Dunkard: Connecting the Dots
Washington
PA Observer-Reporter
13 January 2010
There has been a lot of emphasis in the news lately about "connecting
the dots" with regard to homeland security and the failed Christmas Eve
terrorist attack. The theory is that if all the dots are properly
connected, some bad event can be foreseen and forestalled.
I got a call from a friend recently which brought this theory to mind
rather forcefully. His concern had nothing to do with a terrorist
threat, but it was nonetheless equally disturbing.
As most people should be aware by now, a significant stretch of Dunkard
Creek in Monongalia County, W.Va., and Greene County has been
devastated by a toxic bloom of invasive algae, which was apparently
enabled by a discharge of water with high dissolved solids from the
Blacksville No. 2 Mine (dot). While there is no acknowledged proof that
this water and its critical contaminants originated outside that mine
itself, there is certainly a reasonable suspicion that some part of it
may have infiltrated from the adjacent Blacksville No. 1 Mine (dot).
Blacksville No. 1 has been, apparently for years, the site of an
EPA-permitted injection well used to dispose of untreated wastewater
from the drilling of coal seam and Marcellus gas wells (dot).
Now, what my friend called about was a "public notice" he noticed in a
weekly Greene County newspaper. (If a similar notice was published in
the more widely distributed O-R, I have not found it.) The notice
concerns a proposed revision to the permit for the Blacksville No. 1
refuse facility to allow installation of a pipeline to transport water
from the Blacksville No. 1 pool and inject it into the pool of the
Humphrey Mine (dot).
What makes this more disturbing is the fact that two environmental
groups have brought suit against the Pa. Department of Environmental
Protection for amending, without public notice, the Shannopin Mine
dewatering permit that was originally issued to prevent an uncontrolled
breakout of acid mine drainage from the abandoned Shannopin Mine (dot),
and due to its emergency nature, allowed the water to be treated to
less than normal discharge standards. The revision to that permit now
allows the operator to collect, treat and discharge water from the
Humphrey Mine - without imposing any stricter standards!
OK. There are the dots all neatly connected. What can we do about it?
George R. Carter Jr.
Jefferson