State gathering water samples in Virgie area

BY LINDSAY LANCASTER

STAFF WRITER

Upon residents' request, state officials visited Virgie yesterday to gather data and plan water testing because residents say many people either have cancer or have died from cancer within the past few years.

Jim Webb, the Kentucky Division of Water's geologist registered supervisor for the ground water branch, came out to the Left Fork of the Long Fork of Virgie to do an inventory of the wells, to inspect the wells and to accumulate data, he said.

Within the next two or three weeks, Webb said the Division of Water will take four ground water quality samples, one surface water sample from the creek and one sample from a nearby slurry pond.

Webb said the citizens' primary concern is heavy metals, and the Division of Water will test for nutrients, ions, pesticides, herbicides, bacteria and volatile organic compounds in the water.

After gathering water samples, it will take about four to six weeks to get an analysis back, he said.

“There's a problem, we just don't know where it is,” said Spicy Johnson, who has lived in the community for about 30 years.

Johnson said she has a list of about 50 people total from both Left and Right Rorks of Long Fork in Virgie who have cancer or who have died from cancer. It's really exploded over the last year - probably six people were diagnosed with cancer just this spring, she said.

And “it's always rare forms,” like liver cancer, kidney cancer, skin disorders, among others, Johnson said.

Leah Clifton, Johnson's sister, added more kinds of cancers in the community to the list, including lung cancer, cervical cancer, ovarian cancer, bone cancer and even a 12-year-old girl with leukemia.

“I was one of the lucky ones that mine developed in the breast and not in the lungs,” said Ruth “Ann” Bentley, who developed breast cancer in March.

Several people in the community have died of lung cancer, people who have never smoked, Bentley said.

“What puzzles me is why it's so many in our neck of the woods,” she said.

When Johnson contacted government officials about three weeks ago, she said they told her that the first place to check would be the water.

“We just have a suspicion at this point,” Johnson said. “Everybody has the same concerns.”

One of Johnson's concerns is that the effects of so many years of coal mining is having a negative impact on the environment and the residents.

“I think we're starting to see that [the effects of mining] right now,” Johnson said.

However, Johnson, Clifton and Bentley were very clear in saying that they have nothing against coal mining.

“I was raised a coal miner's daughter,” Clifton said. “I respect the coal mines. That's what fed me.”

Ruth “Ann” Bentley agreed and said she doesn't have a problem with mining, but the health problems in the area could be from chemicals washing down into the streams.

“There's unsafe ways to dispose of that [mine] waste,” Clifton said.

Ways including dumping waste into a sludge pond that runs over, and then dries about six or eight inches thick, she said.

Kermit Bentley, another Left Fork resident who has lived there his whole life, said he thinks the problems arising are resulting from occurrences years ago, maybe from all of the equipment left in the mines like old rails and bolts left inside.

Con Bentley, who has lived in the community since around 1953, said many different companies have mined in the area. Mostly underground mining has been in the area, although there is some strip mining, he said.

The fish in the streams died off about three to four years ago, Kermit Bentley said.

“You could see them floating belly up in the creek,” Clifton said.

Some people in the area are on city water, and the rest use hand-dug wells or drilled wells, Clifton said.

Bentley has been on city water for about six or seven years; before that, she had well water, but her well was destroyed from coal mine blasting, she said.

Clifton said she signed up for city water a couple months ago.

For a long time, when coal trucks would drive on the roads near their homes, Clifton said everybody was practically eating dust; when they would complain, the coal companies would water the roads down with sludge water, she said.

“We've ate, we've breathed, we've lived this for years,” Clifton said. But she said she doesn't know if the problems are originating from the air, the soil, the water or what. But what she does know is that people who never smoked, drank or worked in the mines are coming down with cancer or have died of cancer.

Clifton's main concern is for her children.

“I plan to live here right here on this holler the rest of my life,” Clifton said. She said she wants to know if it's safe for her kids to play in the water or play in the dirt.

On Wednesday, the Interior Department's Office of Surface Mining and Reclamation Enforcement (OSMRE) will be coming out to do some initial testing, as well, Johnson said.

OSMRE officials were unavailable for comment regarding the type of testing they would perform.

Staff writer Lindsay Lancaster can be reached via e-mail at llancaster@news-expressky.com.