DEP Blows Off Coal Slurry Report

"A study into the effects of coal slurry on groundwater has missed three deadlines and is still months from completion, and lawmakers are running out of patience," The Associated Press reports.

As AP's Tom Breen explains, the Legislature in 2006 told the Department of Environmental Protection "to determine what effect coal slurry -- a chemical soup formed during the process of cleaning coal -- may have on groundwater when it's injected into worked-out mines."

The 2006 resolution called on DEP to deliver findings by the end of 2007. "The department missed that, and subsequent deadlines in June and December of 2008," AP reports.

Before lawmakers lined up Tuesday to blast DEP Secretary Randy Huffman, AP's Vicki Smith highlighted his agency's failure to conduct the assigned study.

"The DEP cannot say precisely what's in that waste, how much is injected annually, or whether and where it migrates," that article said.

AP's Smith also recently focused on the lawsuit filed by hundreds of Boone County residents alleging eight coal companies "poisoned their wells by pumping mine wastes into former underground mines."

Public Broadcasting also covered Tuesday's interim meeting (with audio), while The Charleston Gazette earlier detailed the water woes in Boone County.