Just as West Virginians were starting to recover from the disastrous chemical spill into the Elk River, they face a new threat to their health: a coal slurry spill that has poisoned a Kanawha County stream.

Over 100,000 gallons of coal slurry have spilled into the stream, allegedly due to a malfunctioning valve in an eight-inch pipeline operated by the Patriot Coal Corporation. The valve supposedly broke early in the morning, but Patriot Coal did not alert the state Department of Environmental Protection until several hours later. Coal slurry consists of liquid and solid waste from the mining and preparation process.

It typically contains metals that are considered toxic, like manganese and selenium. While Patriot Coal officials are quick to claim that the spill will not have significant consequences, the spill occurred along a six-mile stretch of Fields Creek, which runs into the Kanawha River.

The most fortunate thing for West Virginia residents is that unlike the Elk River chemical spill, the coal slurry spill does not have an immediate impact upon their supply of drinking water. Another fortunate thing is that MCHM, the chemical that predominated in the Elk River spill, was not used in the coal slurry mixture as originally thought. The chemical that replaced it, polypropylene glycol, was just a small part of the mixture, Patriot Coal officials claim.