Press Release

January 13, 2009

Contacts: Frank Preece: 304-752-9620; Patricia Feeney: 304-360-2110; Matt Lewis-Rosenburg: 304-854-1937 or 304-854-2182

Citizens to DEP: Prove that Sludge is Safe

CHARLESTON, W.VA. Last night, more than 30 people from seven West Virginia counties gathered at the Department of Environmental Protection headquarters in Kanawha City for a public hearing on a permit application by Band Mill Coal Corp. The permit would allow the company to pump coal waste slurry underground in Logan County (Application Number 1230-08-045).

I would like to know what proof they have that this method is safe, said Jane Davies, of Kanawha County.

Many in attendance voiced concerns for potential health effects from slurry leaching into drinking water, and recalled past water contamination problems in Prenter, Boone County and Rawl, Mingo County and other parts of the state.

We are not anti-mining, we are pro-clean water, said Frank Preece of Logan County. I have city water, but there are chemicals involved here that may not be filtered out at the treatment plant. And I am concerned about my neighbor who is on well water.

Preece went on to explain the need for clean water in order to attract future businesses to the area and to allow young people to come back after college.

There are safer ways to process coal that do not risk peoples health or put poisons into the drinking water, said Joe Stanley of Prichard, West Virginia. We pressed out the water from the slurry and trucked the left over filter cakes to be properly stored in a contained landfill. The technology is available and cost effective.

Stanley worked from 1984-1986 at Marrowbone Development in Mingo County as a dry press filter operator.

While coal is being mined, we want it to be mined safe, we want it to be mined right, said Chuck Nelson, a retired union coal miner and board member of the Huntington-based Ohio Valley Environmental Coalition.

Nelson held up a jar of black water from a residence in Boone County. By requiring this permit to be processed with dry press, you could save peoples lives, you could clean up our rivers, and you could give West Virginia a future.

To learn more about underground slurry injections, go to www.sludgesafety.org.