This article originally provided by wvanews.com/

June 20, 2001

Plant spill upsets local residents

More than 30,000 gallons of polluted water flowed into Pond Fork Tuesday morning during a blackwater spill at Independence Coal Co.'s Liberty Preparation Plant, located along Robinson Creek near Uneeda, the state Department of Environmental Protection said. Both Robinson Creek and Pond Fork are tributaries of the Coal River.

"A lot of kids play in this (Pond Fork) river," Joel Green, a local resident, said. "I don't think it was done intentionally, but it's something that should have been maintained a little better. Massey employs a lot of us."

Uneeda resident Pamela Elswick gets much of her food supply by fishing, but said she is now afraid to fish in the Little Coal River.

"Last night I saw bass, today I see black," Elswick said. "It really disappoints me that they do this."

Local residents reported the spill at about 10 a.m., and it was stopped by 2 p.m., said Joe Hager, an inspector supervisor with the DEP Office of Mining and Reclamation's Logan field office.

"There was a blackwater slug from the mouth of Robinson Creek nearly to Madison," Hager said. "It's probably 5 miles long."

DEP officials said a malfunctioning pump may have caused the spill.

Massey officials could not immediately be reached for comment.

United Mine Workers of America International President Cecil Roberts says a thorough inspection of all Massey Energy impoundments and facilities is needed.

"This is just another example of Massey Energy doing harm to the communities where it chooses to operate and the people who live there," Roberts said Wednesday in a prepared statement.

The DEP plans to investigate Tuesday's spill, Hager said.

"They have had water quality problems in the past," Hager said of Massey mining operations.

Last September, the federal Environmental Protection Agency settled pollution cases against Elk Run Coal Co. and Goals Coal, both Massey subsidiaries, as well as Catenary Coal Co. The cases alleged the companies illegally spilled blackwater from its mining operations into nearby streams.

And last October, a Massey mine in eastern Kentucky was the source of a 250 million gallon coal mine waste spill that fouled 60 miles of streams in Kentucky and West Virginia. Environmental regulators say the Martin County Coal Co. slurry spill occurred when the bottom of a coal refuse pond collapsed into an abandoned mine below, then spilled out into two streams that feed into the Big Sandy and Ohio rivers.

"If this company wants to continue doing business in this region, it should start doing a better job of policing its operations so accidents like the one in Kentucky -- and now this in Boone County -- do not occur," Roberts said.