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Vulcan’s Boone Quarry Pollution Problem

Thursday, April 21st, 2011 - posted by eric

Last night I was driving home, and noticed that Laurel Fork (along Hwy 105, just outside of Boone) was running a grayish color. I tracked down the source of the gray water, and it turned out to be the discharge from the Vulcan Boone Quarry (Just south of Boone on 105). Here is a video and some pictures of what I found.

A Gray-Brown Plume of water enters Laurel Fork from the Vulcan Boone Quarry. At the top of the photo you can see clear water in the Laurel Fork and then gray-brown water entering the creek from the right.

Gray-Brown Plume in Laurel Fork, created by Vulcan Boone Quarry

Discharge Pipe

The Vulcan Boone Quarry has had repeated problems in the past with discharging milky white and gray water and they got in trouble for it before. As a result they have some fancy monitoring equipment to watch their discharge. The question remains, why is this still going on if they have they monitor this water, and if they have gotten in trouble for this before?

Monitoring Equipment and Pollution

Check back for updates on what Vulcan and the North Carolina Division of Water Quality are going to do about this.

Vulcan's Boone Quarry

Tags: Boone, Environment, North Carolina, Riverkeeper, Watauga, Water, Water Pollution, Waterkeeper
Posted in All Posts, Front Porch Blog, Video | 1 Comment »

Come Out and Fight for Clean Water

Friday, February 4th, 2011 - posted by eric

Attention Boonies!

Come out this Monday night to support strong new regulations on coal tar based asphalt sealants, the source of the Hodges Creek fish kill last summer.

The Boone Town Council will be having a public hearing on Monday, February 7th at 7:00pm at the Boone Town Council Chambers (next to the police station on 321 and in front of K-mart). We need everyone to come out and speak in favor of a newly proposed ban on coal tar based asphalt sealants, in the town of Boone. If you don’t want to speak that’s ok too, just come out to show your support.

Here is the proposed new rule.

Help keep this from ever happening again:

Tags: Appalachian Voices, Coal, Environment, FArCES of Coal, North Carolina, Riverkeeper, Science and Nature, Watauga, Water, Water Pollution, Waterkeeper
Posted in Action Alerts, All Posts, Events, Front Porch Blog, News Alerts and Updates, News and Alerts, Video | No Comments »

Kentucky Legal Action Update

Monday, January 31st, 2011 - posted by eric

Last Thursday there was a hearing to decide if we would be allowed to intervene in the interest of clean water in a legal case between the state of Kentucky and ICG and Frasure Creek Mining. The Appalachian Water Watch team shot a short video in the court room prior to the start of the January 27th hearing. We provided a little background on the case and interviewed some of our most valued partners, people the Commonwealth of Kentucky calls “unwarranted burdens”. You can watch it here:

The case was brought about by our investigation that found 20,000 violations of the clean water act. The judge heard arguments from all parties and now we are just waiting to hear what he decides.