Coal Country COVER UP: Poisoned Water Sickening Poor West Virginians

"We're scared to death," resident Deneen Poteete says. Her backyard was flooded by toxic water (residents believe poisoned by local coal mines). She lost her voice from INHALING the horrid smell.

Hey folks, it’s Jordan.

We’re on day three covering the alarming poisoning of an entire poor West Virginia community in “coal country.” Yesterday, I spoke with residents whose backyard was flooded by contaminated water—that residents believe was contaminated by local coal mines. As we walked into the backyard, the smell of rotten eggs and sulfur was OVERWHELMING and the water had a mix of white and green-looking stringy particles that looked like they had tentacles. The woman who lives in the house also had her garage flooded by the contaminated water, resulting in a HORRID stench.

This is DAY 7 of our ON-THE-GROUND reporting trip to Flint and West Virginia. Overall, this trip is costing us nearly $7,000 (I will itemize all the costs, which include paying a documentary filmmaker to produce a Flint doc for us, when I am back and get a chance to breathe). If we can’t raise more money to offset costs, we unfortunately can not continue doing this kind of ON-THE-GROUND reporting. If it’s possible for you, PLEASE SUPPORT US as a monthly paying member and/or with a donation.

The combination of contaminated water and horrible smell—and her inhaling it even while in her home—has led to her losing her voice for the last several months. She also has welts all over her leg from walking in the contaminated water.

"We're scared to death," Wyoming County resident Deneen Poteete told Jordan.

WATCH BELOW:

This morning, I reached out with questions and a request for comment to the West Virginia Department of Environmental Protection, Governor Jim Justice, Senators Joe Manchin and Shelley Moore Capito, and Congresswoman Carol Miller to ask a variety of questions. Here is a part of my email to the state environmental department.

This is journalist Jordan Chariton with Status Coup News (177,000 subscribers on YouTube).

I've been down in Wyoming County for several days reporting on the water crisis here. I have observed many concerning things: 

-Private well water contaminated with what appears to be contaminated coal water that has a mix of white and Black particles. There was also a horrid smell of rotten eggs/sulfur. Those homeowners —who are on city water and don't drink from that well—have been sick for over a year just from inhaling this smell in their back and front yard after that contaminated well shot up and flooded their yard.

-Creeks throughout the area contaminated with brown clay-looking substance, stringy white looking substance—that a visiting Virginia Tech biologist told residents was a "living organism"—and a greenish substance. The creeks also have the same horrid smell. There is also white foamy substance throughout the creeks that do not appear natural.

-I have spoken with Pineville residents who are sick from the water contamination. One woman's backyard has contaminated water producing an overwhelming smell. Her garage was also flooded by the contaminated water producing a horrible smell. She has welts all over her skin from walking in the contaminated water. Others I've spoken to whose private well water has been contaminated have been experiencing:

1) Nausea

2) Diarrhea

3) Vomiting

4) Headaches

5) Drastic weight loss

This contamination began nearly 14 months ago and, from what residents tell me, the WV DEP, the Governor, nor any other politician aside from the local delegate have done anything to help these people, disclose the source of the contamination (which seems to be local industry here), provide free clean water, provide healthcare to affected residents, and begin remediation processes.

Questions:

1) Residents I have spoken to who have been working on this issue for over a year believe local coal mines breached the water aquifer and that contaminated water was then dumped into local ponds and Indian Creek (as you know Indian Creek flows down to the Guyandotte River and then Ohio River--which 5 million get their drinking water from). They say the few explanations DEP has provided don't make sense and that in conversations w/ local coal miners—who did not want to go on the record—they admitted the miners breached the aquifer. 

What is the DEP's position on how these private water wells and major creeks were contaminated?

I am not holding my breath that I will get responses from these politicians (and if I do, it will be a whole bunch of spin). But as a journalist, I want to be able to say I reached out. There’s a lot more to this story that we will be reporting over the next few days. For now, we’re off to shoot more interviews. PLEASE SHARE this and our YouTube videos, tweets, etc.

Jordan