A year after 300 million gallons of coal slurry spilled into streams in Inez, Kentucky, covering up stream beds and destroying aquatic life in the watershed, polluting dozens of miles of the Tug River and affecting water supplies for up to 60 miles downstream, the Mine Safety and Health Administration (MSHA) finally issued a report on the disaster.

Coal giant Massey Energy, whose subsidiary Martin County Coal operated the slurry pond, was let off with a slap on the hand. MSHA cited Massey for two "unwarranted failures," violations of federal mine safety laws that the agency said contributed to the spill. The company could draw fines of $55,000 for each of those citations. Last year, Massey reported profits of $80 million. In September Massey told stockholders that it had spent $36.9 million on cleanup from the spill but that $27 million had been recovered from insurance policies.

MSHA did not charge Massey for what the government's own engineering consultant determined was the major cause of the spill: that Massey had overestimated the amount of solid rock or solid coal between the slurry pond impoundment and underground mine workings.

Massey claimed that there was 70 feet of solid barrier between the impoundment and the roof of the underground mine, but the survey showed only 15 to 18 feet. The rest was unconsolidated material or fragments of rock and coal. The report said the impoundment failure "was the consequence of mining operations advancing in close proximity to the outcrop of the coal seam." The slurry poured into the mine and broke through a hillside into two tributaries of the Tug Fork and Big Sandy River.

A Massey spokesman responded that the company "was pleased that MSHA validated the integrity of our underground mine mapping."

At the October 11 picket line, Pauline Canterbury called on Massey to stop releasing polluted water from coal slurry impoundments and to stop covering coal communities with dust from preparation plants and trucks. She also called on Massey to pay all coal truck drivers a living hourly wage. Canterbury is a resident of Sylvester, a town near Massey operations in the Coal River in West Virginia, and a member of Coal River Mountain Watch.

A dozen United Mine Workers of America (UMWA) members and organizers joined the protest. Speaking to the crowd, UMWA member and State Delegate Michael Caputo said Massey is "only after the bottom line. Massey's environmental record is horrible. One-third of all miners killed in West Virginia this year came from Massey mines. Massey is out of touch with West Virginia communities."

The following week, a meeting on the dangers from overloaded coal trucks drew 200 people, including residents and coal truck drivers and owners. A recent fatal accident involving overloaded coal trucks prompted the large turnout.

Residents pointed blame at the coal companies. "The state needs to fine the coal companies who overload the trucks, not the drivers," one stated. Julia Bonds, from Coal River Mountain Watch in Whitesville, said, "Coal truckers barely earn a living wage. They need to be paid by the hour, not by the load."

In response to the findings of the government engineering study, UMWA president Cecil Roberts issued a press release. He asked, "Did we learn nothing from the Buffalo Creek disaster?" referring to the 1972 collapse of a Pittston Coal Co. slurry dam that killed 125 people. "Here we are 29 years later and Massey is operating a mine that has an impoundment just 18 feet above mine workings. This is frightening and disturbing. You have to ask yourself, 'Who is driving the train?'"

Roberts also issued a press release commending the West Virginia state government for holding hearings into a series of slurry spills at Massey operations. These hearings come in the wake of Massey being cited with multiple violations. Massey subsidiary Marfork Coal has been cited 14 times since May 2000, including nine times this year. Whitesville resident Freda Williams said, "We cannot afford another Inez, Kentucky, or a Buffalo Creek in this country."

There have been other public statements on the lack of action on the safety of coal dams. Former MSHA director Davitt McAteer criticized the MSHA report on the Massey spill, pointing out inaccurate mine maps played a major role in causing the accident. He said inaccurate mine maps are widespread, and could lead to similar--or worse--impoundment accidents.

Just prior to the release of the MSHA report, the National Academy of Sciences released a study on coal dam safety commissioned by Congress. The study team said federal regulators don't know for sure that coal slurry impoundments are safe. In particular they said, regulators should review whether they are too close to underground mine workings. They reported that in 1994 and 1996 there were a string of breakthroughs into underground mine workings but that regulators did nothing to strengthen oversight.

Massey's Martin County Coal was one of these places. An investigation by MSHA engineers found problems, but the agency did nothing about them. And in the year before the spill, Massey had double the flow from the impoundment, but did not tell regulators.  
 
 
Front page (for this issue) | Home | Text-version home