Collegiate Times

Just a few hours away from Blacksburg lies the community of Prenter Hollow in Boone County, W.Va. According to resident Patty Sebock, 98 percent of the area's inhabitants no longer have gallbladders because of diseases she believes have been caused by high metal content in water.

Not just that, but hundreds of people in the small West Virginia community have been affected, supposedly by the presence of slurry in coalmines in close proximity to residential communities. Reported effects also include kidney failure and cancer, among others.

Sebock said that in her community the water is called "hard water" because of the presence of iron and manganese; manganese takes the enamel off of teeth.

There are currently two lawsuits underway regarding water contamination from coal, though neither has gone to trial. It will be especially difficult for some of the poorest counties in the country to prove whether the process of disposing coal slurry has been contaminating the water supply.  The community members' burden of proof will be perhaps their most difficult challenge.

According to the CT, Jason Bostic, vice president of the West Virginia Coal Association, has acknowledged hearing allegations of coal slurry migration into domestic well water, but said that this link has not been substantiated.

Trisha Feeney, an employee with the Sludge Safety Project in West Virginia, told the CT, however, that when lawyers got test results from the water back, the chemicals "were well above a toxic level for safe consumption and that they contained arsenic and lead."

Fortunately Virginia Tech scientists have recently developed a new technology that removes water from coal slurry ponds, consequently decreasing the amount of toxic waste seeping into water tables and contaminating drinking wells.

Mining and mineral engineering professor Roe-Hoan Yoon has found a way to separate the three components that make up coal slurry. "Coal is what you want, so you have to remove the ash, which we do with microcell. Then we remove water using the centrifuge we have just publicized, and what is left is coal that you can sell," he said.

While this is an amazing achievement, it is made even more significant by the fact that communities in neighboring areas could potentially benefit from these technological advances in lifesaving ways. It is unacceptable to think that people in these communities are not being given access to clean water, one of the most basic resources that we take for granted. People should be able to drink water and shower without fear of being contaminated.

Part of Virginia Tech's land grant deal is to help the local community through research and discovery. Yoon's achievements are a triumph of the land grant promise. Perhaps now as we go forward, Virginia Tech can look to other ways to help the community of Prenter Hollow, maybe even through litigation, as it is one of the poorest counties in the nation. Hopefully this discovery will not be the end of the relationship between Tech and this community.

The editorial board is composed of David Grant, David Harries and Laurel Colella.