DEP investigating coal slurry spill in eastern Kanawha CountyFeb 12 - McClatchy-Tribune Regional News - Matt Murphy Charleston Daily Mail, W.Va.
About 108,000 gallons of coal slurry blackened six miles of Fields Creek in Eastern Kanawha County Tuesday after a coal processing plant line carrying the substance ruptured. "This has significant adverse environmental impacts," said Randy Huffman, secretary of the state Department of Environmental Protection. "This is a significant slurry spill." Huffman said a valve seal broke on the coal slurry line at the Kanawha Eagle Prep Plant, a subsidiary of Patriot Coal. However, pumps moving slurry through the line continued to run for roughly three hours, filling a secondary containment area, which then overflowed into the creek. "When this much coal slurry gets into a stream, it wipes the stream out," Huffman said. The spill began sometime between 2:30 and 5:30 a.m. Tuesday, but Huffman said the company notified the DEP about 7:40 a.m. He said an unknown amount of time passed between the time plant employees discovered the spill and the report to the DEP. Coal processors are required to report chemical spills immediately. The DEP estimated the amount of spilled slurry based on the amount of time the pumps ran after the valve broke. Huffman said an alarm system designed to alert employees when such an incident occurs apparently wasn't working. DEP officials were overseeing containment and cleanup Tuesday afternoon. They used a vacuum to suck up contaminants and put them into a containment area. The DEP is also testing water at various points along the creek. Huffman said the slurry does not contain the coal-cleaning chemical MCHM -- the primary chemical involved in last month's Freedom Industries spill along the Elk River. DEP officials initially believed MCHM was being used at the site. However, the Kanawha Eagle Prep Plant switched last month to polypropylene glycol. But he also said there are likely chemicals much more harmful than either MCHM or polypropylene glycol in raw coal slurry. Huffman said a Material Safety Data Sheet obtained by the DEP show polypropylene glycol is far less toxic than MCHM and short-term exposure should cause few, if any, health effects. A Dow Chemical Co. MSDS for industrial-grade polypropylene glycol found online supported Huffman's statement. After the Freedom Industries spill last month, the DEP announced it was testing wastewater from every known user of MCHM in the state -- about 36 different facilities -- for the chemical's presence. Huffman said Tuesday the facility where the slurry spill occurred "came back non-detect." The DEP is planning to take enforcement action against the plant. In response to questions about whether fines are a good deterrent for companies to comply with environmental regulations, Huffman said monetary penalties might not go far enough in some cases. "We have to do more than that," he said. Fields Creek flows into the Kanawha River just south of Chesapeake, and evidence of the spill was evident Tuesday. The slurry was visible for about a half-mile from the river's confluence with Fields Creek. The DEP has notified water facilities and agencies along the Kanawha and Ohio rivers about the spill. No public water intakes are located immediately downstream from the spill site. The West Virginia American Water plant in Charleston is on the Elk River upstream from the Kanawha River, and the St. Albans treatment plant is on the Coal River. West Virginia American Water spokeswoman Laura Jordan said the spill is not anticipated to have an effect on the treatment plant. She said the West Virginia Bureau for Public Health also anticipates no effects on the plant. Contact writer Matt Murphy at Matt.Mur...@dailymailwv.com or 304-348-4817. Follow him on Twitter @DMLocalGov and on Facebook at www.facebook.com/DailyMailLocalGov. http://www.energycentral.com/functional/news/news_detail.cfm?did=31499914& |