We Explored What Happens When Coal Leaves!! (West Virginia)

Added: 2026-05-27

[00:00:00]No one here likes to think far down the road because we know what's down the road. They're drinking mountain water essentially. I grew up here in Maine. Um went to school here at Maine High School. I started out doing my testing here in Maine um on Huff Creek and Buffalo Creek.

[00:00:15]>> Why?

[00:00:16]>> Um mostly because a lot I' realized that a lot of my friend my friends from childhood and classmates were getting diagnosed with cancer.

[00:00:24]>> When you say a lot of your friends, childhood classmates were getting diagnosed with cancer. I mean, how how old are we talking? early to mid20s is when they were diagnosed. Um, uh, I think it's up to four or five at this point.

[00:00:37]>> Yeah. So, tell me about your story. I mean, you started testing creeks and what happened from there?

[00:00:43]>> Well, I started testing the creeks around here initially. Uh, found found some heavy metals obviously, but I found those everywhere and I've kind of just expanded out from there. Um, this was just kind of where I started because it's my home.

[00:00:59]>> Yeah.

[00:01:00]>> Yeah.

[00:01:00]>> So, there's obviously some big news going on here in man these days. What's going on?

[00:01:04]>> Uh, I'd say about a week ago, we got news that like seven coal mines here in the main area are all going to be idling and laying off 520 miners.

[00:01:14]>> What are your thoughts about that?

[00:01:16]>> It's just the same boom and bust exploitation cycle that we go through.

[00:01:19]you know, it's every three or four years, you know, they'll mine, get bonuses, and then, you know, everything shuts down and new new ownership comes in and buys them out. They exploit the people and the resources, and then they just they duck out and they leave when things get hard.

[00:01:37]>> Mhm.

[00:01:38]>> And leave us to clean up the mess. I know that the the company that laid off all the mines has 173 million cash on hand. They had a record quarter last quarter and their cost to do business went down 10% last year. So I know the problem isn't profitability. They just come in, they mine the land, exploit the land and the people, and then when they have somebody lined up to come in and either buy it or maybe no one buys it and they just let let it idle, when it stops becoming convenient for them to re to uh extract the resource, they they leave. um even if it's still profitable.

[00:02:20]This used to be a community's water source. Uh over the years it looks like it's rusted out and they they plugged it and then it's just come around the sides. It's likely an old coal mine. Uh as you can see the orange the orange staining is usually present when you got high iron, high lead, cadmium. Um, and it's usually indicative of acidic water.

[00:02:48]>> So, what do what like what are we supposed to think about this? Like what do you what do you want to what do you want to showcase here?

[00:02:55]>> That this is the reality that many people in West Virginia have to live.

[00:03:00]This is this is a horrible source for water, but it's some it's somewhere that people got their water from for years.

[00:03:08]>> And what's the problem with that?

[00:03:10]>> It's fully contaminated with heavy metals.

[00:03:13]Uh and and obviously there's no water treatment. And the sad part is is is the all so much water is like this that even if you have your own personal well, it's contaminated too. I think a study in 2021 said that um 52% of West Virginia whales had toxic levels of arsenic in them. Arsenic's a poison. Uh but it's also found on co in coal.

[00:03:43]So people would come here, they'd hook up, they would get it directly. How would they hook it up?

[00:03:49]>> That that that was likely the source and then you see you can see the pipe at the bottom over the years. It's rusted out and they attacked it. But you can see it goes into the pipe in the ground and then it goes over to this community >> which is no longer >> which is no longer there.

[00:04:06]>> Do we know anything about what happened to the community?

[00:04:09]The same story that happens everywhere across the entire state. Coal mine came in, made a couple billion dollars, moved out, left no jobs, people slowly died or they left.

[00:04:23]>> Do you feel this is directly associated with cancer levels in the state?

[00:04:28]>> Yes. things like this >> because in these small communities that are like, you know, nestled in these hook in these nooks in the mountains, young people aren't coming there. So, the last people that live, you know, in those communities are older folks. And, you know, they're the ones who are contracting these uh cancers from the water, from the air we breathe, from the dirt, from the fog in the morning. It's just it's sad that we there's no hope for retirement here. If you want if you want to retire, you need to retire somewhere else or you're just going to end up contracting cancer or Alzheimer's or Parkinson's.

[00:05:11]>> All right.

[00:05:14]Sad, man.

[00:05:16]>> It's real sad. It's It's pathetic, honestly.

[00:05:20]that and especially if this was happening anywhere else in even this state, something would have already been done about it. It is because it's in the southern part of the state.

[00:05:30]I think that a lot of our representatives have just completely written us off and they did a long time ago and they have no intent on ever going back and fixing anything. They just want to keep putting band-aid after band-aid after band-aid and they never do anything to stop the bleeding. It's just constant neglect and nepotism.

[00:05:52]Every every branch of a corrupt government that you could think of for people for people who are watching that aren't from here, if you can comprehend what a corrupt government looks like in the United States, that's what West Virginia has from top to bottom. You know, we only vote for people who say the same two or three things. Oh, I support coal. You can support coal. You can support coal miners having jobs and support having clean water, too. Other places do it.

[00:06:24]Pennsylvania's made great strides in it.

[00:06:26]West Virginia is like 30 to 40 years behind the rest of the world when it comes to that mentality. We have the technology now to where our water can be clean and we can have coal mining.

[00:06:39]It It's just they want to pretend that it's not possible because if they pretend it's not possible, they never have to sink any kind of money into it.

[00:06:48]This is acid mine drainage.

[00:06:50]>> So what does that mean?

[00:06:52]>> I mean, talk to us.

[00:06:53]>> Well, essentially what happens is you have a mine that over the years fills with water. The water combines with the coal and over time it forms sulfuric acid. That acid breaks down the heavy metals that's in the rock.

[00:07:06]And this is what it looks like. Some people like to call it iron water. It's not iron water. There's iron in the water, but it's not iron water because it dissolves all of the rock, which includes lead, cadmium, uh, copper.

[00:07:21]>> So, is acid mine drainage always bad? Is it inherently in and of itself bad?

[00:07:29]If it's acidic, it's it is bad because it could even leech out some of the um heavy metals that are in the the creek.

[00:07:38]Um now, if it's mine drainage that's alkaline, and if it's alkaline, you won't have any problems with it. Um the newer mines have alkaline drainage. The older mines are the ones with the acidic drainage.

[00:07:51]This is widespread. This will eventually make its way to a creek. That creek will make its way to the river and that river is full of fish that will breathe this in. It's full of water intakes that will eventually make it to somebody's water.

[00:08:05]They'll shower in this, drink it, albeit watered down, but it's still there.

[00:08:12]>> Have you tested it?

[00:08:17]>> This one?

[00:08:17]>> Mhm.

[00:08:18]>> No, I've not I don't think I've tested this one. I just I've I've found out about it the other way. This is acid mine drainage.

[00:08:25]>> Absolutely. Yes. Um, how I know it's acid mine drainage without testing it as opposed to iron water is with iron water you have a oily oil like film on top of it which is the bacteria. There's no oil film here.

[00:08:40]>> That's because the other heavy metals kill off the iron bacteria.

[00:08:44]>> This is acid mine drainage out of a mine that's probably in this mountain right here.

[00:08:49]You can see right here when you get up here and you're able to see the water is completely fine right there. This is where the spill starts and you look up the mountain, there's a pipe coming straight out of the mountain. And you know, you might go by and see a pipe and not know anything about it. But when you look down and see that obviously the water is changing like this below it, you know that it is it's that pipe right there.

[00:09:13]>> So this coal mine is closing. How many jobs are going to be cost?

[00:09:17]Well, all in all, I believe uh seven total mines are closing. Um it'll be like 520 um jobs lost. I'm not sure how many of those are actually coal, but obviously all the miners in those mines will be laid off.

[00:09:32]>> I mean, 500 jobs doesn't sound like a lot to somebody in LA, >> but to a small West Virginia coal town, that's a substantial amount.

[00:09:42]>> Yeah, that's probably 25 to 40% of the workforce of of our town, I'd say, works at those m one of those seven miles.

[00:09:55]>> So, this town's already decimated in a lot of ways. Sleepy, I mean, it's really going to it's really going to hurt this town. If another mine doesn't come in and buy them out and you know resume production, yeah, it'll the town was already being talked about for our high school being consolidated with Logan. Um, you take the coal severance out of man, all of that co severance out of man, I'd say within 20 years, it won't even be a town anymore. It'll be just a a dot on an old map. What are your thoughts about this on a broader scale for West Virginia as a whole? Is this the story ac all across West Virginia?

[00:10:36]>> Yep. It started first in McDow. That's and that's why McDow uh has so many abandoned uh vacant places is because it started in Mcdow and then it left first for >> McDow.

[00:10:48]>> Same with Mercer and then it kind of moved to Wyoming County and then Logan and Boone. And now Logan and Boon are just starting to see like the abandonment that Mcdow County and Mercer County has been dealing with for probably 20 years now.

[00:11:02]>> Well, what's that mean? I mean, what's that what's that philosophically mean for the coal fields?

[00:11:06]>> It's dying.

[00:11:08]It's there's not it's dying and it's on its it's on life support and it's there's no telling how much time's left.

[00:11:17]I mean, before the layoffs, I would say that we, you know, we were probably doing all right, but after these layoffs, there's going to be 500 able-bodied men that aren't able to find work. And now, let's say half of them get employed at some of the other mines. That's still 250 able-bodied men that are unable to find work.

[00:11:38]>> Mhm.

[00:11:38]>> And a lot of co- severance is gone from the area.

[00:11:43]And that's really what a lot of our just about everything around this area as far as our towns runs off of our coal severance taxes.

[00:11:51]>> What is coal severance tax?

[00:11:53]>> It's uh it's the amount of coal that leaves an area. For example, if you got a railroad track that runs through your town, your town is paid a tax based on per ton how much coal is taken through town.

[00:12:06]>> Same thing same thing for coal trucks, stuff like that. And that tax is what fuels a lot of the small towns to be able to do anything, a lot of the county to be able to do anything. And that's traditionally that's the only leverage the coal field has had with the state government. It's the only thing that we've had to be like, well, you know, we provide the coal severance taxes. You have to do this at least. Now we now we don't provide even the coal severance taxes. And that's why when Patrick Morsey announced 161 water projects, only two of them were in the co in the coal fields cuz it's we're now the the forgotten area of the state because we're not profitable anymore.

[00:12:47]This is an empoundment pond.

[00:12:49]>> What does that mean?

[00:12:50]>> This is like an area you can see it's like grayish black. This would be the area that the water that's running off of that coal stack over there would run off into um where it would set over time. It lets the contaminants over time it lets the uh coal slurry and heavy metal settle to the bottom of it and where and then eventually it'll flow out back into the creek.

[00:13:13]>> So this is a very normal part of owning and operating a coal mine.

[00:13:16]>> Yes.

[00:13:17]>> All right. So I guess somebody like me that hasn't grown up near this stuff, I see it and I'm like, "Oh, that's interesting." Like it doesn't seem normal to me, but it is normal.

[00:13:27]>> Yeah.

[00:13:28]>> Is there something is there a downside to these things? The downside is that because of the boom and bust cycle of coal, you know, 20 years from now, there might not be a coal mine here to maintain it.

[00:13:40]And when that happens, it falls to the div the D. And if it falls to D, they're so they have so many things on their plate that they simply just they have to neglect things like this because it just it's just not high on the priority list.

[00:13:54]>> So, what does that mean? That means that one day uh it could come a flood and it could, you know, flood directly into the creek or it could just be over time it leeches the chemicals and the heavy metals into the water. But it's not a matter of if, it's a matter of when.

[00:14:11]>> So without a shadow of a doubt, this is going to be this could potentially become a problem down the road.

[00:14:15]>> Whether it's 5 years from now or 50 years from now, it will be a problem.

[00:14:20]They're supposed to be lined with like a plastic that keeps stuff from leeching out, but I mean it fails, too.

[00:14:29]It's carrying something throughout this pipe right here. And look, you can see the vegetation is like brown and dead.

[00:14:35]And that's not from mud. The all the grass around where the water's touching is dead because it's very high in sulfates. It's very high in arsenic. Uh, and that stuff leeches directly into your creek, directly into your water supply. and not all of the public utilities actually test for those things. So, it's just one of those things that people kind of consume and they don't even know they're consuming.

[00:14:57]>> So, is this what the Buffalo Creek disaster flooded with?

[00:15:00]>> Uh, yeah, on a much larger scale. Yeah, essentially.

[00:15:04]>> What happened with that? Well, there were three large dams that um held back this kind of coal slurry and it had rained for weeks on end in in around around this time. Um snow, melt, rain combined to just overwhelmed the first dam and once the water got moving, it just decimated the other two. I think it killed somewhere around 170ome people, did billions of dollars in damage and that's in the 70s. So to get to the B billion is kind of insane.

[00:15:40]Uh it it left emotional scars. There's there's people who live in man today that get worried and legitimately have panic attacks anytime it rains a couple days in a row just because of how how d you know how traumatizing it was.

[00:15:56]>> Yeah. So are you procol?

[00:16:00]>> Absolutely.

[00:16:01]>> Yeah. I don't think you can really live in West Virginia or at least the southern part of the state and not be pro coal.

[00:16:07]The problem is is I think that the industry has convinced people that you have to be pro coal and anti-environment when in fact in in fact you can be pro coal and pro- environment.

[00:16:19]>> Can you I mean how does that work?

[00:16:22]>> You can just it could be something as simple as you don't want the mines to to put their their water waste directly into the the streams.

[00:16:31]stricter regulations around empalement ponds. It could be you don't have it's a spectrum. You don't have to be full one way just to say, "Oh, yeah, I'm for the environment." You can, it can be small little things that you for that you're for. I think that the industry has convinced a lot of people to be fully against any kind of environmental regulation when in reality a lot of them do a lot of good. Um, and that's one of the main reasons we have such issues with our water because people are convinced that, you know, you're either pro call or you're a tree hugging hippie that is uh doesn't know what it's like to work a day in their life when in reality there are people who legitimately see that this is an issue and this is going to continue to be an issue unless we stop it. When you say this is an issue, what do you mean?

[00:17:27]>> Like for example, this right here, there's re the reason that there is a ditch right on the other lip right here is because it collects all the rain runoff that goes directly into that ditch and then it would it'll make its way to an empoundment pond where it'll eventually settle.

[00:17:43]You know, 20 years from now, when the mine that owns the empoundment pond is gone, that empalment pond is going to start leeching all the stuff into the surrounding area, into the creeks, into the rivers, and eventually into your water.

[00:17:56]I'm not against mining it and selling it. I'm against not regulating it to the point to where they're allowed to put whatever they want in our water and whatever they want into the environment.

[00:18:09]This is an example of an empoundment failing after years, you know, after that after the mine that put it there goes out of business or, you know, whatever happens, it stops functioning at that mine site. After a certain set amount of years, it goes to the D to enforce, you know, regulation on it. And the D once again is just so overwhelmed with requests like this that they're not able to fully regulate it. And this is the result. the impalments over that way and it could just leaks out. You can see right here actually one of the major spots it's leaking out.

[00:18:46]It's right there. You can see where the the major orange staining is back there under those trees.

[00:18:52]It'll leak out in weak points where I'd say the roots of the roots of those trees have probably weakened the wall of the impalment and that's where it's leaking out. Um, you know, if this was regulated, as you can see, there's not many large trees along it. If this was regulated, those larger trees would be dealt with before they get this big and they do that kind of damage. But when you have these unregulated sites, this is just what's going to end up happening regardless of, you know, what we do, it's whether it's 5 years from now or 50 years from now, it's going to eventually be this. This is the ultimate what it ends up being.

[00:19:28]You can just see all the way down all the way down through here. This has become like a secondary creek almost.

[00:19:34]And this has got worse since I last saw it.

[00:19:37]It was a lot less. And you can kind of see this green this green uh algae type. The why it's like green where the rest of the grass is like brown and dead. That stuff appears really predominantly in areas with high iron and high high manganesees. You'll see it in streams.

[00:19:56]You'll see like if you're just out in the woods and you see a random stream and the you see orange sand around it and really green grass in the bottom, you've got acid mine drainage >> and just practically what is the negatives about this?

[00:20:13]>> Well, eventually this will make its way into pond fork which we just passed Vans PSD which is about what you say about a mile down the road.

[00:20:20]A mile down the road is the closest PSD and this is going directly into that source. And so so many of these rural PSDs aren't equipped to even test for these metals, let alone actually remove them from the water.

[00:20:33]And that's why Boone County is actually a top three county in the entire country in water violations.

[00:20:39]And this is right. I think I'm pretty sure Van PSD is the worst one in Boone County if I'm not mistaken.

[00:20:45]And this will make perfect sense. This is literally their water source. They're drinking mine water essentially. They're drinking water that has probably sat in this empoundment for maybe a couple decades and now it's starting to leak out as the regulations loosened.

[00:21:02]Golly, this is a perfect comparison. I'm sure you'll have somebody in in a comment somewhere say, "Oh, that's just iron water. The dirt underneath the road must be rich in iron." This is the other side of the road. It's completely clear.

[00:21:15]It's got some dust and dirt in it, but the water's not orange. It's not corrosive.

[00:21:23]There's actual grass growing in it and not the special algae that only grows in like waste sites.

[00:21:30]This is this is what the side of the road should look like. I mean, minus the litter, but that's another point.

[00:21:37]Uh this this just plain as day the difference. That side's the empoundment.

[00:21:45]This side is just mountain side. It just gets water run off from the mountain completely clear. On that side from the empoundment, it's orange. See, this is just downstream from the area we were just at the uh orange mine drainage.

[00:21:58]This is a good example of what happens when it gets downstream and theyo supposedly treated. This is the creek.

[00:22:05]You see that on the banks there's this this bluish hue. I'm not sure if you can get it very good on the camera or not, but that bluish hue usually is one of two things in water. It's a high chlorine level, which we know it's not chlorine, or it's aluminum. And aluminum is extremely toxic to animals, and it's also toxic to human beings in the form that it comes in in the water. It can in animals, it clogs fishes, the fish's gills. It prevents them from uh reproducing. And then in humans it can cause different kinds of cancers and it can cause neurological diseases like Alzheimer's and Parkinson's.

[00:22:43]Usually when you see a deep green that's from algae. When you see it's a deep blue it's usually it's usually a reflection of the sky. But as you can see it's snowing. It's the sky is not blue and you can very clearly see blue.

[00:23:00]>> So it's chemicals >> essentially. It's heavy metals that shouldn't be in our water.

[00:23:06]that are.

[00:23:07]>> But no, Jake, if you're going to have coal mining, you got to have this.

[00:23:12]>> That's what they say. That's what they say.

[00:23:17]I wish people would understand that you can have clean clean water and coal mining at the same time. It's just so simple. It's if we had Do you see that? Huh?

[00:23:29]>> What is this big black pipe going through here?

[00:23:36]It's got foam down there.

[00:23:39]Look here. You can see the deep blue right here.

[00:23:50]>> This doesn't look right.

[00:23:52]>> No. No, it doesn't, does it? And you got that right there.

[00:23:57]None of this looks right at all.

[00:24:00]This is just what happens after not being regulated for decades and decades.

[00:24:12]I think people think the magical coal fairies come up and they maintain all this stuff, but now decades after after it stopped being mined and nobody cares about it anymore, this is what we're left with.

[00:24:25]I got >> I think you can even see where it enters into the stream. Look somewhere through here.

[00:24:36]>> It's what?

[00:24:37]>> You can see like right here's clear or black and then it turns orange down through here.

[00:24:42]I wonder if there's a pipe or something.

[00:24:45]That smells horrible.

[00:24:46]>> What the [ __ ] is that?

[00:24:47]>> That's sulfur.

[00:24:49]That's sulfur. Oh [ __ ] What are we walking up on?

[00:24:51]>> This is the [ __ ] that Richard and I found.

[00:24:53]>> Oh man. What is this?

[00:24:58]I think this is straight out of a mine and it's being sent here to settle and it's full of sulfur. I should have brought my damn cup.

[00:25:09]We're about a mile from the damn cup.

[00:25:10]Damn. Oh my god.

[00:25:18]>> What is that?

[00:25:20]>> That's just pure sulfur in water.

[00:25:23]>> Huh? That's all sulfur.

[00:25:28]>> What is this?

[00:25:28]>> Is the I don't This is This is an impoundment, but I think it's of of like the pure sulfur.

[00:25:42]Golly, you can smell it. I didn't smell till we got up closer to it.

[00:25:48]You can smell it. It smells like straight like rotten eggs.

[00:25:53]When it first comes out of the mine, it's pumped into an area like this. This is what it looks like. That water is probably extremely acidic.

[00:26:02]Um, this is the water that would dissolve uh the heavy metals out of the rocks. So, what they do is they build these impelment lots and they line the bottom with limestone and they pump the water into this. And then down there, it looks like there's an outlet to where eventually after the water settles, it can leave.

[00:26:21]But I don't, it kind of looks broken. I don't know if that's supposed to be the way it is. It's bursting out of the side of it.

[00:26:34]So, this isn't natural. Is this a Is this in and of itself a problem?

[00:26:39]by itself. Yeah, it's it's not a It depends. If it's being overseen by mine actively, then it's not that much of a problem because someone's actively making sure that it's not leaking into the creek. Someone's actively making sure that it's being attended to. But when these mines go defunct and they go out of business, you know, two decades down the line, somebody's not coming up here and, you know, from their old coal mine and taking a look. It's the D or nobody. And the D doesn't have the funding or the resources because they're they're they're drawn back and neutered in every way by the state government.

[00:27:16]They can't oversee everything.

[00:27:22]God, that is straight sulfur though.

[00:27:26]I guarantee you if I got a collection of of little cup that would be acidic water. You can see like how much grass do you see growing along the sides? It's there. It's only short grasses, no shrubs, nothing directly next to the water. This has been here for probably decades. This should have already established trees around it at this point.

[00:27:49]>> Talk to us about what we saw today.

[00:27:50]>> So, essentially, we we saw how these coal companies exploit exploit towns, exploit communities and people. They come in, build these community towns for PE and you know these small communities and then eventually they just leave and we're left to pick up the pieces. We're left to pick up what's left over and only thing we're left with is toxic water and failing infrastructure.

[00:28:20]And it's it's just sad that every eventually every community in West Virginia, especially southern West Virginia, is going to head this way unless it finds, you know, a plan B. And I'm not saying to give up on coal. I'm saying to make arrangements for the event that it is no longer here. Because whether the EPA does it in or whether the market does it in, it's it's not going to be around for, you know, another 30 years.

[00:28:48]no matter what a president does. And that's just the fact and reality that people need to face before they come to terms with how our land has been treated. Because if you if you think that our only shot a living is the coal mines, then you're never going to criticize the coal mines.

[00:29:08]Because if you don't bite the hand that feeds you and if they're the only hand giving out food, then you don't say much. You just kind of let it go. you let it slide and you let them poison you.

[00:29:20]As long as you got a paycheck coming in and your family and your babies are taken care of, that's all you really care about. And that's that's really what I think people from outside of here don't understand is that we don't necessarily, you know, absolutely love coal. It's just our only option. It's It's the only thing that we have here that pays the living wage enough to where people can raise a family and have an income to where they can still have Christmas presents under the tree every December.

[00:29:51]There's not any other options for that.

[00:29:52]It's either that or you go into healthcare because of how aging our population is.

[00:29:59]And not everybody can go right into healthcare. And not everybody wants to go right into healthcare.

[00:30:09]If things continue the way they're going, little small communities like Bandytown here in Boone County, they won't exist in 20 years. And small towns like Man and Van and Wharton, they won't exist in 50. And that's just the reality of it.

[00:30:27]No one here likes to think far down the road because we know what's down the road. And the sooner we recognize that and do something about it, the sooner we can we can start to actually recover and actually move on past the past.

[00:30:45]I think that's Yep.