After the recent release of 7,500 gallons of coal-treatment chemicals into their water supply, a whole lot of people in West Virginia were apparently taken by surprise to discover that their water wasn’t safe to drink any more. Some people, however, haven’t been putting that stuff in their mouths for decades. Joe Stanley, a 64-year-old West Virginian, spent fifteen years working for Massey Energy at the Marrowbone Coal Mine (Massey, you may recall, was the company who helped create the 2010 disaster at Upper Big Branch). Stanley’s words on the water situation are pretty strong:
“I watched the coal industry poison our water for years. Now they’re telling us not to drink the water? We’ve been dumping this stuff into unlined ponds and into old mines for years,” he says. “This MCHM was just one of the chemicals we were told was highly toxic but that we dumped into old mine shafts and slurry ponds, and it’s been seeping into the groundwater for years.”
It sounds bad even before Stanley explains that coal mines are constantly pumped to clear ground water, aquifers, and underground streams: “As soon as we’re out of that mine it immediately fills with water. And where does it go from there? I don’t know, your guess is as good as mine.”
“I haven’t drank the water here in years, and I suggest you do the same,” he says, pausing and then reiterating. “Don’t drink the water. Just don’t do it.”
There’s plenty of evidence to support Stanley’s claims.
Freedom Industries, of course, filed for bankruptcy not too long ago, ensuring that our collective tax dollars help subsidize their profits…and to hell with the people in West Virginia who are trying to bathe in toxic licorice-flavored goo.
I was born a miner’s son on this Blueridge Mountain side.
Daddy worked his whole life down in that Blueridge Mountain mine.I took a pick ax in my hand when I was just 13
They sent me down in number nine to work the devils seamThey said Dig in deeper boys dig the Devil’s blood
dig it deeper down til you see no heaven above and
when you sleep tonight with that black dust in your lungs
You’ll be dreaming of ……… the Devil’s bloodLast night I had a dream I was standing at the pearly gates
I met Saint Peter there but he said he didn’t know my nameHe handed me a silver spade and a pick ax for my hand and said
I send you straight down tonight never to see the light againHe said Dig in deeper boys dig the Devil’s blood
dig it deeper down til you see no heaven above and
when you sleep tonight with that black dust in your lungs
You’ll be dreaming of ……… the Devil’s bloodWhen I’m dead don’t bury me where the sun it does not shine
carry my body over this mountain to the sunny side
say a prayer over me and let my spirit fly
straight into the arms of God’s everlasting light