Which Central Appalachian coal producer was responsible for a spill that dumped 306 million gallons of slurry into tributaries of the Tug Fork River?
Martin County coal slurry spill The Martin County coal slurry spill was an accident that occurred after midnight on October 11, 2000 when the bottom of a coal slurry impoundment owned by Massey Energy in Martin County, Kentucky broke into an abandoned underground mine below. The slurry came out of the mine openings, sending an estimated 306,000,000 gal of slurry down two tributaries of the Tug Fork River. By morning, Wolf Creek was oozing with the black waste; on Coldwater Fork, a 10 ft wide stream became a 100 yd expanse of thick slurry.
Henry's Knob Henry's Knob is a mountain and Superfund Alternative Site in York County South Carolina at 1120 ft above sea level. It is near the North Carolina border and the town of Clover, South Carolina. The mountain was the site of an open-pit kyanite mine, which was under operation from 1947 to 1970. At the time of its discovery, the deposit of kyanite on the mountain was the world's largest United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) testing has determined that approximately 450 residences in the vicinity relying on well water are affected by groundwater contamination from the former mine. The mountain was stripped of approximately 100 ft due to the mining operations. Today, the site is overgrown, with many pits and waste ponds still evident. While some efforts have been made to repopulate the site with vegetation, little cleanup of the dangerous minerals (including Manganese) has been done.