EPA Report: Streams Near Mining Toxic
Charleston Gazette
15 March 2010
By Ken Ward Jr., Staff writer
CHARLESTON, W.Va. -- Water quality downstream from surface coal-mining
operations in West Virginia and Kentucky greatly exceeds recommended
toxicity limits, according to previously unreleased sampling data from
the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.
EPA scientists found toxicity levels as high as 50 times the federal
guidelines in water downstream from mining operations. In-stream water
samples from 14 of 17 sites EPA tested exceeded the agency's guidelines.
Government officials took the samples in 2007 and 2009, but have never
released their own report to outline the findings.
Environmental groups obtained the data under the federal Freedom of
Information Act, and had Carys L. Mitchelmore, a toxicologist from the
University of Maryland Center for Environmental Science, analyze it.
Mitchelmore's report was made public Monday when it was attached to a
petition asking EPA to take over water pollution permitting for mining
from the state of Kentucky.
The findings are important because the type of testing provides a more
complete and accurate picture of the toxicity of water than sampling
for any one pollutant alone.
"This is the first-line red flag," Mitchelmore said in an interview.
"This is the best way to show what the whole toxicity of that pollution
is."
EPA conducted what is known as whole effluent toxicity, or WET,
testing. This type of testing is designed to investigate the total
toxicity of water that may contain many toxic compounds.
Water samples taken from streams are used in a laboratory to test the
water's toxicity to various species of aquatic life. Results are
calculated in terms of "toxicity units."
EPA recommends a limit of 1.0 toxicity unit to protect against more
chronic, or long-term, exposure. West Virginia does not have a water
quality standard for toxicity units, and does not require companies to
conduct WET tests as part of their water pollution permits. Kentucky
has adopted EPA's recommended guideline of 1.0.
In West Virginia, six of the nine sites tested by EPA turned up WET
results greater than 1.0. The results ranged from 3.1 toxicity units to
6.9 toxicity units.
In Kentucky, all eight sites sampled by EPA were greater than 1.0 --
with two sites recording greater than 50 toxicity units.
One of the Kentucky sites with the highest toxicity levels was just
downstream from the Guy Cove Research Project, where University of
Kentucky scientists are trying to recreate a headwater stream to
demonstrate viable mitigation to offset mining's impact on water
quality.
In their petition concerning Kentucky's water pollution program, the
Appalachian Center for the Economy and the Environment and other groups
noted the Guy Cove site was recently touted in a local newspaper
article as a possible solution to mountaintop removal damage.
But EPA's tests showed "that serious cumulative downstream water
quality impacts still remain," the petition said.
"Researchers at Guy Cove constructed experimental, partially sealed
channels that could carry water down the face of a valley fill, but did
not prevent the water quality problems downstream of the base of the
fill," the petition said.
Officials from the Kentucky Department for Environmental Protection
also declined comment.
Bill Bissett, president of the Kentucky Coal Association, said the
petition was just another step in a legal strategy to "stop Kentucky's
coal production and our use of this abundant and reliable natural
resource."
Bissett said Kentucky's permitting of coal mining has previously been
approved by EPA as "being consistent with the Clean Water Act."
Officials from the Kentucky Department for Environmental Protection
declined comment on the EPA petition and the new toxicity testing.
Kathy Cosco, spokeswoman for the West Virginia Department of
Environmental Protection, said DEP officials hope EPA conducts a
further study to "understand the root cause of the toxicity" identified
in the federal testing.
Earlier this month, EPA officials delayed the announcement of a plan
that would have required periodic WET testing by all coal-mining
operations in Appalachia.
Mitchelmore said the EPA data she analyzed contained only a "snapshot"
of water quality, and that more frequent testing would provide better
detail about toxicity.
Also, she said, EPA tested the water's impact on only one species of
bug -- water fleas -- rather than by using the least pollution-tolerant
of three difference species of aquatic life, as recommended by EPA's
own guidelines.
"It is quite possible that [water fleas] may be less or more sensitive
to one or more toxic compounds in the water samples compared to
resident species," Mitchelmore said in her report.
Reach Ken Ward Jr. at kw...@wvgazette.com or 304-348-1702.