Residents report the water having a strong smell of chlorine, discoloration, odd taste, sediment and irritation/burning when in contact with skin.
[1] The contamination was caused by the spillage of approximately 300 million gallons of arsenic and mercury concentrated coal sludge into an abandoned underground mine and two tributaries of the Tug Fork River by local coal company Massey Energy Company on October 11, 2000.
MCC had to pay $3.25 million in penalties and damages to Kentucky, which was the largest mining-related fine in the history of the state.
[4] Jack Spadaro, a previous director of the National Mine Health and Safety Academy (NMHSA), led an investigation on the spill and revealed that Martin County Coal (MCC), a subsidiary of Massey, had a past spill in 1994, and knew that another break was almost inevitable.
The byproduct of the energy production process is a black sludge substance which contains high levels of arsenic, lead, mercury, and other industrial pollutants.
After it was found that the water system was failing, recommendations were made for reform to fix the broken infrastructure and the poor management.
[17] The reservoir is littered with empty liquor bottles and used syringes, and only one of the three water clarifying tanks is actually even fully functional.
[18] Twenty years later the inhabitants of Martin County are still struggling to live in their environment of fear, distrust, and pollution.
A whistleblower, Jack Spadaro, released information that the Bush administration was purposefully covering up the Martin County spill.
They also claim that Martin County Water has failed to implement numerous remedial actions required after the 2006 investigation, including a comprehensive plan to reduce water loss, implementing a preventative maintenance program and improving financial management.”[25] On July 31st, 2020, a study conducted by Jason Unrine and Wayne Sanderson, both Professors at the College of Agriculture at the University of Kentucky, found that the county’s drinking water “regularly exceeded U.S. Environmental Protection Agency maximum contamination levels for cancer-causing disinfection byproducts and coliform bacteria”.
The study found that nearly all Martin County residents reported problems with their drinking water, some of their complaints include odor, appearance, taste, and pressure.
In 2002 the Kentucky state government launched an investigation that resulted in forty-three problems being addressed in the Martin County water supply.
While this rate increase was approved by city regulators so long as Martin County hired a professional outside manager for expertise, this caused a sequence of economic problems for residents.
This was reported along with the finding that 18.1% of Martin County households with an income of less than $10,000 had water burden levels well above the EPA's affordability threshold.
[28] In June 2019, an investigation by the Kentucky Attorney General was launched in order to potentially charge individuals on the Martin County water district board with misappropriation of money, theft of grant money, and potentially receiving free water.
[29] Martin County's 2020 CCR report did not find any violations in water contaminants, after investigating potential sources of roads, bridges, culverts, and oil and gas pipelines.
The water was found to have spiked turbidity levels due to a flood, and the system was unable to react to this large issue.
[30] On October 12, 2000, Massey Energy spilled more than 300 million gallons of coal slurry, sparking an investigation by the Mine Safety and Health Administration (MSHA).
The investigation was meant to continue past this point but was ended prematurely by the Bush administration when they entered office.
[33] On March 4, 2020, House Resolution 122 was introduced to the Kentucky House of Representatives, urging Governor Andy Beshear to declare a State of Emergency in Martin County, Kentucky, and make emergency funds available to resolve the county's water crisis.
On April 1, 2021, the American Rescue Plan Act invested 1 billion dollars in many issues affecting Martin County, especially drinking water.
These efforts to improve access to drinking water in Martin County are estimated to provide roughly 3,800 jobs statewide.
The first of these orders came on March 16, 2018, and granted an emergency rate increase of 26.5% and included an additional fee of $4.19 to help pay off the debt the water district faced.
[38] On July 9, 2021, an additional emergency rate increase was proposed by the Martin County Water District and approved by the PSC.
The Water Warriors would share images and stories about containment and outages leaks while the Martin County Concerned Citizens persuaded the Kentucky State Regulator to give ordinary and regulator citizens a role in holding the water department accountable.
Nina states that what finally got them the attention they deserved was when there were so many broken pipes that people would start to run out of water for days and even weeks.
Host of Kentucky Sports Radio (KSR), Matt Jones, showed a huge interest in the Martin County water crisis.
[43] On December 22, 2018, country artist and Lawrence county native, Tyler Childers personally delivered 500 cases of bottled water to Martin County[44] and gave a heartfelt speech touching on the cancer rates, opioid crisis and his memories of clean water issues from his youth.
He went on to point out the injustice of how eastern Kentuckians have "carried corporations into the future" while having water that "isn’t fit for dogs to bathe in, let alone your children."
[45] On November 12, 2019, Maanasa Manchikanti wrote about how a participant of the Community Leadership Institute of Kentucky (CLIK), Ricki Draper, has started receiving national attention for the report she co-wrote in 2018.