MELISSA FARLOW_MM6773_1023652.jpg
A man with a shovels coal sludge after a mining accident occurred when the bottom of a coal slurry impoundment in Martin County, Kentucky broke into an abandoned underground mine in October 2000. An estimated 306 million gallons of oozing black waste containing arsenic and mercury killed everything in a creek and measured five feet deep covering nearby yards and surrounding some homes. Drinking water was contaminated for 27,000 residents as tributaries carried it to the Big Sandy and Ohio Rivers. It is considered one of the worst environmental disasters in the southeastern United States and although largely cleaned up, water quality issues exist and residents still find sludge and slurry in surface water.
- Copyright
- MELISSA FARLOW
- Image Size
- 8473x5838 / 43.5MB
- Keywords
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american people, clothing, creeks and streams, disasters, environmental damage, equipment, geography, hand tools, headgear, helmets, inez (kentucky), kentucky, national peoples, north america, peoples, pollution, protective clothing (non sportswear), shovels, southern states, types of clothing, types of headgear, united states, water, water pollution
- Contained in galleries
- Mountaintop Removal USA National Geographic MM6773
