West Virginia coal mines are discharging selenium pollution throughout the state, placing its waterways on the brink of collapse, and courts ruled Thursday that they must stop. The state’s nasty fossil fuel pollution problem, however, is one doctors seldom mention to their patients, even those with obvious environmental injuries, diseases and disabilities.

Selenium, the unpleasant, sour, garlic-like smelling pollutant that Alex Energy has been dumping into the state’s waterways, is a poisont that causes reproductive failure and deformities in fish and other aquatic life forms and a host of negative effects in humans It’s discharged from many surface coal mining operations across Appalachia.

Early indicators of excess intake of selenium in humans are a garlic odor in the breath and a metallic taste in the mouth. The most common clinical signs of chronically high selenium intakes, or selenosis, are hair and nail loss or brittleness. Other symptoms include lesions of the skin and nervous system, gastrointestinal disturbances, discoloration of skin, nausea, diarrhea, skin rashes, mottled teeth, fatigue, irritability, and nervous system abnormalities.

“The pollution from these mines must be eliminated so the waters can return to their previously healthy state,” said Cindy Rank of the WV Highlands Conservancy. “As demands for clean water grow we must do more to keep our streams clean, not less.”

Selenium bioaccumulates in tissues of aquatic organisms, and experts predict waterways across Appalachia could be on the brink of collapse due to increasing levels of the pollutant.

The court found Alex Energy was liable for discharging selenium pollution into Hardway Branch of Twentymile Creek, of the Gauley River. The mine’s Clean Water Act discharge permit did not include specific numeric limits on that pollutant. Instead, the court found Alex violated water quality standards.

West Virginia’s Department of Environmental Protection sollution? Eliminate the regulation requiring compliance with water quality standards, even in absence of numeric limits: West Virginia Code of State Rules § 47-30-5.1.f. But that’s nothing knew for the state that last year, experienced one of the worst chemical spills in the nation’s history, much of the event a state and medical coverup.

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In 2012, one of the largest mountaintop removal mine operators, Patriot Coal, declared bankruptcy due in large part to selenium treatment obligations that exceeded $400 Million.

This U.S. District Court for the Southern District of West Virginia ruled that Alex Energy, a subsidiary of Alpha Natural Resources, violated key water quality protections at its Hardway Branch surface mining complex in Nicholas County, WV.

The case was brought by Appalachian Mountain Advocates on behalf of Ohio Valley Environmental Coalition, Sierra Club and West Virginia Highlands Conservancy. It was first filed in July of 2013.

The groups successfully argued that selenium pollution from the surface mining complex violates both the Clean Water Act and Surface Mining Control and Reclamation Act.

Mountaintop removal coal mining is having an irreparable impact on Appalachian waterways. To mine coal, companies have buried a staggering 2,000 miles of freshwater streams in Appalachia.

The battle between costs and the spoils of industrial production is as much a part of West Virginians’ self-image as the coal miner on the state’s flag and seal. As seen throughout the Charleston chemical spill, however, from the local medical staff up to state leaders, patients in pain, suffering from the fossil fuel industry’s poisoned air, land and water, remains unmentioned, a hidden cause of health issues. Admitting this would be bad for business.

All the available water on Earth has existed in one form or another for millenia, continuously recycled through our atmosphere. Just like the air we breathe, it is required for simple survival– the human body can not live without drinking water for more than three to ten days. – Appalachian Voices

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