Massey Lawsuit: Over 700 Allege Mining Company Poisoned Their Water With Coal Slurry
MORGANTOWN, W.Va. — Eighteen months ago, Christina Doyle packed up her two kids for an eight-hour journey to a West Virginia courthouse, hoping for some resolution to a lawsuit over water pollution she believes caused her daughter's learning disabilities and slow growth.
This weekend, the 32-year-old who now lives in South Carolina is doing it again. And so will hundreds of others who believe Virginia-based Massey Energy Co. and subsidiary Rawl Sales & Processing have poisoned their water wells with 1.4 billion gallons of toxic coal slurry.
The company has denied wrongdoing, though residents say the proof flows from their faucets as red, orange or black water. They say the chemicals in slurry have left them and their children with developmental disabilities, cancers and other maladies.
The current and former residents of Rawl, Lick Creek, Sprigg and Merrimac are suing Massey for injecting slurry into 1,000 acres of former underground mines between 1978 and 1987. Slurry is created when coal is washed to help it burn more efficiently.
Massey attorney Dan Stickler did not respond to several requests for comment from The Associated Press. The company has defended the practice in court documents, arguing mineral rights agreements dating to 1889 give it "the full right to take and use all water found on the premises."
The state Department of Environmental Protection has imposed a temporary ban on new injection sites. Earlier this year, a team of West Virginia University researchers advised lawmakers to start monitoring coal slurry, even though they could not conclusively demonstrate a hazard to public health.
All Christina Doyle wants is what's best for her daughter, whose monthly drugs and daily hormone injections would cost more than $3,000 without insurance. Savannah was born without a pituitary gland, which is in the brain and regulates the body's growth hormones.
"I did not do drugs. I did everything right. I took prenatal vitamins," Doyle says. "I can't think of anything else it could have been but the water."
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