Talking Points :
Solutions to Coal Waste Sludge Contamination 

• Clean Water to Impacted Communities: Research is currently under way to understand the extent of the impact to fresh water and drinking water sources near coal waste sludge storage. We need to hold our officials accountable in allocating emergency funding to protect our health and our children's health from contaminated water.
• Better Technologies: Filter presses and vacuum filters have been available since the 1960’s and are an effective way to de-water coal slurry. Dry cleaning methods are also available. The dry waste can then be stored in a lined landfill, eliminating the need for dams. People can live free from the threat of sludge dams.
• Stop Sludge, Invest in Healthy Children: No more sludge means we preserve the precious water and the lives that are the future of West Virginia. Children should not have to live like the students at Marsh Fork Elementary in Raleigh County, WV, who go to class every day at the foot of a toxic coal waste impoundment.
• More jobs: Pumping the sludge underground takes jobs from the workers required to handle and store the waste carefully and responsibly.
• Safer jobs: Underground miners fear the threat of inadequately recorded sludge injections breaking through.  Stopping underground sludge injections could prevent future sludge breakthroughs in underground mines, and blowouts on the surface.

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