As Frack Well Exploded, Some 150mi South, 100K Gallons Coal Slurry Poisoned 6-Miles W.Va. Waterways. Unforgettable Photo

Around the same time as Chevron’s frack well exploded Tuesday near the West Virginia-Pennsylvania border, some 150 miles south, over 100,000 gallons of coal slurry poured onto West Virginia’s already crippled Kanawha County, into a stream, and some, into Kanawha River, a ”significant environmental impact,” some officials say. 

A Patriot Coal processing facility leaked the new poison, as a Chevron fracking operation exploded.

[See: UPDATE #5: Video of Chevron Fracking Well Fire, More Explosions Feared, Days Before Controlled]

Significant Environmental Event 3rd Major Disaster In The Area Within 6 Weeks

Roughly six miles of Fields Creek is blackened Tuesday evening. Some of the thick, grey, ugly goo is making it into the Kanawha River near Chesapeake, according to emergency officials and environmental inspectors.

The Elk River, now tainted with Freedom Industries’ mystery poisons supplying Charleston with its water, empties into the Kanawha River.

The Kanawha empties into the Ohio River.  

“There has been a significant environmental impact,” said Harold Ward, acting director of the state Department of Environmental Protection’s Division of Mining and Reclamation.

The spill occurred sometime between midnight and 5:30 A.M. Tuesday. Company officials turned off the pump that sends slurry from the preparation plant to the impoundment around 5:30 a.m. 

This fossil fuel disaster has come the same day as another major event, a Chevron fracking explosion just north of the West Virginia border in Pennsylvania.

Another Day, Another Poison-Laced Rupture

Dale Petry, director of emergency services for Kanawha County, had first said an eight-inch slurry line between the preparation plant and the company’s refuse impoundment ruptured and send an undetermined amount of coal waste into the creek before the flow was stopped.

DEP officials later said they determined the spill was caused by malfunctioning of a valve in the slurry line carrying material from the preparation plant to a separate disposal site, not to an impoundment.

Patriot officials refrained from immediately responding to Charleston Gazette reporter Ken Ward’s request for comment.

Earlier Tuesday, Kanawha County emergency officials referred questions about the incident to the state Department of Military Affairs and Public Safety.

Who in government, tasked with public security, would think 6 miles of toxic coal slurry is serious?

Jimmy Gianato, director of the MAPS Division of Homeland Security and Emergency Management, said he doesn’t have many details on the incident.

Meanwhile, not one West Virginia official at a congressional hearing Monday would say the water there in the 5-county area is safe.

A consulting group reported Friday that a main poisonous ingredient in Crude MCHM that leaked into the drinking supply is in 40 percent of a small sampling of homes it has tested.

Sources: Charleston Gazette, Before It’s News

Photo Credit: Kenny Kemp, Charleston Gazette