Despite water quality fears, DEP set to add 2,300+ acres on Wyoming Co. mine permit

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.

“There is a very low level of confidence in drinking water safety, which has been demonstrated, and this confidence has the potential to have health impacts,� Dr. Joanna Bailey, a Wyoming County-based physician, told the DEP at a recent agency meeting on the pending permit revision proposal, for which public notice was published in May. “I worry what additional mining and additional discharge of mine discharge into our air, rivers and stream will do — one — to the actual quality of the water in Wyoming County, but — two — the confidence of the people of Wyoming County to drink their tap water.�

Bailey was speaking at a July 16 open-house informal conference the DEP held at the Casteel Event Center in Pineville to take public comments about the proposed permit revision. The event drew area residents and clean water advocates who protested what they contend has been lax DEP oversight of Indian Creek-area mining operations contributing to compromised water quality that has stained their everyday lives a relentless red.

In recent years, residents have reported odorous tap water, often red but ranging from orange to black, ruining their clothes and causing skin rashes. Residents have attributed the deaths of deer, chickens and other animals to water contamination. Community residents have fended for themselves, distributing bottled water to fellow residents who don’t trust their own water supply.

“I ask that DEP consider remediating [Indian Creek] before allowing more discharges,� Mariah Clay, southern West Virginia coordinator for the West Virginia Rivers Coalition, said at the informal conference.

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.

But 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 previously submitted a written comment fearing potential water discharges on his property.

“I[‘m] oppose[d] to more stuff being dumped in our water,� Christina Day told the DEP in a written comment submitted in May, nearly two months before the informal conference, saying community livestock and wildlife had been “[p]oisoned enough.�

DEP impact assessment signs off on the permit revision

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.

But on Thursday, 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, determined the application would comply with state surface coal mining and reclamation requirements in a determination signed on Aug. 14.

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.

Residents’ focus about compromised water quality beyond the Marianna Slope Mine permit boundaries resulted in a broader focus at last month’s informal conference.

Agency officials denied at the gathering that illegal mining has been taking place at Twin Falls Resort State Park in Wyoming County after fielding reports from area residents of orange, oily water laden with surfactants seeping out of the ground below falls at the park.

After the meeting, Terry Fletcher, DEP chief communications officer, told the Gazette-Mail there is no evidence that underground mining in the park has caused or contributed to iron-laden seepage documented at Twin Falls State Park.

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.

Fletcher previously said the orange color in water residents have reported below the falls is likely being caused by the oxidation and settling of mineral deposits, notably iron. Visible foaming and sheening is likely caused by the breakdown of organic matter and the presence of iron- and sulfate-reducing bacteria, naturally occurring organisms found in soils, Fletcher has said.

Fletcher acknowledged that mining has occurred within the park boundary, roughly 2,500 feet from the falls, on a permit for Consol Mining Company LLC’s Itmann No. 5 Mine. Fletcher said the mine is idled and not currently operating.

The idea that someone could conduct underground mining beneath a state park without detection is highly unlikely, Fletcher contended, noting that underground mining requires access points, ventilation and water management systems, all of which he said would be evident to mining inspectors, park staff and the public.

Contending with 'raw sewage' in water 

The DEP has issued Brooks Run South Mining, which could not be reached for comment, four new mine permits since 2023 in Wyoming County. The agency hasn’t issued any permit violation notices to the company in that time frame.

That’s little consolation for residents and advocates who say they can’t stand the water the DEP is regulating.

“The smell alone will knock you back,� Clay said at the DEP’s Pineville conference.

Dustin Johnson, a DEP Division of Mining and Reclamation environmental resources manager, said at the conference the DEP had heard reports of wildlife dying but couldn’t verify them.

“We’ve asked many people. We’ve heard [reports of] chickens dying, we’ve heard [of] deer [dying]. We’ve not seen a carcass. [The] DNR, we’ve talked to them, the Department of Ag[riculture], we cannot just go off of ‘this thing’s died’ without some evidence and some toxicology reports to show causation,� Johnson said.

Johnson acknowledged that Indian Creek is impaired and doesn’t meet designated water uses.

“There are biological impairments,� Johnson said. “There are fecal coliform bacteria, which is basically raw sewage.�

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, Johnson said.

“[W]e need to make sure those clean water permits are held to a standard that those discharges won’t do any degradation of that stream, so they won’t make that stream worse,� Johnson added.

Fletcher said after the meeting the DEP was formalizing a plan to complete reclamation of three other Wyoming County mine site permits that have driven community concerns for which the agency issued revocation orders to Pinnacle Mining Company LLC on June 19.

Fletcher said reclamation would include sealing open mine shafts and management of a mine pool.

'More pollution is not the solution'

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.

Environmental advocates say too much damage already has been done.

“Just allowing more pollution is not the solution to any problem whatsoever,� Monroe County landowner and prominent regional environmental activist Maury Johnson told the DEP at its Pineville conference. “Please deny [the permit revision] for this additional discharge. People’s lives in Wyoming County and everywhere downstream depend upon it.�