"We're Begging for Help": Poor West Virginians Getting Sick From TOXIC Water Contaminated by Local Coal Mines

Hey folks, it’s Jordan.

As I was finishing “We the Poisoned,” my book on the Flint water cover up out in August, I became aware of another crisis sickening—and killing poor people—in the southern tip of West Virginia in Wolf Pen (Wyoming County).

Beginning in February of 2023, residents began receiving smelly, discolored water that came out orange, brown, and white. This happened after local coal mines—that dominate the local economy and government—contaminated water. Recklessly, the West Virginia Department of Environmental Protection dumped the contaminated water in local Indian Creek…which is no more than a few hundred feet from many residents private water wells. As a result, residents—some of the poorest people in America—have had their water wells poisoned with TOXIC water.

In one independent test of a private water well provided to Status Coup, the water was TOXIC with dangerous levels of arsenic, lead, and other contaminants.

• 388 parts per billion of arsenic (EPA's "allowable" limit is 10 ppb)

• 188 parts per billion of lead (EPA's "allowable" limit is 15 ppb)

• 9,230 ug/L of manganese (EPA's allowable" limit is 300 ppb)

• 2 million ug/L of iron (EPA's "allowable" limit is 300 ppb)

Residents have been experiencing nausea, vomiting, diarrhea, and headaches. Some have suddenly died from unknown causes. Alarmingly, the cancer rate has begun rising.

“They are poisoning us right around the corner, we need national news coverage, we need lawyers,” Wyoming County resident Richard Altizer said next to a contaminated creek. “This community is probably one of the poorest communities in the United States. They don’t care about us. This has been going on since February of last year (2023). We begged them not to put this in the creek and the state agency did…we need help. They are killing us off one-by-one. Cancer rates are starting to skyrocket in this area. We’re begging for help down here. Please the national news come down here. Please help us.”

Altizer told Status Coup that Senators Joe Manchin and Shelley Moore Capito have not responded to multiple requests for help. Governor Jim Justice owns several of the coal mines in the surrounding area.

WATCH our report on this dangerous—and mostly ignored—situation:

I am currently speaking with residents and activists and trying to organize an ON-THE-GROUND reporting trip to cover this in West Virginia. As always, money is tight and we do not take corporate funding. If you want yours truly ON-THE-GROUND to cover this, SUPPORT US as a member.

Jordan