DEP OKs adding 2,300+ acres to Wyoming County mine permit, provoking community ire

Under the revised permit, Brooks Run South Mining could discharge into Shop Branch and Wolf Pen Branch and their tributaries, as well as the Guyandotte River.

The permit revision drew heavy criticism through written public comments and at a July 16 meeting the DEP held at the Casteel Events Center in Pineville from area residents and clean water advocates who protested what they contend has been lax DEP oversight of Indian Creek mining operations contributing to compromised water quality that has stained everyday lives in the area a relentless red.

Ernest Hall Jr., who lives near Shop Branch, indicated to the DEP at the conference that he feared drainage from Shop Branch tributaries across his property, noting he has a well and a fish pond.

Hall expressed disappointment with the decision to the Gazette-Mail Wednesday, predicting the newly revised permit would compromise his well, fish pond and animals’ well-being. Hall said the permit is in the right fork of a hollow that drains across his property.

“I feel like the DEP — who is supposed to protect citizens — is giving them the permit no matter what,� Hall said.

All 20.2 miles of Indian Creek in the Upper Guyandotte River watershed are impaired and have been listed as such since 2008, according to DEP records.

Mariah Clay, Southern West Virginia coordinator for West Virginia Rivers Coalition had objected to the permit revision proposal at the Pineville meeting, billed by the DEP as an ‘informal conference.’ Responding to the DEP’s approval Thursday, Clay said that residents deserve better and that the agency’s decision deepens a water crisis in Wyoming County.

‘Rather than prioritizing long-overdue cleanup, DEP is permitting additional pollution,� Clay said. “This mine expansion ignores both the Clean Water Act’s intent and the community’s pleas for safe water.�

'This is very personal'

A groundwater inventory identified 93 domestic groundwater users within a half-mile radius of the proposed permit revision area, all of whom depend on wells as their primary water source, according to a DEP hydrologic impact assessment.

Nearly all 70 area respondents who reported on their water quality in DEP questionnaires said their well-sourced water stained their sinks, toilets and tubs red, according to a Gazette-Mail review of the completed questionnaires. Many said the water stained their clothes red, too.

Most of the respondents said their water was put to all uses, including drinking, cooking, washing, bathing, household and outside use, though some said they didn’t use it for drinking and cooking. Most of the questionnaires were submitted for residences in Indian Creek or Davy in Wyoming County. The samples recorded by True-Line, Inc. typically came from kitchen sinks or outside faucets. Many respondents who reported sink, toilet and tub stains from water nonetheless reported their water quality as fair or good.

Wendy Ziliak, a Georgia resident whose sisters, uncle, nieces and nephews live in New Richmond, a Wyoming County community where the Guyandotte River flows through their backyards, has long believed poor water quality is what led to the deaths of family members who lived in the area. Ziliak recalled her cousin and her cousin’s mother died on dialysis with kidney failure and her mother died of kidney failure and suffered from open leg sores that wouldn’t heal.

“I believe [they wouldn’t heal] because we used the tap water to clean them,� Ziliak told the Gazette-Mail on Thursday.

Ziliak objected to the proposed permit revision at the DEP’s Pineville meeting.

“This is very personal for me,� Ziliak said Thursday.

The DEP has held that data collected by the agency haven’t indicated any public health or safety issues related to mine water discharges in the area. The agency has said results show parameters associated with coal mining activity are meeting state water quality standard criteria for both aquatic life and human health.

Area water testing results have shown levels of iron, manganese and aluminum well above reporting limits.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has assigned iron, manganese and aluminum secondary maximum contaminant levels — guidelines to help public water systems manage drinking water for aesthetic considerations, like taste, color and odor.

Contaminants aren’t considered to pose a human health risk at the secondary maximum contaminant level, according to the EPA.

Noticeable effects of secondary maximum contaminant level exceedance for iron include a rusty color, metallic taste and reddish or orange staining, according to the EPA. Manganese exceedance yields a black to brown color, black staining and a bitter metallic taste.

DEP sampling of Indian Creek has showed the presence of E. coli and fecal coliform, contaminants that come only from human and animal fecal waste and are used to indicate whether other potentially harmful bacteria could be present.

Unlike secondary drinking water standards, E. coli and fecal coliform have legally enforceable primary standards. Their maximum contaminant level is zero. Disease-causing microbes in E. coli and fecal coliform can cause diarrhea, cramps, nausea and headaches.

Just because the creek “had some issues� isn’t necessarily cause for denying a permit under the federal Clean Water Act, Dustin Johnson, DEP Division of Mining and Reclamation environmental resources manager, said at the DEP’s Pineville meeting.

'I am angry' 

Last week, Colin Henkes, a DEP Division of Mining and Reclamation geologist, signed off on a determination in the agency’s hydrologic impact assessment that the mine permit revision is “designed to prevent material damage to the hydrologic balance outside the permit area and should be approved.�

Citing the DEP’s assessment of the surface water impact area encompassing the Guyandotte River and Indian Creek watersheds, application information and “the assumption� that Brooks Run South would “properly manage potentially acidic and toxic materials,� the DEP determined proposed operations “are not expected to have any notable additional cumulative effect� on the hydrology of the Guyandotte River and Indian Creek watersheds.

DEP permit reviewer Frank Rose, a Division of Mining and Reclamation engineer, said the application would comply with state surface coal mining and reclamation requirements in a determination signed on Aug. 14.

Those wary of the mining permit revision proposal criticized the DEP for its Pineville meeting format, which consisted of stations where individuals or small groups could cycle through connections with agency representatives rather than gathering all attendees together to ask questions and hear answers as one body.

The DEP’s decision to approve the permit revision may be appealed to the West Virginia Surface Mine Board in a form provided by the board within 30 days after the permit is received.

“I am angry that our attempted participation in the public comment and conference process for Brooks Run South Mining had no effect on the final outcome despite public opposition and concerns,� Ziliak said.

'We do not trust them'

A subsidence inventory for the proposed Brooks Run South Mining permit revision identified 175 gas wells and associated gas lines, one gas transmission line, 43 streams, 229 residential dwellings, two cemeteries, 10 utility lines, seven county routes and one railroad, according to DEP records.

Brooks Run South Mining will conduct a pre-subsidence survey of the residences six months prior to “the undermining of each,� per DEP records.

No mining is proposed within 100 feet of the gas wells, and any mining conducted within 500 feet of a gas well will comply with state and federal mine safety requirements, according to DEP records.

No damage is anticipated by the subsidence of this mine, but if there is damage, Brooks Run South Mining would correct any subsidence to residential structures and cemeteries, per DEP records.

Mining-related damage has been lasting for Tina Christian, who is a plaintiff, along with her husband James Christian, in a federal lawsuit alleging coal firms, including U.S. Sen. Jim Justice, R-W.Va.’s Bluestone Resources Inc., are responsible for water pollution that has wrecked their property. Brooks Run South Mining is a defendant in the case.

The lawsuit followed an unauthorized eruption of dirty mine water that flooded the Christians’ yard in February 2023, destroying their heat pump and furnace, loosening their floors, leaving black mold in insulation under their trailer and a nostril-piercing, rotten-egg smell outside their door.

Christian has said the smell is overwhelming and complained of headaches, dizziness, ringing ears and bumps breaking out on her tongue.

Christian panned the DEP’s Brooks Run South Mining permit revision approval Wednesday, calling the agency’s Pineville conference “only an attempt to coddle us.�

“[O]ur concerns were blatantly ignored, our cries for help from an agency that is supposed to protect the environment silenced,� Christian said. “As if our trust in the DEP wasn’t already damaged, this only solidified the reasons we do not trust them.�