Patriot Coal: ...malfunctioning equipment.....

No one knows the effects of the additional chemicals because they remain untested along with 85,000 other untested chemicals.

From: Judy Molland, Care2, More from this Affiliate
Published February 13, 2014 09:18 AM

More contaminant troubles for West Virginia

On February 11, just one month after a chemical spill tainted drinking water for 300,000 people in and around the state's capital of Charleston, West Virginia experienced another environmental disaster: 100,000 gallons of coal slurry pour into stream.

From The West Virginia Gazette:

"More than 100,000 gallons of coal slurry poured into an eastern Kanawha County stream Tuesday in what officials were calling a 'significant spill' from a Patriot Coal processing facility.

Emergency officials and environmental inspectors said roughly six miles of Fields Creek had been blackened and that a smaller amount of the slurry made it into the Kanawha River near Chesapeake.

'This has had significant, adverse environmental impact to Fields Creek and an unknown amount of impact to the Kanawha River,' said Secretary Randy Huffman of the state Department of Environmental Protection."

State officials in West Virginia are scrambling to contain the coal slurry spill, which could affect the Kanawha River, just as they scrambled to contain that toxic chemical spill last month that released the toxic chemical 4-methylcyclohexanemethanol, or MCHM, into the Elk River, a tributary of that same Kanawha River.

We already know about the many toxic effects of coal, and now here’s another one: malfunctioning equipment.

The spill at Patriot Coal was apparently caused when a valve inside a slurry line malfunctioned, carrying material from the preparation plant to a separate disposal site, not to an impoundment, according to officials from the state Department of Environmental Protection (DEP).

Coal slurry or sludge is a waste fluid produced by washing coal with water and chemicals prior to shipping the coal to market. It contains a variety of substances that are likely more toxic than heavy metals, like iron, manganese, aluminum and selenium.

Several Unanswered Questions

Companies are required to immediately report any spills to the DEP. However, although the valve broke sometime between 2:30 and 5:30 early on the morning of February 11, Patriot Coal did not call the DEP to alert them of the leak until 7:40 that morning.

In addition, even though there was an alarm system in place, the alarm failed, so pumps continued to send the toxic slurry through the system. A secondary containment wall around the valve proved to be insufficient; the pumps continued to send slurry to the broken valve, which became overwhelmed and the slurry overflowed the wall and made its way to the creek.

Officials at the company announced immediately that containment efforts and cleanup activities were underway.

Read more at ENN affiliate Care2.

Water pollution image via Shutterstock.

 

http://www.enn.com/top_stories/article/47039

 

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Patriot Coal Poisoned a WV Stream, Stopping NSA, Buffalo Slaughter

FROM RSN:

This Is What It Looks Like When 100,000 Gallons Of Coal Waste Spill Into A West Virginia Stream

By Kiley Kroh on February 12, 2014

 

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CREDIT: Foo Conner/@iwasaround

 

A pipe break at a Patriot Coal preparation site spewed more than 100,000 gallons of coal slurry into a waterway near Charleston, WV on Tuesday.

“When this much coal slurry goes into the stream, it wipes the stream out,” said Randy Huffman, Secretary of the Department of Environmental Protection.

Tuesday’s spill did not occur near a drinking water intake, an area of particular concern for nearby residents as the safety of their water supply remains a concern more than one month after a massive chemical spill contaminated the water for 300,000 West Virginians. Coal slurry contains a range of toxic substances, including chemicals used to wash the coal and heavy metals, like iron, manganese, aluminum and selenium.

Here are some images from the spill:

CREDIT: Foo Conner/@iwasaround

 

CREDIT: Foo Conner/@iwasaround

 

 

CREDIT: Foo Conner/@iwasaround

 

CREDIT: Foo Conner/@iwasaround

 

CREDIT: Foo Conner/@iwasaround

 

 

http://readersupportednews.org/off-site-news-section/49-49/22017-this-is-what-it-looks-like-when-100000-gallons-of-coal-waste-spill-into-a-west-virginia-stream

 

 

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Kroh reports: "A pipe break at a Patriot Coal preparation site spewed more than 100,000 gallons of coal slurry into a waterway near Charleston, WV on Tuesday."
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Another Coal Slurry Spill Contaminates Water

Dirty Energy doesn't want regulation, inspection and enforcement, nor do they want to clean up their messes.

There seems to be a connection!

FROM RSN:

More than 100,000 gallons of coal slurry blackened a creek in West Virginia. (photo: CNN)

New Pipe Break at Coal Facility Contaminates West Virginia Waterway

By Katie Valentine, ThinkProgress

12 February 14

coal preparation facility spilled an unknown quantity of coal slurry into a creek in Kanawha County, W.V. Tuesday morning, according to West Virginia officials.

As the Charleston Gazette reports, the spill occurred at Patriot Coal's Kanawha Eagle operation, which is located near Fields Creek. The operation is near Winifrede, WV - southeast of Charleston, the state's capitol and site of last month's major chemical spill. The amount of coal slurry that spilled is still unknown, but a West Virginia DEP spokesman told the Charleston Gazette that the spill could probably be characterized as "significant." Local reporters have tweeted photos of the spill, which has turned the creek's water black:

According to the county's emergency services director, the spill was caused by a break in the eight-inch slurry line that ran between the preparation plant and the company's refuse impoundment, which occurred sometime between midnight and 5:30 in the morning. According to the DEP, the company in charge of the facility reported the spill to the DEP at 7:30 a.m.

 

Workers have shut down the slurry pumps to stop the spill, but the slurry has contaminated the creek, which flows into the Kanawha River. Responders are trying to contain the spill to Fields Creek in the hopes that it does not reach the Kanawha River. Officials say if the spill does reach the river they don't think it will affect drinking water because there are no water intakes downstream of the spill.

 

Coal slurry is a mix of solid and liquid waste that's created from coal preparation, a process that includes washing coal with chemicals like MCHM. The DEP said in a statement that the facility utilizes a frothing chemical called Flomin 110-C that contains MCHM, the same chemical that spilled from a Freedom Industries holding plant and contaminated water for 300,000 West Virginians last month. Lawmakers have been grappling with how to prevent similar spills from happening in the future - West Virginia Sen. John Unger (D), introduced a bill aimed at regulating above-ground storage tanks that was passed unanimously in the Senate, but Tuesday morning's spill proves that other holding facilities, including impoundments, are also at risk of spills.

 

Slurry has spilled before in West Virginia - in 1972, a coal slurry impoundment dam in Logan County burst, spilling 132,000,000 gallons of liquid onto small mining settlements, killing 125 people and injuring 1,121. And in October of 2000, a coal slurry spill in Martin County, Kentucky, spilled 306,000,000 gallons, polluting 100 miles of waterways and killing aquatic life and plants in West Virginia and Kentucky.

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One Less Dirty Coal Company......

Thank you to the heroes who have been arrested, protested, spoken out and sacrificed their time to protect the environment and defend the future!

From: The Pragmatic Progressive Page and 2 others shared Earthjustice's photo.

Timeline Photos

 

FANTASTIC BREAKING NEWS! One of the nation's top coal companies, Patriot Coal, has just announced it will stop all of its mountaintop removal mining operations following a historic settlement with activists and environmental groups. http://ow.ly/flQ14

This is a HUGE victory for all the tireless activists from Appalachia and our allies, and for everyone of YOU who submitted your photo to our Mountain Hero campaign! The battle is not over yet because there are still coal companies who refuse to abandon this awful practice, but we are hopeful that this will mark the beginning of the end for mountaintop removal mining.

We'll update everyone as we get more news from this settlement, but for now, please click SHARE and LIKE to spread this fantastic news! Share your comments below!See More

By: Earthjustice