Public Drinking Water Violations in Mountaintop Coal Mining Areas of West Virginia, USA

Hendryx, Michael; Fulk, Florence; McGinley, Andrea

doi:10.1007/s12403-012-0075-x

Cited by 13 publications

(9 citation statements)

References 15 publications

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“…Hendryx et al (2012a) found significantly more drinking water violations at water treatment facilities near MTR-mining activities (73.0 violations/system) than near non-surface coal mining activities (16.7 violations/system) and control areas (10.2 violations/system). The contamination violation types included: organic compounds, coliform, disinfection by-products, inorganic elements/compounds, radium, lead, and copper (Hendryx et al 2012a). A quarterly monitoring program for domestic wells located near active mining operations found differences in iron and total suspended solids concentrations during a three-week period during blasting events (OSMRE 2002).…”

Section: Exposures From Mtr-miningmentioning

confidence: 91%

“…Details of these studies are presented in Table 3. Three of these studies compared mining sites with reference/control sites to determine if there was significantly more contamination due to MTR-mining activities (Hendryx et al 2012a; Kurth et al 2015; Kurth et al 2014). One study monitored water quality before and during a blasting event to determine if mining introduced contaminants (OSMRE 2002).…”

Section: Exposures From Mtr-miningmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Systematic review of community health impacts of mountaintop removal mining

Boyles

Blain

Rochester

et al. 2017

Environment International

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Background The objective of this evaluation is to understand the human health impacts of mountaintop removal (MTR) mining, the major method of coal mining in and around Central Appalachia. MTR mining impacts the air, water, and soil and raises concerns about potential adverse health effects in neighboring communities;exposures associated with MTR mining include particulate matter (PM), polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs), metals, hydrogen sulfide, and other recognized harmful substances. Methods A systematic review was conducted of published studies of MTR mining and community health, occupational studies of MTR mining, and any available animal and in vitro experimental studies investigating the effects of exposures to MTR-mining-related chemical mixtures. Six databases (Embase, PsycINFO, PubMed, Scopus, Toxline, and Web of Science) were searched with customized terms, and no restrictions on publication year or language, through October 27, 2016. The eligibility criteria included all human population studies and animal models of human health, direct and indirect measures of MTR-mining exposure, any health-related effect or change in physiological response, and any study design type. Risk of bias was assessed for observational and experimental studies using an approach developed by the National Toxicology Program (NTP) Office of Health Assessment and Translation (OHAT). To provide context for these health effects, a summary of the exposure literature is included that focuses on describing findings for outdoor air, indoor air, and drinking water. Results From a literature search capturing 3088 studies, 33 human studies (29 community, four occupational), four experimental studies (two in rat, one in vitro and in mice, one in C. elegans), and 58 MTR mining exposure studies were identified. A number of health findings were reported in observational human studies, including cardiopulmonary effects, mortality, and birth defects. However, concerns for risk of bias were identified, especially with respect to exposure characterization, accounting for confounding variables (such as socioeconomic status), and methods used to assess health outcomes. Typically, exposure was assessed by proximity of residence or hospital to coal mining or production level at the county level. In addition, assessing the consistency of findings was challenging because separate publications likely included overlapping case and comparison groups. For example, 11 studies of mortality were conducted with most reporting higher rates associated with coal mining, but many of these relied on the same national datasets and were unable to consider individual-level contributors to mortality such as poor socioeconomic status or smoking. Two studies of adult rats reported impaired microvascular and cardiac mitochondrial function after intratracheal exposure to PM from MTR-mining sites. Exposures associated with MTR mining included reports of PM levels that sometimes exceeded Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) standards; higher levels of dust, tra...

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Section: Exposures From Mtr-miningmentioning

confidence: 91%

Section: Exposures From Mtr-miningmentioning

confidence: 99%

Systematic review of community health impacts of mountaintop removal mining

Boyles

Blain

Rochester

et al. 2017

Environment International

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“…The studies cited above provide some insight into these questions. Another suggestive but incomplete piece of evidence comes from an analysis of water quality violations in public water systems in West Virginia (Hendryx et al, 2012a). Using data from the Environmental Protection Agency's Safe Drinking Water Information System, the study examined violations in public water systems for the period 2001-2009 comparing public systems in MTR versus other parts of the state.…”

Section: Environmental Conditions In Mining Communitiesmentioning

confidence: 99%

The public health impacts of surface coal mining

Hendryx

2015

The Extractive Industries and Society

Self Cite

104

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“…Community residents surrounded by these pollution sources are often low-income, have high unemployment, and are living with poor health conditions [1,4,15,16,[34][35][36][37][38][39]. High or increased environmental law violations, including public drinking water violations, have also been found in these areas [40][41][42].…”

Section: Section 12 Literature Reviewmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Watersheds are negatively impacted by untreated and undertreated mine discharges due to the concentration of pollutants from multiple sources draining into the watershed. Academic research into this area has found associations between coal mining in watersheds and impacts on resident drinking water from both private and public water sources [41,49]. A watershed approach to coal mining reclamation is particularly crucial to environmental protection in West Virginia because of the state's responsibilities to designate and improve impaired watersheds under 303(d) of the Clean Water Act.…”

Section: Watershed Impacts From Coal Miningmentioning

confidence: 99%

Coal Mine Remediation as a Tool to Improve Disparate Coal Mining Impacts in Appalachian Communities Utilizing a Community Health Assessment Conceptual Model

Surber¹

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The coalfields region of central Appalachia bears the unfortunate hallmark characteristics of low socioeconomic status, poor health outcomes, and some of the lowest life expectancies in the United States, making some residents potentially part of vulnerable health populations. Vulnerability impacts the ability of individuals to respond or recover from stressorsparticularly environmental pollution-not as well as other individuals. Moreover, the economic outlook for the region is grim, given that the international coal mining industry has experienced serious recent downturns, and increased production from the natural gas sector has made coalfired power production domestically less competitive. As a result, many of the larger coal companies are in or have recently been in bankruptcy, leaving coal mining states at risk for large-scale forfeitures and abandoned coal mines. In 2016, the West Virginia Department of Environmental Protection (WVDEP) estimated that coal operators in the bankruptcy process held over 900 mine site permits, leaving sites in various stages of mining. Unremediated coal mines may pose a risk for safety and discharge pollutants into surface waters, potentially impacting water quality. Given that the communities near coal mines may constitute vulnerable health populations, the impacts of pollution stressors pose a serious public health concern. Coal mining states should prioritize the remediation of forfeited and abandoned coal mines due to these concerns. However, serious financial limitations may impact the states' abilities to remediate these sites. Under the Surface Mining Control and Reclamation Act (SMCRA), coal mine operators are required to post full financial assurance that the mine site will be remediated to environmental performance standards. If a coal mine operator abandons a site without fully remediating the environmental impacts, the state becomes responsible for the reclamation. However, due to the ways states administer the bond programs under SMCRA, they may have limited financial and administrative resources to remediate all existing abandoned coal mines, and the possibility of future abandoned sites may strain those resources further. These issues of available remediation resources is compounded by the disparate impacts of coal mining between the counties, as well the watersheds. In West Virginia, disparities exists between the counties for the amount of acres impacted by coal mining, with higher levels of mined acres occurring in counties with the poorest health rankings. In addition, some counties and watersheds are much more impacted by the costs of under-secured reclamation bonding. Counties with the worst health outcome rankings have the greatest amounts of potential risks for under-secured coal mine bonding. As a result, vulnerable health populations may live in areas where the state does not have adequate financial assurance to remediate abandoned coal mines and the watersheds heavily impacted by mining, placing these residents at further risk for long-term environmenta...

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Public Drinking Water Violations in Mountaintop Coal Mining Areas of West Virginia, USA

Cited by 13 publications

References 15 publications

Systematic review of community health impacts of mountaintop removal mining

Systematic review of community health impacts of mountaintop removal mining

The public health impacts of surface coal mining

Coal Mine Remediation as a Tool to Improve Disparate Coal Mining Impacts in Appalachian Communities Utilizing a Community Health Assessment Conceptual Model

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