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“Our home was destroyed,� Christian said.

Tina and husband Jamie Christian’s trailer is still standing between Welch-Pineville Road and Indian Creek, but it’s not much of a home anymore after the water eruption.

The Christians’ heat pump and furnace were destroyed, forcing them to resort to wood heat and small-window air conditioners and fans for the past year and a half. Insulation under the trailer has been consumed by black mold, and floors have become loose. Water is coming down the walls.

Money the Christians had saved for a lawn mower instead went toward buying pipe to get water from under their home.

But the Christians’ nightmare is far from over.

The foul smell of mine drainage water still emerging from an underground void is overwhelming just outside their back door. They’re afraid to let their pets loose because they believe the creek is poison.

The Christians say none of the mining companies that have sought to avoid responsibility for cleaning up the mess — including one belonging to Gov. Jim Justice — have offered to do anything to make their house safe.

“We cannot enjoy our home at all anymore, and neither can our grandkids,� Tina Christian said.

So, on Aug. 2, the Christians took legal action.

New lawsuit filed

The Christians filed a lawsuit in Wyoming County Circuit Court against four coal companies, alleging they share responsibility for two mine permits they say still are illegally discharging mine drainage onto their property and into Indian Creek. The plaintiffs seek “damages, attorney and expert witness fees, and punitive damages� for what they say has been “conscious, reckless and outrageous indifference to the health, safety and welfare of the citizens of Wyoming County.�

The lawsuit is more broad than another unresolved lawsuit the Christians filed against the companies in the same court in May. Christian said she hopes their action will pave the way for future lawsuits from other impacted residents against whatever companies are found responsible in court.

The couple’s plight has drawn attention to long-lingering water access concerns throughout Wyoming and McDowell counties in recent months. Water worries have driven residents and advocates to call out what they say has been a failure to keep what should be a basic building block of life from crushing them.

Expert suspects mine upwelling impact

Residents have reported thickened tap water ranging in color from orange to black and having to drive 20 minutes or more to gather spring water. McDowell and Wyoming counties are among the poorest in the nation, but some residents are paying more than $100 monthly for bottled water while also footing bills for water that has damaged their plumbing, discolored their clothes and caused skin rashes.

West Virginia Department of Environmental Protection spokesman Terry Fletcher said data collected by the agency haven’t indicated any public health or safety issues related to mine water discharges in Wyoming or McDowell counties exist. Fletcher said results show parameters associated with coal mining activity are meeting state water quality standard criteria for both aquatic life and human health.

The last Indian Creek water quality sampling conducted by the DEP — in late May 2024, as of last month — showed results at or above secondary drinking water standards set by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency for iron, manganese and aluminum. The secondary maximum contaminant levels are set as guidelines to help public water systems manage drinking water for aesthetic considerations like taste, color and odor.

Contaminants aren’t considered to pose a human health risk at the secondary maximum contaminant level, according to the EPA. But water quality experts note that water taste, color and odor issues like those prevalent in Southern West Virginia are no small matter.

Leigh-Anne Krometis, an associate professor and public health researcher at Virginia Tech who has studied central Appalachian water access and quality extensively, observed drinking water throughout the region has such high levels of “nuisance contaminants� like iron and manganese that it’s not what she would call “potable water.�

Krometis told the Gazette-Mail late last month after reviewing May 2024 test results shared by the DEP that high iron and manganese “absolutely� discolor water, cause staining and can create taste problems. High sodium and conductivity levels likely are from newly weathered rock as a result of a mine upwelling, Krometis said.

Over 867,000 gallons reportedly distributed

Coalfield residents say the DEP, Justice and other state officials have ignored them, leaving environmental and financial obstacles in place separating them from water they can trust.

Groups including From Below: Rising Together for Coalfield Justice, a faith-based coalfield advocacy group; the West Virginia Faith Collective, a Christian-based social justice network; and the West Virginia Rivers Coalition have called for a State of Emergency to provide clean water to residents throughout the region until drinking water infrastructure projects are fully funded and completed.

The Governor’s Office did not respond to a request for comment on the request.

From Below has reported water distributions in McDowell County have totaled over 867,000 gallons of water as of last month. The donations have supplied clean water to more than 280 homes, the group said.

Advocates have said outside groups have been more responsive to local water concerns than state and county officials.

“Nobody wants to mess with us down here,� Pineville area resident Richard Altizer said while driving through the region on a May afternoon after giving away 15 cases of water at his house that morning. Altizer has been a leading figure in the fight to raise awareness of area drinking water concerns.

“They know the governor is involved [controlling Bluestone Resources Inc., a company that has denied responsibility for environmental remediation near the Christians’ trailer],� he said. “We shouldn’t have to be buying water for the people down here.�

Water distributions have been occurring once or twice monthly on Friday afternoons at Gary City Hall in Gary, McDowell County.

From Below said water distribution this past Friday was supplied by California-based group Together We Rise.

McDowell, Wyoming projects not top priority

West Virginia public service districts often are cash-strapped, their resources limited by dwindling customer bases.

West Virginia’s Clean Water State Revolving Fund aims to address water quality problems through building, upgrading and expanding wastewater facilities.

In June 2024, the state submitted an intended use plan for the DEP-administered fund for state fiscal year 2025 to the EPA.

Projects requesting fund assistance are prioritized using a priority ranking system, with three categories — public health, regulatory compliance and affordability — used to determine project scoring. The highest-ranked projects on the priority list are contacted regarding their project status to determine if funding support is appropriate and the project is ready to proceed, according to the plan.

A Gazette-Mail review of the list found that despite rampant water concerns and disproportionately low income levels, McDowell and Wyoming counties have no projects among the list’s top nine entries.

None of those entries are from Southern West Virginia, where mining has been especially prevalent and has impacted water quality. Instead, the top entries are located in the north central or eastern parts of the state.

The highest-ranked entry from Southern West Virginia, placing 10th on the list, is a $9.4 million transmission and distribution restructuring project in Pineville that will extend water service from the Town of Pineville to unserved customers, including Baileysville Elementary School. The project will replace Brenton Public Service District, Green Camp Public Service District and Marianna Community Water, existing water systems that have had reliability and quality issues, according to the plan.

The state revolving fund amount for the project is $1.9 million, per the plan.

The highest-ranked entry for McDowell County comes in at No. 23 on the list: a $7.5 million McDowell Public Service District project in which an additional water treatment plant will be built to supplement another treatment plant completed in a previous phase of the project.

The state revolving fund loan amount for the project is $856,500, per the plan.

West Virginia’s percentage of public water systems with health-based violations of the federal Safe Drinking Water Act in 2022 was 22.7%, far exceeding the 4.5% national average, the Gazette-Mail found in a review of EPA data. West Virginia’s clip of public water systems in this category had been just 4.7% in 2015.

Projects to remediate an imminent significant hazard to a community’s public health may be considered an emergency project if approved by the West Virginia Office of Environmental and Health Services within the state Department of Health and the DEP.

Firms deny responsibility

In March 2023, the DEP sued Pinn MC Wind Down Co., a firm formed through a reorganization of the Pinnacle Mining Co. after its parent company, Mission Coal, filed for bankruptcy, to force permittee Pinnacle Mining Company LLC to respond to an order to address the discharge.

Pinnacle responded to the DEP’s lawsuit by suing Bluestone in June 2023 after a Wyoming County Circuit Court judge ordered Pinn MC Wind Down to monitor the discharging well property and prevent the pooling of water around the Christians’ residence.

Pinn MC contended all assets associated with the Pinnacle Mine Complex had been sold to Bluestone, citing an asset purchase agreement providing for the sale of the complex and the permit covering the discharging well property during Mission Coal bankruptcy proceedings.

Pinn MC asked the court for an order directing Bluestone to indemnify Pinn MC for any liability stemming from the DEP’s complaint, including all costs incurred abating the violations.

In August 2023, Bluestone moved to dismiss Pinn MC’s complaint, citing documentation of Mission Coal selling a portion of Pinnacle assets to Contura Energy Inc., which rebranded as Alpha Metallurgical Resources. Bluestone admitted it was the surface owner but asked the DEP to enforce what it said were Alpha’s permit obligations, saying Alpha doesn’t appear to hold permits it legally must.

In January 2024, Alpha responded to a third-party complaint Bluestone filed against it by denying that it “owed any duty to Bluestone.�

On July 29, Bluestone sought a preliminary injunction directing Alpha to immediately address the discharges and indemnify Bluestone.

Five days earlier, the Wyoming County Circuit Court scheduled a hearing on three separate preliminary injunction efforts for Aug. 20, further pushing back any remedy for the Christians.

Legal counsel for Pinn MC Wind Down declined to comment. Alpha and Bluestone legal counsel did not respond to a request for comment. A fourth company the Christians sued in their August complaint, Brooks Run South Mining LLC, could not be reached for comment.

‘People are suffering’

Having lost her heat pump and furnace, Tina Christian is one of many southern coalfield residents looking to turn up the heat on the mining companies and state officials charged with keeping them safe.

“People are suffering from the negligence of these companies,� she said.