield residents appealed to lawmakers several months ago to issue a moratorium on slurry injection until more studies can be conducted to determine whether the practice puts people at risk. Nearly a dozen residents of Mingo County attended hearings on Oct. 16 and Nov. 15 at the state Capitol to describe the myriad health problems they, their families and neighbors have endured in recent years.

In addition, those residents have sued a local coal company, alleging that it injected slurry that contaminated their groundwater. That lawsuit is currently making its way through the Mingo County Circuit court.

“We’re very perplexed why this issue is even before this committee,” Hamilton said. “We think it’s highly inappropriate for the legislative branch to be usurping the judicial branch of government. Why are they sitting as judge and jury when the very same issue is being taken up in court? It’s not a statewide issue or an industrywide issue. It’s a very local issue relating to one mine.”

He said a better role for lawmakers is to figure out how the coal industry and state can work together to make sure all residents of West Virginia have access to water and sewer systems so they don’t have to rely on wells for drinking water and straight pipes for waste disposal.

He said the state right now is enjoying an unprecedented surplus in its budget, thanks in part to high-energy prices. Some of that money, he said, should go into improving the infrastructure in the rural parts of the state.

“We all have a duty to make sure every West Virginian has fresh, clean drinking water,” he said, later adding, “What better time to do that than now, when we have an unprecedented surplus?”

But more study is needed. William Orem, a geochemist with the U.S. Geological Survey, said he’s in charge of studies that investigate whether coal and other energy resources have an impact on human health. One thing his studies and other research have found is a higher rate of renal and pelvic cancers in areas with higher concentrations of coal mining.

“In coal-bearing areas in Louisiana, we see wells that have a high concentrations of organics that are linked to those cancers,” he said, later adding, “The No. 1 state for renal and pelvic cancers is Wyoming, so we are doing a lot of work in the Powder River Basin.”

Wyoming’s Powder River Basin is the top coal-producing area in the United States.

Orem told lawmakers he would like to see even more studies to evaluate the health impact of slurry injection in West Virginia as well as other states. Those studies would include looking at just what types of chemicals are being pumped underground, what happens to the slurry once it’s below the surface – whether it moves – and complete toxicology and epidemiology studies.

“Is there a disease that can be linked to slurry injections or impoundments?” he asked. “Are there new ways to wash coal that aren’t so bad? Those are things we need to find out.”