WV Town to Get Clean Water by “spring”

No, not that kind of spring.

I got so excited to see this headline “WV Town to Get Clean Water by spring.” See, I thought to myself, there still are still amazing clean spring-water sources left in some parts of Appalachia. But it turns out that they’re aren’t talking about a “spring” of flowing water, but instead the installation of Prenter’s new water system…in March of 2010.

Don’t you think a more appropriate headline would have been “WV Town to go 8 More Months without Clean Drinking Water“:

Gov. Joe Manchin will be on hand Tuesday as West Virginia American Water breaks ground for a new line that is expected to supply 155 households by March.
…
Residents of Prenter and Seth are suing eight coal companies they believe poisoned their wells by pumping coal slurry into old underground mines. They claim cracks in the earth allowed the slurry to migrate and pollute the aquifer.

For months, many residents have been hauling clean water home from a pay station at a church. Others rely on free fill-ups of the 50-gallon barrels at their homes.

Update: For more info on Prenter, see Sludge Safety Project, or Ken Ward’s Coal Tattoo blog, which have covered the issue for a long time.

Water filter in Prenter:

Or this penny which has been exposed to the water:

About JW Randolph

Raised on the banks of the Tennessee River, JW's work to create progress in his home state and throughout Appalachia has been featured on the Rachel Maddow Show, The Daily Kos and Grist. He served first as Appalachian Voices’ Legislative Associate and then Tennessee director until leaving to pursue a career in medicine in 2012.