The West Virginia Department of
Environmental Protection wants to know what products coal operators are using
in their preparation plant process and at what levels. Acting
Director of the agency’s Division of Mining and Reclamation Harold Ward issued
an order last week to all 90 prep plants in West Virginia
“We are requiring them to identify
all possible chemical components of the products they use in processing that
may turn up in the discharge to the streams,” said DEP Spokesperson Kelly
Gillenwater.
The state already requires
reporting of the chemicals used, but many of those chemicals already have
limits built into the mining permit. Gillenwater said some of the
products fall outside the realm of those chemicals identified in the
permits. However, they shouldn’t be present at all in the effluent if
they are being used properly.
“These products are supposed to be
used in very small quantities. They are actually drip fed into the
process,” she said. “If they are used correctly we shouldn’t actually see any
detectable limits of that in the discharge into the streams.”
However, there is evidence at least
in sporadic cases those materials are turning up in the water. Last year,
following the Freedom Industries chemical spill along with another accidental
release of MCHM into the Kanawha
River
“Last year we tested all of the
discharge outlets at all of the coal prep plants and there were some hits,”
Gillenwater said. “There were a handful of detectable materials found in the
effluent.”
Gillenwater said it has always been
the goal of DEP to protect West
Virginia
