West Virginia Creek Runs Black After Catastrophic Coal Slurry Spill

[unhappycamper]

http://www.commondreams.org/headline/2014/02/12-1



Roughly six miles of Fields Creek ran black after a massive coal slurry spill Tuesday morning

West Virginia Creek Runs Black After Catastrophic Coal Slurry Spill
- Lauren McCauley, staff writer
Published on Wednesday, February 12, 2014 by Common Dreams

Waters are running black for roughly six miles in West Virginia's Fields Creek after more than 100,000 gallons of toxic coal slurry poured into the waterway from a Patriot Coal processing facility Tuesday.

"This is a big deal, this is a significant slurry spill," said Secretary Randy Huffman of the state's Department of Environmental Protection at a news conference Tuesday evening. "When this much coal slurry goes into the stream, it wipes the stream out."

The spill comes just one month after the Elk River disaster, when 10,000 gallons of coal cleaning detergent Crude MCHM leaked into the river, contaminating the water supply for millions of residents living in and around the capital, Charleston.

Emergency officials said Tuesday that a "smaller amount of the slurry" had already traveled from the creek to the Kanawha River near the town of Chesapeake, West Virginia. Chesapeake is situated roughly 13 miles south along the Kanawha River from Charleston.