Legislature 2009: Best Use of Props

Sen. Randy White elicited some gasps in the Senate chamber when he gulped from a bottle of water drawn from a coal slurry-contaminated well, Public Broadcasting reports.

The Webster County Democrat invited his colleagues to do the same, having passed around bottles to them, to underscore the need for his proposed moratorium on underground slurry injections.

Public Broadcasting also offers audio and video, while the Charleston Daily Mail has a report as well. The Associated Press had earlier reported on White's bill, and on the apparent failure by the Department of Environmental Protection to complete a study of slurry injections mandated by the Legislature.