Pollution Problems Are a Threat to Everyone

Washington PA Observer-Reporter
20 December 2009
By Philip Coleman

When surveyors Mason and Dixon stood on the banks of a flowing woodland stream in October 1767, they had no notion that the line they had established between Pennsylvania and Maryland would become a metaphor for the division between North and South, slavery and freedom. All they really thought about was the group of Native Americans on the far bank who told them to go no further.

Mason and Dixon didn't argue. They packed up and went back to England.

The woodland stream that marked the end of their trail was Dunkard Creek. While the Mason-Dixon line stands for a clear division between two states, Dunkard Creek has in the past three months come to represent the confusion of that division. Above ground, political boundaries are clear, but beneath the surface, two coal mines, one inactive, the other active, span the border with impunity. Consol Energy runs the new underground railroad.

Dunkard Creek aquatic life has been destroyed. Consol is responsible. But Consol has played two state agencies and one federal agency against each other in order to muddy the water (pardon the pun). There is no question that water being pumped from Blacksville No. 2 mine (the active mine) turned fresh water into sea water. There is no question that Consol has been dumping coalbed methane fracing water into Blacksville No. 1 (the inactive mine) for a period of three years. There is no question that this fracing water is much saltier than sea water.

The only question that might exist in some legalistic minds is whether Consol could be proven guilty in a court of law. Consol has muddied the water by discovering an alien algae (that thrives in salt water) and claiming someone else is to blame for the algae.

Now, Consol has had the gall to insist that it must resume dumping mine water into Dunkard Creek because miners' lives are at risk. The mine pool might rise to a level where it flows from Blacksville No. 1 into Blackville No. 2.

There are solutions to the mine water problem other than dumping into Dunkard Creek, but they would cost Consol some money. So Consol plays West Virginia and Pennsylvania Departments of Environmental Protection against each other and calls in the federal Environmental Protection Agency so it can pick and choose among the answers it gets.

The only reasonable solutions are the following:Consol forfeits $1 million immediately to go toward cleanup of Dunkard Creek;

Consol discontinues immediately and permanently the dumping of fracing water into the mine and the dumping of mine water into Dunkard Creek;

Consol initiates a monitoring program to track water levels near Blacksville No. 2 mine;

Consol develops a plan to close down the mine any time flooding is imminent;

The state and federal agencies clean up Dunkard Creek at whatever cost and send Consol the bill.

With the rush to exploit Marcellus Shale gas coming on top of coalbed methane wells, Western Pennsylvania faces a pollution problem that threatens everyone's drinking water. Our lawmakers and our so-called protection agency must take unilateral action. We can't wait for West Virginia or EPA to solve our problems.

Consol Energy has a history of glossing over problems and concealing problems. Its claims for "Clean Coal" are only the most blatant, not the most damaging.

Philip Coleman is a resident of West Brownsville, a retired professor and chairman of the Center for Coalfield Justice board.