DEP seeks list of coal preparation products

CHARLESTON, W.Va. — The West Virginia Department of Environmental Protection wants to know what products coal operators are using in their preparation plant process and at what levels.   Acting Director of the agency’s Division of Mining and Reclamation Harold Ward issued an order last week to all 90 prep plants in West Virginia for the information and gave them sixty days to produce the list.

“We are requiring them to identify all possible chemical components of the products they use in processing that may turn up in the discharge to the streams,” said DEP Spokesperson Kelly Gillenwater.

The state already requires reporting of the chemicals used, but many of those chemicals already have limits built into the mining permit.  Gillenwater said some of the products fall outside the realm of those chemicals identified in the permits.  However, they shouldn’t be present at all in the effluent if they are being used properly.

“These products are supposed to be used in very small quantities.  They are actually drip fed into the process,” she said. “If they are used correctly we shouldn’t actually see any detectable limits of that in the discharge into the streams.”

However, there is evidence at least in sporadic cases those materials are turning up in the water.  Last year, following the Freedom Industries chemical spill along with another accidental release of MCHM into the Kanawha River at another location, DEP tested a number of the discharges at coal preparation facilities around the state.

“Last year we tested all of the discharge outlets at all of the coal prep plants and there were some hits,” Gillenwater said. “There were a handful of detectable materials found in the effluent.”

Gillenwater said it has always been the goal of DEP to protect West Virginia streams, but admitted after the Freedom Incident there has been a renewed look at better protecting water quality in the state.