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OPINIONS
Diane W. Mufson: Contaminated water affecting W.Va., nation
The lead article in the Sept. 13th New York Times had a color photo of 7-year-old Ryan Massey of West Virginia with his mouth wide open. Aside from a couple of missing front teeth, typical for that age, the salient part of this photo is that many of Ryan's teeth have already needed major restoration work.
It wasn't obvious initially why Ryan with his mouth wide open was so prominently displayed, but the headline under his picture, "Clean Water Laws Neglected, at a Cost," made it clear. The newspaper noted Ryan does not come from a poor or isolated Appalachian family, but rather an intact one, where Ryan's mother, Mrs. Hall-Massey is a "senior accountant at one of the state's largest banks."
Water that comes into the Massey home, which is less than 20 miles from our state capital, has been found to be contaminated with pollutants such as arsenic, barium, lead and manganese. This type of contamination is severely affecting the water we use daily not only in our state, but also in much of the nation.
The article written by Charles Duhigg is largely centered on a Charleston-area community that was identified in an Associated Press article in The Herald-Dispatch as Prenter, in Boone County. Over 250 residents there have sued nine coal companies in the area because contaminated water isn't fit to drink or bathe in.
The New York Times noted that "As required by state law, some of the companies had disclosed ... that they were pumping into the ground illegal concentrations of chemicals -- the same pollutants that flowed from residents' taps. But state regulators never fined or punished the companies for breaking those pollution laws."
Mr. Duhigg's article reports that West Virginia is definitely not alone in water pollution and compliance problems. Other states are also fouling their drinking and household water. For example, Wisconsin and California have used "liquefied animal feces" as fertilizer and places in Illinois, Kansas, Missouri and Indiana have used pesticides so concentrated that they could be linked to birth defects.
The Massey family reported that their water was fine until about a decade ago even though they live in a coal mining area. The New York Times noted that "in the eight miles surrounding Mrs. Hall-Massey's home, coal companies have injected more than 1.9 billion gallons of coal slurry and sludge into the ground since 2004."
Some coal companies reported that "93 percent of the waste they injected near this community had illegal concentrations of arsenic, lead, chromium, beryllium or nickel." The companies also reported they had never been warned or fined for this.
"West Virginia officials, when asked about these violations, said regulators had accidentally overlooked many pollution records the companies submitted until after the statute of limitations had passed, so no action was taken." Convenient.
We all know that industry and especially coal is important to this state and that our economy is largely dependent on it. As the ads often say, "Coal keeps the lights on." But the water we drink and use in our homes is also vital.
West Virginia was the New York Times' poster child for the negatives that are happening to our nation's water supply. There has to be a way, albeit expensive, for industry and individuals to both safely use our nation's water supply. We West Virginians can't take care of our country's pollution woes, but it is high time that we take care of the water in our own backyard.
Diane W. Mufson is a licensed psychologist in Huntington. She is a former citizen member of The Herald-Dispatch editorial board and a regular contributor to The Herald-Dispatch editorial page. Her e-mail is dwmufson@comcast.net
