Minden Story Archives - West Virginia Public Broadcasting

Documentary Film Dives Deeper Into Minden, W.Va. Contamination

A film called Impossible Town, based in Minden, West Virginia features Dr. Ayne Amjad’s efforts to relocate the town’s residents after decades of exposure to chemical contamination during her tenure as the state’s health officer.

A film called Impossible Town, based in Minden, West Virginia, features Dr. Ayne Amjad’s efforts to move the people of the town away from decades of chemical contamination during her tenure as the state’s health officer.

In the 1980s, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) found that Shaffer Equipment was responsible for contaminating Minden’s soil with harmful chemicals called polychlorinated biphenyls, or PCBs.

In 1984 the EPA declared a portion of land in Minden as a Superfund site, meaning it had been contaminated by hazardous waste and a candidate for cleanup because it posed a health and environmental risk.

The EPA did soil testing again in 2017 at the Shaffer site, as well as near homes in Minden. The results showed the community wasn’t in need of “immediate action” and therefore not a candidate for the National Priorities List (NPL).

Minden was added to the NPL in 2019.

Over the years, while all that testing, cleanup, and bureaucracy occurred, Amjad grew up in nearby Beckley, W.Va., raised by a father who taught her to, “help others,” and demonstrated that sentiment by researching the influence of PCB exposure on the number of cancer deaths reported in Minden.

When Dr. Hassan Amjad passed away on August 29, 2017, his daughter, Dr. Anye Amjad took over his project of establishing a “cancer registry” to count the number of cases in Minden.

For a decade, co-directors Meg Griffiths and Scott Faris looked for a West Virginia story to tell, while creating documentary content for nonprofits, foundations and socially conscious brands. Scott grew up in West Virginia, where the majority of his family resides to this day, and has always wanted to tell stories about his home state.

“So we started putting out feelers asking simply, who is doing interesting and inspiring things in the state?” Faris said. “And very quickly we connected with Jeremy Morris, who at the time was working with Weelunk, which is a news publication in Wheeling, and Jeremy told us, ‘you should really reach out to my former high school classmate, Dr. Ayne Amjad, I think she’s trying to move a town or something.’ And we thought, ‘Wow, what an incredible hook for a story, you have to find out more.’”

Filmed over the course of four years, Impossible Town features moments that help viewers get to know Amjad and the Minden residents who inspired her work to relocate.

“Yeah. I mean, there’s so much history to take in surrounding the environmental contamination in Minden,” Faris said. “When we embarked on this project, initially, we thought we would make a short film about Dr. Amjad and her family’s efforts to aid this small community. But what we discovered very quickly is that because the context is so complicated, and the history so extensive, it really called for a much deeper dive than simply a five or 10-minute film. And that is what really led us to this feature-length project Impossible Town.”

Griffiths said the film will leave viewers with a sense of urgency, not just about environmental protection, but also to support local leaders of small communities.

“I think, in addition to, you know, folks feeling an increased sense of urgency, I think there’s a call to action as well around figures like Dr. Amjad, and the demands that we place her on around heroic figures like her that are in our communities,” Griffiths said. “And I think there’s a call to action for all of us as citizens to support those leaders, and also question for ourselves how we can better help and aid those in communities like Minden that live closest to us.”

Griffiths believes Impossible Town shows a new angle to the story.

“What’s happening in Minden has been covered a lot at the state level at the national level,” Griffiths said. “But we really think the angle that we brought to the story is really different than previous coverage that has explored some of these issues. And I think that viewers that are familiar with the story in Minden and that are familiar with Dr. Amjad will be shocked. They’ll be heartbroken and it will like it will challenge people’s thinking.”

Griffiths said the film shows the best and worst of West Virginia.

“And when I say worst, I mean specifically, the damaging history of exploitive industry and environmental contamination,” Griffiths said. “And when I say best, I mean specifically the goodness of the people in West Virginia, their willingness to help their neighbor, and go out of their way to sacrifice for somebody that maybe they barely know, and have very little in common with.”

The premiere of Impossible Town will take place in seven cities and some showings are free to the public. All screenings will be followed by a question and answer session with the filmmakers.

Appalachia Health News is a project of West Virginia Public Broadcasting with support from Charleston Area Medical Center and Marshall Health.

***Editor’s Note: This article has been updated to correct two factual errors. The Amjads, including Ayne live in nearby Beckley, W.Va., not in Minden. Also, Minden was added to the National Priorities List in 2019.

Fayette County Flood Stirs Up Long Held Concerns On Cancer-Causing Oil Site

This story was updated on June 16, 2020, at 4:50 p.m. to include a statement from the Environmental Protection Agency.

The rain poured down for hours on Sunday, slamming the valleys of Fayette County with water. As the earth became saturated, local streams swelled.

Minden resident Marie Collins said the water washed out the underpinning of her house.

“We had to sleep in the car last night,” Collins said on Monday.

Weather experts estimate nearby Oak Hill received roughly 5.5 inches of rain in six hours. Minden is just a few miles away and lies in a valley.

“I was too scared to come in the house, because I was afraid my house would come off the foundation,” she said.

The next day, several feet of water surrounded the Collins home. Marie Collins said she noticed an oily substance floating on top that she could smell from inside her home.

Minden has a history with Polychlorinated Biphenyl, or PCB, a known cancer-causing chemical that electrical company Shaffer Equipment Company started storing in a nearby dump site back in the 1970s. The chemical waste site was discovered by the West Virginia Department of Natural Resources in 1984. After years of requests, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency in 2019 added the Minden site to the National Priorities List of Superfund sites.

PCB has contaminated the soil in Minden, the EPA has said, and residents fear that the chemical is flushed out every time it floods, much like Sunday night.

“I’m scared of [the] water now. I’m just so scared,” Collins said. “And then I have got three boys, a 13-year-old, an 11 and a seven-year-old. I don’t want them to have cancer.”

The floods on Sunday, June 14, in Fayette County washed out the underpinning of the Collins’ house in Minden.

On Tuesday, the EPA said initial inspections “indicate no significant damage” to the cap structure encompassing the dump site, or other structures the EPA has put in place to separate PCB oil from the Minden community.

“There is no indication that capped site material was transported away from the site,” the EPA stated in a press release.

Gov. Jim Justice issued a state of emergency for Fayette County Sunday night, deploying state highway workers to the area to free up debris from the roads and begin repairing some of the more long-lasting damage.

A local state of emergency from the county commission that afternoon specifically named Oak Hill, Scarbro, Minden and Whipple.

Justice said in a virtual press briefing Monday morning there were no known deaths or injuries from the flooding. There were, however, nearly 20 home and car rescues by the local swiftwater rescue team.

A rescue boat in Minden, W.Va., helping people with the aftermath of Sunday’s flooding.

Not A First-Time Flood

Annetta Coffman, another lifelong local, recalled a disastrous flood to the area 19 years ago. Every time the water levels rise for smaller, more regular floods that happen every summer, Coffman said residents are afraid to drink locally sourced water or do much outside.

“With oil, it travels because it attaches to mud. Right now, it’s mud and sand everywhere, so it’s hard to tell exactly what the people right now are walking in,” Coffman said of the flood damage Sunday night.

Coffman’s home also flooded several feet high Sunday night, but she said it wasn’t as devastating as the flood in 2001, when she lost her first home and all of her possessions.

“You work so hard. It’s a poor community anyway, and you work to try to have things, and then, something like that can be gone within 30 minutes,” she said.

In addition to the oil, and the expensive loss of having to repair one’s home or find a new one, Coffman said flooding also tends to free up raw sewage.

“And so that now is in our homes,” she said. “People are trying to figure out how to clean up their home. You take the risk of getting Hepatitis A.”

Minden and the surrounding area has also been ravaged by sewage contamination, which the EPA addressed in 2016. According to the report, this was the result of failing and downright non-existent systems to manage human waste. In 2017, a $23 million sewage and water drainage project began in efforts to prevent future contamination by flooding.

But Coffman said many of her neighbors’ houses were flooded with at least two feet of contaminated water Sunday night.

A Developing Response

The Division of Highways entered Fayette County Sunday evening, and will continue working from the area for the next week and a half. Deputy State Highway Engineer Greg Bailey said Monday staff are prioritizing repairs in areas where there are no alternative routes.

“We’re focusing a lot on areas where people are completely blocked and don’t have a way out,” Bailey said Monday.

During his virtual press briefing, Gov. Justice said he anticipated the DOH will have most repairs finished within a week and a half.

Warm Hands From Warm Hearts, a local outreach ministry operating the Center of Hope in Oak Hill, has set up cots in case anyone needs a place to stay. Director Mike Bone said the center also has a shower and a kitchen for anyone in need.

The Red Cross and Voluntary Organizations Active in Disaster, or VOAD, were gathering buckets of cleaning supplies to donate Monday morning, and assessing the best way to provide assistance, given restrictions from the ongoing coronavirus pandemic.

As for Marie Collins, whose home sustained permanent damage in 2001 and now again Sunday night, she said she plans to eventually use lime, a powder chemical for flooding, to help battle the smell of oil and sewage in her front yard.

“I’m just so ready to move,” Collins said. “If I had the money to move, I would move.”

Emily Allen is a Report for America corps member.

This story is part of West Virginia Public Broadcasting’s Southern Coalfields Reporting Project which is supported by a grant from the National Coal Heritage Area Authority.

What's Next for Minden? PCB-Afflicted Town Joins EPA Superfund List

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is working to clean up a former mining equipment operation in Fayette County, known as the Shaffer site. On Monday, the EPA announced that the Shaffer site has been added to the National Priorities List of Superfund sites.

The Shaffer Equipment Co. manufactured equipment used in mining from 1970 to 1984. The company leaked polychlorinated biphenyl — more commonly known as PCB— into the soil.

EPA officials hosted a community conversation in Minden on Wednesday inside a small church to talk with residents about their next steps.

“We’ve started planning and scoping our remedial investigation, which will include conducting additional sampling and testing to fully define any remaining contamination,” explained Stepan Nevsheirlian, EPA’s project manager for the Shaffer site. He said his team will return to Minden this summer to take additional samples.

“Once we collect that data, that will determine what’s next,” he said.

Nevsheirlian said it’s unlikely the EPA will be relocating any residents who currently live in Minden. He said they haven’t yet found any concentrations of PCBs that are high enough in residential areas to lead them to believe it’s unsafe for residents to remain in their homes.

The EPA has been involved in cleaning out the PCBs from Minden several different times throughout the years. The people in Minden have been dealing with PCB contamination and possible health impacts from that contamination, for decades.

Minden resident, Darrel Thomas, was at the public event to voice his frustration that after all these years, he feels like the EPA isn’t doing enough to address the environmental problems in his community. “It’s a good thing we’re on the National Priorities List. But it’s nothing more than a band-aid. It always has been. It’s just sad.”

State Sen. Stephen Baldwin, a Democrat who represents Fayette County, expressed a similar sentiment. Baldwin has sponsored legislation and resolutions aimed at advocating for Minden residents, including SR 76, which passed during the last legislative session. The resolution urges federal and state agencies to help residents relocate away from Minden and provide resrouces for “specialized medical treatment as a result of their long-term exposure to polychlorinated biphenyl, dioxins, and dibenzofurans.”

Baldwin said the official listing on the National Priorities List is a good step, but cautioned more needs to be done.

“I think the good news is it provides resources and they were very clear that you’re a priority and we’re going to bring all the resources we need to bare on this situation and so I’m hopeful about that,” he said. “I think this is a good start, but it’s a start it’s going to require significant follow ups.”

EPA Adds Minden, W.Va. Site to Superfund List

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency on Monday added the site of a former mining equipment operation in West Virginia to its National Priorities List of Superfund sites.

The EPA announced in a news release the addition of the Shaffer Equipment/Arbuckle Creek Area Site in Minden to the list. That would make it a federal priority for cleanup, enforcement and funding. The EPA had proposed the move in September.

West Virginia Gov. Jim Justice said in the EPA statement that Monday marked an important day because residents of Minden, a town of about 250 in Fayette County, “have been hurting for too long and they’ve been waiting on this level of help for decades.”

The Shaffer Equipment Co. manufactured equipment used in mining from 1970 to 1984. PCBs were used by the company in the making of electrical substations. The industrial chemicals were banned in the U.S. in 1979 over concerns they can harm human and environmental health.

Leaks, spills and dumping contributed to PCB contamination at the facility and runoff in adjacent Arbuckle Creek. PCB-contaminated sediment spread to residential properties through frequent floods.

From 1984 to 1991, the EPA performed two soil removal actions at the site. The EPA was notified in 1997 of a fire at the remaining building on the Shaffer site that contained materials with PCBs. After another assessment was conducted, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers in 2002 completed constructed of a cap for the remaining contaminated soils and building debris.

Arbuckle Creek flows into the New River Gorge National River, which is extensively used for recreation and fishing.

U.S. Sen. Shelley Moore Capito accompanied EPA Administrator Andrew Wheeler to the Shaffer site Monday. Capito said the designation is “not only an acknowledgement of the work that needs to be done, but it’s also a commitment from the federal government — a commitment of attention and resources and a commitment to provide more financial and technical assistance to clean up this site and any lingering PCB pollution in the surrounding area.”

“That also means delivering a new sense of safety and certainty to all those who call Minden home, and it means providing for the health and well-being of West Virginians.”

EPA Proposes Listing Minden on Superfund National Priorities List

The Environmental Protection Agency is proposing to add areas near the Fayette County town of Minden to its list of the most serious hazardous waste sites in the country.

In a news release Tuesday, the agency said it has determined the Shaffer Equipment site, as well as parts of nearby Arbuckle Creek, should be added to the Superfund National Priorities List.

“Today, we are proposing to add the Shaffer Equipment/Arbuckle Creek Area Site in Minden to the National Priorities List,” said EPA Mid-Atlantic Regional Administrator Cosmo Servidio, in the press release. “This is part of EPA’s continuing effort to conduct a thorough study to evaluate the contamination issues in the community and develop a remediation plan that will protect human health and the environment.”

In the 1980s, the EPA found that a local company was responsible for contaminating the town’s soil with a harmful chemical called polychlorinated biphenyls or PCBs. The agency spent millions of dollars on a cleanup, which included removing more than 5,000 tons of contaminated soil.

Residents have been concerned PCB contamination is ongoing and leading to high rates of cancer. They asked the EPA for additional testing and for financial help for additional cleanups.

Lawmakers, including Sen. Joe Manchin (D) and Gov. Jim Justice (R), have written to the EPA urging the agency to place Minden on the Superfund National Priorities List.

In a statement, Justice, who sent a formal letter to EPA last month, praised the agency for taking this step.

“After several decades we have now gotten to the point where this is finally getting addressed,” he said. “It has always been my intent to make sure that this be done for the citizens of Minden.”

EPA says it found elevated levels of PCBs in sediments taken from Arbuckle Creek up to one mile downstream from Minden. The creek often floods the community, which the EPA says has spread the PCB contamination.

By placing the Minden area on the Superfund National Priorities List, the site would be eligible for long-term cleanup paid for by the federal government.

EPA will accept public comments on the proposed listing for 60 days, beginning Sept. 13.

How Toxic is My Town? Fayette County Teens Conduct Year-Long Science Project

Three high school students in Fayette County have devoted the past year to researching Minden’s possible soil contamination and the history of the Environmental Protection Agency’s involvement in the Shaffer Site. Their project involved collecting soil samples at the former site of the Shaffer Equipment Company, which in the 1970s was in the business of repairing, building, and disposing of various types of transformers from coal companies. The company leaked polychlorinated biphenyl — more commonly known as PCB— into the soil.

Marcayla King came up with the idea to study the PCB contamination in Minden as part of a year-long research project.

She lives just down the road from where the EPA discovered the highest concentration of PCB in this community more than 30 years ago.

“This affects me too because I live here. Some of the water may come down to my area,” said King. “I feel like I want to know more about my community. I want to help us out because we’ve been fighting for awhile.”

King is an upcoming Junior at Oak Hill High School. She’s 15 years old and is doing this research project as part of a program called Health Sciences & Technology Academy, or HSTA. It’s a mentoring program for high school students, intended to increase the number of minority and first generation students that go on to pursue science and health in college.

Oak Hill High School student collecting soil samples from Shaffer site in Fayette County

“Each year they have to choose a topic to do a year-long research project,” said King’s mentor in the HSTA program, teacher Brandy Cook.

“It has to be something connected to their community. They do all the research they do the data collecting.”

For this project, Cook is helping King and her two classmates collect soil samples at the Shaffer site, to test how much PCB contamination may be left in the dirt. King said she was worried about getting close to some potentially dangerous chemicals in the process.

“Yeah, but I’ll take that risk. I want to find out more about it.”

Even though she’s lived here her entire life, she says she didn’t know much about the history of the Shaffer company, or the PCB contamination. She’s been four-wheeling here for years, and she said, she never realized the EPA had been involved in cleaning up this site.

Her classmate, Rose Gayhart, doesn’t live in Minden, but she said she thinks it’s important for young people to learn about issues like this in their area.

“We’re the next generation. If we don’t do something, who knows if someone will.”

Small drainage ditch on the Shaffer site in Minden, W.Va.

We reach a swampy area where an orange flow of water seeps through the forest. Old rotting leaves clog the top of the small stream. The Shaffer Equipment company actually stood on top of a former coal mine site. According to one researcher I spoke with at the West Virginia DEP, Minden sits on top of multiple abandoned mine sites, criss-crossing and running beneath the ground for miles.

The students hypothesize that soil samples here in Minden will test higher in PCB levels, compared with those in the nearby community of Oak Hill

All of the sampling and testing is done on site, along the creekbed. The students are able to determine the results in about 20 minutes.

After awhile, the color of the mud in the test tube changes to a greenish brown color. On the instructions they match the color with the level of PCB, less than 50 parts per million— probably not high enough for alarm, at least not because of PCB.

Checking the color of the soil sample after it’s gone through a chemical process, to determine how high the level of PCBs

But the water doesn’t look entirely safe either.

There’s an eerie orange tint to the water that is most likely due to acid mine drainage from one of the abandoned mines that lies underground here. No fish or tadpoles are swimming, and there’s a noticeable gassy smell bubbling up from the creekbed.

This test the students use is not as sophisticated as what the EPA uses. Maybe with a more expensive test, they could get a more exact figure of the level of PCBs in the dirt, or a better idea of what other contaminants may also be in this water.

King said she’s not surprised to learn the PCB isn’t very high. After all, this backs up what the EPA has reported in recent findings. But, she adds, any contamination at all, no matter how small, is alarming.

“I’m just now finding out about this. And it’s just kind of mind blowing because I didn’t know, this stuff has been happening for years.”

The hands-on experience getting out into the field and testing the dirt near her home has made her even more convinced that this is the type of work she’d like to study in college and go on to do as an adult. At least, she feels confident that some type of health science is in her future, maybe something where she can help people like her neighbors in Minden.

Later, when the students compare their test samples with the ones they collect in Oak Hill, they find them to contain similar levels of PCB. However, they later learn that the sample site they chose in Oak Hill was the site of a car crash. The accident may have caused PCB to leak into the soil, so they plan to repeat the experiment again next year.

King said she’s interested to find out what the EPA reports later this year when they release the results from their tests from Minden. The EPA has said most of the samples they collected in Minden in 2017 have contained less than 2 parts per million PCB, far under the levels that would pose serious risk to human health, according to officials.

There was one result that came back at 6.2 parts per million and another at 50 parts per million, but they are resampling that area again to find out if there is indeed a high enough risk to justify placing this site on the Superfund National Priorities List.

This story is part of an episode of Inside Appalachia about Minden and the EPA’s Superfund Program. Click here to listen to the full episode.