The state Department of Environmental Protection’s Eighth Annual West Virginia Environmental Teachers of the Year Awards were handed out recently to elementary, middle and high school educators.
The West Virginia Department of Environmental Protection’s (WVDEP) Eighth Annual West Virginia Environmental Teachers of the Year Awards were handed out recently to elementary, middle and high school educators.
The teachers are being honored for going above and beyond in promoting environmental awareness in their classrooms, schools and communities, said Tom Aluise of the Youth Environmental Program at the West Virginia Department of Environmental Protection.
“Maybe their parents have already made up their minds about things,” Aluise said. “But these students, they’re teachable, and they’re in some cases like sponges. So if we can give them the tools that they need and the information that they need to make the right decisions about the environment, that’s what we’re hopeful of doing.”
Tracy Arnold of Leading Creek Elementary in Lewis County works with her students on an annual stream study of Leading Creek. Her young citizen scientists analyze water quality data and report their findings to the WVDEP. Arnold also organizes litter cleanups on the creek.
“She also organizes this really wonderful festival on World Water Day, which is in March every year,” Aluise said. “She involves the entire school and brings in different presenters from environmental agencies, and they interact with the kids. It’s turned into a really, really big day, and she organizes that every year.”
Cindy Booth of Kermit PK-8 in Mingo County helps her students maintain seven raised beds on campus, where they grow vegetables and incorporate sustainable gardening practices along the way. In addition, Booth’s classes are responsible for upkeep on the school’s pollinator garden.
“She’s really special because Mingo County doesn’t have a recycling center,” Aluise said. “She actually lives across the river in Kentucky, so she collects recyclables at her school and actually transfers them herself to her recycling center that she uses in Kentucky. She’s setting a great example for her students.”
Melody Hubbard of Clay County High School was selected for her work in forming the Buffalo Creek Watershed Club at her school. She brought together students from all backgrounds to unite for a common cause – learning about past and current water quality issues in Buffalo Creek. The club works with state agencies to improve the watershed through proactive approaches, such as monitoring and stream cleanups. Buffalo Creek is a tributary of the Elk River.
“They’ve learned a lot about the past history of that area, how that history has impacted water quality on Buffalo Creek,” Aluise said. “They’re doing their part to improve the water quality there and the community there in Clay County.”
All three teachers will receive a $500 personal award and a $1,000 check to promote STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Math) education at their schools.
The United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) allocated $646,000 to Preston County for facility improvements and more than 5,000 feet of water line expansions.
The United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has allocated $646,000 to water infrastructure improvements in Preston County.
The new EPA funding for Preston County Public Service District #1 — based in Arthurdale — will go toward facility improvements at a local water plant, and help construct more than 5,000 feet of new water lines.
The water line expansion seeks to bolster water access across the county.
Plus, it aims to ensure that pressurized water is readily available for combating wildfires. Preston County was one of several areas in the eastern region of the state affected by a series of March wildfires.
In a press release Tuesday, Sen. Shelley Moore Capito voiced her support for improvements to the region’s water infrastructure.
“Projects like this will improve the existing infrastructure and provide the community with more reliable water service,” she said. “I look forward to seeing it completed.”
Residents of Wyoming County, West Virginia, say there’s something wrong with a local creek. One resident says fish are dying, and even pets.
This conversation originally aired in the June 2, 2024 episode of Inside Appalachia.
Residents of Wyoming County, West Virginia, say there’s something wrong with a local creek.
One resident, Dakota Day, says fish are dying, and even pets. He recently spoke with Mountain State Spotlight reporter Erin Beck.
“You see all these chicken pens?” Day said to Beck. “Every one of these was full of roosters last year.”
Day gave his roosters creek water. But he noticed “white stuff coming down the creek, all oily.” Then, “all my roosters got sick and died.”
Dakota Day (left) and his sister Christina (wearing the brown coat) receive a bottled water donation from Richard Altizer (middle) and James Christian (right).
Inside Appalachia Host Mason Adams reached out to Beck to learn more.
The transcript below has been lightly edited for clarity.
Adams: Your story in Mountain State Spotlight is about a community along Indian Creek in Wyoming County, West Virginia. What happened there?
Beck: More than a year ago, a Wyoming County resident, James Christian, found his backyard was flooded. It turned out to be an eruption of mine water from underground. It was about two feet high. It was rising so rapidly that his friend Richard Altizer had to run over and help him dig a ditch to nearby Indian Creek to keep it from seeping into their house. They have black mold in their house because of it.
I found out about it because during the end of the recent [West Virginia] legislative session, Del. Adam Vance, who represents Wyoming County, pleaded with his other lawmakers in a floor speech for help. He said he had tried every avenue, different state agencies, and it had been going on for a year. He hadn’t been able to see a resolution. So as soon as I heard about it, I went straight to the Capitol to ask him about it. He told me who I should talk to in the community. I traveled there as soon as I could. I saw and heard some things that were very alarming to me.
One family told me that their water comes out of the spigot black in the mornings. Lots of people told me that since the mine water had started seeping into the nearby Indian Creek that it had gotten into their well water, and they were very sick because of it. A lot of people described nausea and chronic fatigue. They can’t let their kids fish both because of safety concerns, and because the fish are dying.
At the Christians’ house, there’s still an overwhelming smell of sulfur. It makes James’s wife so sick that she’s mostly bedridden. One couple that does have an expensive water filtration system showed me that, even after the water had been filtered numerous times, it was still brownish yellow, and they’re expected to drink it. Bottled water is donated, sometimes, but not enough to use every day, [and] not enough for showers and laundry. Richard told me that independent testing showed there was arsenic in the water. I myself could see that the creek was not a normal creek. There was slime floating on the water. There was foam on the water. James and Richard showed me a picture of a dead deer that they had gotten along the river bank; they actually saw that its veins were bright yellow.
West Virginia Department of Environmental Protection workers collect water samples from Indian Creek, which dirty mine water flows into in Wyoming County.
Photo Credit: Erin Beck
Adams: All that sounds like a terrible mess. The agency in West Virginia that’s responsible for environmental compliance is the Department of Environmental Protection (DEP). How has it responded to this issue?
Beck: Shortly after this event happened, the DEP filed a lawsuit against the owner of the Pinnacle Mining Complex. The Pinnacle Mining Complex is an inactive mine. They found that flooding within it was causing so much pressure that it burst upward through a former household well in James’ backyard. They filed a lawsuit against Pinn MC Wind Down Co., which owns the Pinnacle Mining Complex. But then the DEP allowed the coal company to dig another ditch rather than the ditch that Richard and James had dug. That still resulted in the mine water reaching Indian Creek. The DEP is also conducting water sampling. I saw that they were conducting water sampling while I was there. But in the meantime, people are still sick and getting sicker.
Adams: And it sounds like this has potential to be a bit bigger issue. Indian Creek flows into the Guyandotte River and eventually down to the Ohio River. But it does sound like there’s not been an easy fix.
Beck: Mountain State Spotlight has reported in the past on some of the reasons why this sort of thing isn’t easy to fix. We’ve reported that courts have been allowing coal companies that are dealing with the inevitable decline of the coal industry by going bankrupt and then establishing spin-off companies [and] are allowing them to evade responsibility because of that bankruptcy.
We’ve also reported that public officials haven’t prepared for the decline of the coal industry by preserving enough money to pay for environmental restoration in places like Wyoming County. Coal companies in the area have also been blaming each other. Once DEP filed the lawsuit, the spin-off company accused Bluestone Resources, which is a company that’s owned by the governor’s family, of being responsible because it had purchased the flooding mine, Pinnacle Mining Complex.
Bluestone countered that they weren’t responsible because, when they purchased it, they didn’t assume responsibility for any and all violations. Then Bluestone sued another mining company that’s right there in the area, Alpha Metallurgical Resources. So that’s resulted in the case being delayed and delayed. It’s more than a year later, and the problem is just getting worse. And meanwhile, none of the coal companies that I contacted responded to me about what they plan to do.
Adams: What’s the current status of the court situation?
Beck: The judge ordered all three companies that are playing a part in this to secure and seal the mine shafts to prevent the flooding. They haven’t done it because they’re still arguing about who’s responsible. There have been several hearings where the companies are supposed to update the judge on what kind of progress they’ve made, but they basically keep evading blame or saying they need more time. After my story came out last month, there was another status hearing, but they asked for more time once again.
James Christian, of Wyoming County, points out that foam is visible on Indian Creek, which he said has contributed to sickness in the community and animal deaths.
Photo Credit: Erin Beck
Adams: So has the problem been fixed? Are residents seeing any difference?
Beck: No. It’s actually getting worse since the story came out. I checked in with one woman who I had spoken to when I was in Wyoming County. She said previously her water didn’t come out black in the morning, like some other residents had experienced. But her water now is coming out black in the morning. Now she’s sick with extreme nausea and fatigue. She even told me that she recently went on a trip to another county, and she felt like her old self again. She said her energy was restored and she felt like a healthy person. As soon as she got back to Wyoming County and had to rely on the water there again, she was back to being sick.
I’ve also seen videos on Facebook. Richard, who I mentioned earlier, has taken the lead on attempting to organize the community around demanding that the coal companies and DDP take responsibility. He posts videos that show that the Indian Creek is looking worse since it was when I visited it. There are places where the creek water itself is black now. Meanwhile, there’s concern that it is flowing into the Guyandotte River. People were telling me that they were affected now and weren’t necessarily affected even a month ago. So the problem is obviously spreading.
I also just wanted to mention that I’ve been a West Virginia resident my entire life, and I always hear about environmental problems in the southern coalfields. I’ve read stories about people being concerned about health problems or the quality of their water. But it really took being there for me to understand the gravity of the issue. Just hearing the disillusionment and the desperation and anger in people’s voices, and seeing the water that they’re expected to drink was very alarming to me.
I really hope that because more news coverage is focusing on this issue, that attention will also be paid to other struggling communities in areas where there are abandoned mines and where coal companies have failed to restore the land, and that they can get some help, too. I hope that Wyoming County rapidly gets some help. I also hope people take away from this that West Virginia is a state where we haven’t adequately prepared for the decline of the coal industry. This sort of thing could happen to them, too. And I hope they don’t just brush aside stories as not something that can happen to them, because this is a widespread problem and will be an ongoing problem.
On this West Virginia Morning, the Mountain Valley Pipeline is under scrutiny from federal regulators after it failed a pressure test in Virginia last month. Curtis Tate spoke with Cynthia Quarterman, the former head of the Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration from 2009 to 2014, about the federal agency’s role in regulating 3 million miles of pipeline.
On this West Virginia Morning, the Mountain Valley Pipeline is under scrutiny from federal regulators after it failed a pressure test in Virginia last month. Curtis Tate spoke with Cynthia Quarterman, the former head of the Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration from 2009 to 2014, about the federal agency’s role in regulating 3 million miles of pipeline.
Also, in this show, just before the start of the fall semester last year, the band director at Midland Trail High School left for another job. With no one else to take over, senior Carol Nottingham stepped in. We bring you this story from student reporter Kelsie Carte.
West Virginia Morning is a production of West Virginia Public Broadcasting which is solely responsible for its content.
Support for our news bureaus comes from Shepherd University.
Emily Rice produced this episode.
Listen to West Virginia Morning weekdays at 7:43 a.m. on WVPB Radio or subscribe to the podcast and never miss an episode. #WVMorning
The Disaster Unemployment Assistance program is accepting applications from residents whose employment was affected by severe weather incidents in April that spanned West Virginia.
West Virginia’s Disaster Unemployment Assistance (DUA) program is now accepting applications from residents whose employment was affected by the storms, mudslides and tornadoes that struck the state in April.
The DUA program provides unemployment benefits to individuals whose jobs are “lost or interrupted as a direct result of a major disaster,” according to WorkForce West Virginia, the state labor agency that administers the program.
DUA benefits are made available when a natural disaster is declared a major disaster by the president of the United States.
President Joe Biden approved a FEMA major disaster declaration last week, opening the state to the program’s benefits.
Residents living or working in Boone, Cabell, Fayette, Kanawha, Lincoln, Marshall, Nicholas, Ohio, Putnam, Wayne or Wetzel counties — designated disaster areas by the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) — can apply for the benefits.
Individuals who can qualify for the program include those unable to commute to work due to the disaster; those who were unable to start a new work position; those with a financially supportive household member who died due to the disaster; and those who were injured due to the extreme weather incidents.
DUA benefits are also available to self-employed workers and farmers, who are not typically eligible for unemployment insurance benefits, according to WorkForce West Virginia. These individuals must submit proof of past earnings within three weeks of their application to qualify.
The deadline to submit DUA claims over the April disaster is July 22. To apply for the benefits, residents must contact WorkForce West Virginia via email at ucpolicy@wv.gov or over the phone at 304-558-3340 between 8 a.m. and 4 p.m.
Residents who suffered property damage during the April storms might also be eligible for financial assistance through FEMA. For more information, see West Virginia Public Broadcasting’s previous reporting.
Appalachia produces less coal than it once did, but that coal is still desired around the world for making steel. The demand is now creating problems for people who live near the terminals where coal is moved from train to ship, to then be carried overseas. Residents of Norfolk and Newport News, Virginia, say airborne coal dust from export terminals is getting on their cars, on their houses, in their lungs. Residents have started to take matters into their own hands.
This conversation originally aired in the May 26, 2024 episode of Inside Appalachia.
Appalachia produces less coal than it once did, but that coal is still desired around the world for making steel.
The demand is now creating problems for people who live near the terminals where coal is moved from train to ship, to then be carried overseas. Residents of Norfolk and Newport News, Virginia, say airborne coal dust from export terminals is getting on their cars, on their houses, in their lungs. Residents have started to take matters into their own hands.
A new podcast called Crosswinds links that fight to communities in West Virginia. It’s produced by an environmental justice research project at the University of Virginia called the Repair Lab.
Mason Adams spoke with Crosswinds producer Adrian Wood, as well as Lathaniel Kirts, a pastor and activist in one of the affected communities.
The transcript below has been lightly edited for clarity.
Adams: The podcast that you all are working on, looks at a problem affecting communities in Norfolk and Newport News, Virginia, but then zooms back out to trace this issue to its roots in Appalachia. Lathaniel, you live in the Hampton Roads area of Virginia. Can you share how you became aware of this coal dust issue?
Kirts: In the Hampton Roads area, there are two different distinct communities that we’re focusing on. One being Norfolk, and the other being Newport News. I am from Norfolk, Virginia — a native of the area. I grew up there. I applied for a job with a coalition called New Virginia Majority. They were focusing on environmental justice. This was back in 2017, and it was about the coal dust issue that was happening in the Lambert’s Point area of Norfolk. so I began working with them building their social media campaign, and helping to spread awareness to try to find something meaningful to change about the coal dust issue.
At that moment, they were focusing on covering the coal. Now, I have recently moved to Newport News, and I realized the same thing that was happening in Norfolk was [also] happening in Newport News as well. So that’s when I started this project with a dear friend of mine, who I was raised with in Norfolk [named] Malcolm Jones. He and I are both practitioners-in-residence with the University of Virginia’s Repair Lab. The Repair Lab’s goal is to help focus on environmental justice in predominately African-American communities, and try to build a coalition around these individuals who do meaningful changes around the work of environmental justice — namely in this area, coal dust.
Lathaniel Kirts and Malcolm Jones of the Repair Lab.
Photo Credit: Crosswinds
Adams: Can you describe these neighborhoods, a little bit in Newport News in Norfolk, that are near these coal terminals? Who are the folks that are being affected by this?
Kirts: Two distinctly different communities, [with] some very similar traits. I love them both. Norfolk is of course the biggest military hub in the world. The world’s largest naval base is in Norfolk. It has a diverse population. In Norfolk, when you get to Lambert’s Point community, it is a predominantly Black community, which also has a hub of college students from Old Dominion University there as well. So you’ve got a lot of young people coming in from all over the commonwealth and all over the nation to this place.
Then you have Newport News, which is right across the water. Where the coal terminal sits is a predominantly Black community as well. A lot of poverty as well in the area, a lot of systemic issues are there. I am also a pastor in this community. So this is something that is near and dear to my heart, because I want to see the people — who I pastor, who I work alongside, who I live alongside — to be able to thrive and have a meaningful life, to be able to breathe fresh and clean air.
Adams: These communities are dealing with issues involving coal dust blowing off of the ships and trains into their communities. What are the folks there doing to try to address this problem?
Kirts: There’ve been petitions signed. Yard signs have been put up that say, “Coal dust kills.” They are going out and they’re protesting. They’ve been doing it for years with protests at the former Norfolk Southern headquarters in Norfolk (they have since moved on to Atlanta). They’ve written letters. They’ve contacted their legislators on a national, state and local level. They have gone to city council meetings. They have recorded oral histories through the University of Virginia. We’ve had so many different things that they’ve been doing because, once again, this is affecting their community. What we want to do is to make more people aware, and hopefully come up with some type of meaningful legislation that can stop the spread of coal dust in our area.
Coal yards at Norfolk Southern’s pier at Lambert’s Point, Norfolk, Virginia.
Photo Credit: Crosswinds
Adams: Adrian, how did you get involved with this community effort?
Wood: I first met Lathaniel through working with the Repair Lab. I’m the full-time multimedia producer for the Repair Lab. Part of what the Repair Lab does is offer resources to our practitioners-in-residence who work with us for a one-year duration residency, and we offer them resources like academic access to libraries or different kinds of academic connections and policy research and also multimedia production around the topic or the issue that they’re bringing to us. I work as a resource for our practitioners-in-residence, and support the work that they’re doing with environmental justice storytelling that shows the work that’s already been done and also tells us about the work that’s to come.
Adams: How did the idea for the podcast take off?
Wood: The idea for the podcast came because podcasts can be really versatile forms of media. Also, my expertise is in sound and audio editing, so it was maybe the best use of my talents. With the resources at-hand, it made sense. It worked for what we were trying to do, which is to disseminate the story about coal dust, environmental racism and Hampton Roads to the rest of the nation and even the rest of the world. Podcasts work really well for that, because little segments can be picked up by other media entities, and it’s a lot easier to get something broadcast on radio than it is to get something on Netflix. Podcasts also work really well for amplifying and elevating the voices of community members and really allowing them to tell their own stories and speak for themselves around the issues that have been affecting them sometimes for generations.
Adams: So as y’all begin to develop this podcast series, you traced the route of these coal cars back up the railroad tracks and to where the coal was produced, including in West Virginia. So what did you find there?
Wood: I traced the coal that gets shipped out of the Dominion terminal in Newport News back to about a dozen coal mines, all in southern West Virginia. I was shocked but not surprised to find a lot of neglect on behalf of the coal companies around a lot of the towns where coal is being extracted — in terms of failure to reclaim sites that had been extracted and mined, and the ways that those costs had been displaced back onto the backs of residents in those communities in a way that eerily echoed what was happening in Newport News and Norfolk with the costs of environmental remediation being displaced, and people paying for that through their health and with their lives.
In West Virginia in particular, some of the mines and some of the depots where the coal gets moved from the mine onto the train are owned either by CSX, the rail company that ships to Dominion terminal, or to some other coal giants that own Dominion Terminal Associates and parts whose names you’re probably familiar with, like Peabody Coal or Arch or Alpha Metallurgical Resources. Those companies all have stakes in Dominion Terminal Associates and not surprisingly they often own the mines that the coal is coming from.
Adams: Are the folks there in West Virginia being affected by blowing coal dust as well?
Wood: Yes, I heard about this from an advocate in Junior Walk, who lives in Eunice, West Virginia, who talked about coal dust settling so thick on records on his record player that the record wouldn’t play after just sitting out for 24 hours in his home. Coal dust affects people there like it affects people in Hampton Roads, and it’s coal dust coming from the same seam in the same mountain that’s being moved from one side of the Appalachians to the ocean, and it’s coal that really should just have been left in the ground.
Activists speak about blowing coal dust from terminals in coastal Virginia.
Photo Credit: Crosswinds
Adams: So what connections do you see between these communities in Appalachia and in Newport News and Norfolk?
Kirts: There’s historic poverty in both communities. These people are bearing the brunt of the health disparities that are spread because of coal dust. That’s one of the main similarities that I see. And then, of course, we’re not reaping the benefits monetarily of that being in our communities. The coal is being transported mostly overseas. Two percent stays within the country; the rest is going over to other places. It’s been labored here, it’s being pulled here, being dumped into our community. And then once that coal dust spreads into our lungs, and we’re sick, we’re not going to be helped, we’re not going to be provided for, we don’t have the adequate health care to be sustained. And then these companies who like to pretend to be benevolent and to be green and friendly, are not who they say they are. They are cancer-causing agents in our community, and they’re doing damage.
That is what the similarities I see: that we’re all being negatively affected, and seeing none of the benefits of what they’re seeing being the manufacturers of coal dust.
Wood: I agree with that. And I would just add that these communities are not being protected by existing regulatory pathways through the EPA or through state environmental departments. The regulations that exist around coal dust right now through the EPA, which recently were strengthened, are still not enough to protect communities in Newport News, Norfolk or West Virginia because of the way those regulations work, which is, averages that are regional and over every 24 hours.
So a regional average may not address a high amount of coal dust concentrated in one place when the rest of the region is not being affected by that dust. Similarly, a 24-hour average doesn’t address coal dust that’s getting blown really hard for 30 minutes and covering your whole porch in black dust, and then the wind doesn’t blow for the rest of the day. That may not be enough to affect the 24-hour average. So the way that the regulations are designed are not addressing the health needs and the lifestyle needs of these communities.
And we know that coal dust is more dangerous than other kinds of dust that these regulations are designed to address, because coal dust can contain lead, mercury, arsenic and cadmium, among other heavy metals that are known to cause cancer and neurological damage and birth defects.
Adams: What’s next for the folks involved in this struggle to tamp down coal dust in these coastal communities?
Kirts: We’re looking for a few changes here in our area. One of the things that we’re trying to do in order to alleviate coal dust within our communities is an ordinance that will either support a coal dome — to enclose the coal into a dome so that the coal dust will not be blown into our communities — and/or a wooden fence that is going to prevent the wind to blow coal dust into the area, and once again alleviate coal that’s being spread into our communities. Anything is better than sitting beside mountains of coal terminals right next door to our playgrounds, where we have our gardens, where we have our worship facilities. These are places that are supposed to be safe places for us to go and to live freely and sit and breathe freely. And that’s what we’re fighting for and advocating for.
Adrian Wood and Lathaniel Kirts’ new podcast Crosswinds is available now.
