West Virginia Public Broadcasting reported this morning that the frustration is increasing for residents near Dunkard Creek, along the Pennsylvania border, where an entire stream seems to have been killed by pollution.
It’s understandable … residents want to know what happened. Government investigators initially pointed to a CONSOL Energy mine, then backed off that, and now are saying they haven’t been able to pinpoint an exact cause for the fish kill.
The investigators are frustrated, too. Scott Mandirola, director of water and waste management for the West Virginia Department of Environmental Protection, said in a prepared statement:
We understand the frustration people are feeling, because we feel it, too. That’s why we have large number of people working on this and are working with other agencies to try to determine what could be causing it.
But in trying to report on this incident, I ran into a hurdle yesterday, when the WVDEP said it would not release any of the water sampling data it has gathered from Dunkard Creek.
Tom Aluise, one of WVDEP’s pr folks, told me in an e-mail message that Mike Zeto, the agency’s chief inspector, said the data wasn’t going to be released because it was part of an ongoing investigation.
Now, West Virginia’s public records law allows certain records of ongoing law enforcement investigations to be withheld … but there are limits. For example, one key state Supreme Court ruling held that such information may be withheld from the public only “to the extent” that it would “compromise an ongoing law enforcement investigation.”
In this instance, WVDEP officials have described the general findings of their water sampling. Agency spokeswoman Kathy Cosco, for example, told the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette:
The elevated levels of TDS and chlorides in the creek indicates oil and gas drilling wastewater.
So what’s the danger in the public and the press knowing the exact numbers?
Despite WVDEP’s secrecy, some data is starting to make it’s way out into the public eye. A story in the Washington (Pa.) Observer-Reporter mentioned a “preliminary report” by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency on the fish kill. The report, the newspaper said, “indicated a likely source may be Consol Energy’s Blacksvlle No. 2 Mine because of high levels of chloride in its waste water.”
The Observer-Reporter didn’t post this report online, but I’m providing it here. EPA spokeswoman Bonnie Smith would want me to explain that it’s not really a preliminary report, but field notes written by one of EPA’s scientists:
These notes were written to share initial information internally and with our state partners who were then, and are now still, investigating the fish kill in Dunkard Creek. This memo is very preliminary analysis.
Normally, memos such as these are internal documents and confidential, but since it was released to a national mining experts at West Virginia University, which is ‘outside the government agencies’ I am also sending it to you – - emphasizing the caveats above.
The EPA memo includes some of the data that WVDEP didn’t want made public, as well as some data from the Pennsylvania DEP, which interestingly enough provided that same information to me this morning without claiming some secret squirrel “ongoing investigation” stuff.
I’d be interested in any thoughts from Coal Tattoo readers about Dunkard Creek and about the findings outlined in this EPA memo … stay tuned.
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Whoever is found responsible, the fines better be prohibitive as a deterrent to other potential offenders in the extractive industries. If it’s a slap on the wrist it could simply encourage future mine or well operators to dump wastewater in streams, a nominal fine being cheaper than proper disposal. Whatever the fine is, it should be steep enough to make the offending mine or well operation a financial loss for the owner.
[...] Blogs @ The Charleston Gazette – » Dead fish on Dunkard Creek … the saga continues blogs.wvgazette.com – view page – cached West Virginia Public Broadcasting reported this morning that the frustration is increasing for residents near Dunkard Creek, along the Pennsylvania border, where an entire stream seems to have been killed by pollution. — From the page [...]
Covert dumping of gas well drilling brine – now that waste water treatment plants are no longer accepting it?
Dear “scott 14″
RE your earlier post about the Dunkard incident — i.e. scott 14 : 09.21.09 at 8:03 pm “…Ms Rank, if it turns out to be a issue with CONSOL then Im sure it will be reported in this blog. If not I would like an apology. …”
Please note the following story on WV Public Radio: http://www.wvpubcast.org/newsarticle.aspx?id=11396
DEP allowed Consol to exceed chloride limits in Dunkard Creek for years
Scientists are looking at extremely high levels of chloride to blame for the fish kill at Dunkard Creek.
By Scott Finn, Emily Corio, Erica Peterson and Ben Adducchio
September 23, 2009 · “Since at least 2002, mining company Consol Energy has been releasing chloride into Dunkard Creek at higher levels than state standards allow. But the West Virginia DEP has repeatedly given the company extra time to comply.
…..”
We shall see when the full story is told just who is responsible for this destructrion and for allowing this atrocity to occur. At this point, I don’t believe i will owe you an apology.
Thanks Ken for your excellent coverage of this on-going travesty.
http://dunkarddied.shutterfly.com/
Photo’s of the Dunkard Creek Disaster.
just because this is a good place for it….
recent paper in the Journal of the North American Benthological Society study the effects of coal mining and agricultural impacts on stream insects, fish and algae in SE Ohio
Use of diatoms to assess agricultural and coal mining impacts on streams and a multiassemblage case study
Nathan J. Smucker1 and Morgan L. Vis2
How many more streams and water wells have to be poisoned before the US Justice Department prosecutes and puts someone in jail? The WV DEP is knowingly allowing people to be poisoned.
I really don’t think anyone who has posted comments about the Dunkard Creek mess owes anyone an apology simply because the comments were made as news and reports were made available. And it seems the WVDEP, as usual, is hiding behind the curtains once again.
I agree with Mr. Cooper that whoever is responsible for this should be heavily fined, and if it was covert dumping the person or persons hauling this stuff should go to jail. There has to be severe consequences suffered for anyone who would illegally dump such hazardous materials for a paycheck.
So if there are no wastewater treatment plants accepting drilling wastewater, what are the drilling companies doing with it? And who is keeping tabs on it/them? We’re talking about vast quantities of seriously toxic water here… I dare say one tanker load could have caused this problem, and one tanker would scarcely be missed amongst the many. I sure hope someone is out there grilling all the area drilling ops. Especially since all I’m hearing is about how it could’ve been the Blacksville mine, but that doesn’t seem to make sense.
One question that I have is why this type of drilling was ever approved by the agencies in charge of this type of thing without even considering what would be done with the wastewater involved with it? It seems to me that there was never a plan out there to deal with these toxins. This is foolishness beyond comprehension, but where making money is concerned rationality seems to always take a back seat.