WVa to require coal companies to monitor slurry

The West Virginia Department of Environmental Protection will require coal companies that use underground injection to dispose of coal wastes to start monitoring for potential pollution problems, the agency's director told lawmakers Wednesday.
The DEP currently permits 13 coal slurry injection wells but doesn't require permit holders to monitor if the contaminants are moving off site through the groundwater.
Orders will be issued next month requiring the companies to modify those permits, DEP Secretary Randy Huffman told a water resources committee. The companies will have 90 days to submit plans to install the monitoring wells.
Huffman said monitoring is necessary because a DEP study on the possible harmful environmental effects of coal slurry injections was inconclusive. The agency doesn't "know if the potential contaminates in the mine pool is migrating through the coal seam and ending up off site," he said.
The action follows DEP's decision in May to place a moratorium on underground injection at new mine sites. The moratorium was issued after the agency issued the first phase of a two-phase report on coal slurry injection. The report was issued two years after its December 2007 due date.
Coal slurry is a byproduct of cleaning coal after it is mined.
For decades, coal companies in Appalachia have injected slurry into mined out deep mines as a cheap alternative to building massive dams or to filtration and drying systems. In theory, solids settle to the bottom of pools inside sealed mine voids, and all the waste stays put, with little risk to groundwater below.
Critics of the practice say the earth continues to shift and crack long after mining has ended, whether through natural settling or human activity such as nearby blasting. They say that lets slurry migrate.
Huffman told lawmakers he couldn't say if injecting slurry was safe, but acknowledged the agency plans to modify its enforcement and permitting processes this year to "bring the regulatory program for slurry injection up to a standard it should have been all alongThe second phase of slurry study falls to the Bureau for Public Health. Walt Ivey, with the bureau's environmental health section, said the agency has contracted with West Virginia University to look for potential human health issues. WVU will be paid $221,519 to determine by Dec. 31 whether the practice is potentially harmful to people.
The contract sets a timeline for researchers, who have until June 30 to review the DEP's report and supporting data, gather any public health information they can find elsewhere and form an expert panel with three to six members who will review WVU's draft reports.
The contract requires WVU to seek information from a diverse array of sources.
A draft of the report must be submitted to the Department of Health and Human Resources in October, with comments from the DHHR and the expert panel to follow.
The final report should go to DHHR by Dec. 31, and the researchers may have to appear before lawmakers when they convene during the 2010 regular legislative session.
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