Charleston, W.Va. - Cabinet Secretary Randy Huffman distributed the West Virginia Department of Environmental Protection's portion of Senate Concurrent Resolution-15 to the legislature today. The resolution called for the DEP to study the impact of coal slurry injection on ground and surface water in the state.

While the study found no evidence that coal slurry injection, by itself, affects surface water quality, Huffman is issuing a moratorium on the approval of coal slurry injection into mine voids in which it has not previously been approved.

"None of the sites chosen for the hydrologic assessment showed water quality impacts to surface waters caused by coal slurry injection alone," Huffman said. "However, the study did point out areas where improvements can be made in the Underground Injection Program. While the Department of Health and Human Resources conducts its portion of the study, we will be making changes to our permitting program and gathering more information from the operators."

In addition to the moratorium, the study calls for recommendations such as requiring site-specific groundwater monitoring during the injection process, requiring a full baseline survey for organic constituents and heavy metals for all nearby surface and groundwater resources for all new permits and monitoring wells within a half mile of the mine pools receiving injection.

Slurry is a by-product of solid material and liquid used to clean dirt, mud and other material from coal once it is mined. Slurry injection is the practice of piping the mixture into an inactive underground mine cavity.

Once injected, the coal fines, rock, and other heavy materials settle to the bottom of the mine pool, creating what is known as the solid portion of the slurry. The liquid portion then mixes with the water in the mine pool.

The study found that mine pools that receive injection show constituents in the pool that migrate from the slurry into the water in the pool, but none of those constituents were found in the surface water tested.

The study also points out that because slurry has many of the same properties as coal, it is nearly impossible to tell whether the compounds found in some mine pool water were caused by slurry or previous mining related disturbances.

However, it was found that finished consumable water from two public water systems that draw water from a mine that receives slurry injection met the Environmental Protection Agency's Primary Drinking Water Standards.

The samples collected and analyzed by this study will be given to the DHHR to use as it takes up its part of the study. A copy of the study is available on the DEP's website at: www.wvdep.org/dmr/slurrystudy