By Mike Tony
For Charleston Gazette-Mail
Gov. Patrick Morrisey pledged to fight for clean water in the historic coal mining company city of Gary in McDowell County during a stop on his water-focused southern coalfields listening tour on Aug. 5.
But Gary residents say Morrisey’s administration and federal officials have failed to pursue civil or criminal legal action to force into environmental compliance a coal mining company whose pollution has made their tap water unusable.
Eighteen Gary residents said so in a federal lawsuit contending that nearby Wilcoe-based metallurgical coal provider Taishan Resources LLC and affiliate Taishan Coal LLC are to blame for contamination of their water, operating a surface mine on the same site as the sole well supplying them water and allowing mining waste to enter groundwater and Gary’s city well and wellhouse.
The residents told the United States District Court for the Southern District of West Virginia in their lawsuit filed on Aug. 20 that the West Virginia Department of Environmental Protection, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and U.S. Office of Surface Mining Reclamation and Enforcement didn’t pursue legal action to require compliance with the federal Surface Mining Control and Reclamation Act or Resource Conservation and Recovery Act, prompting them to move forward with the suit.
The former law governs environmental impacts of coal mining. The latter law regulates the disposal of hazardous and solid waste.
Taishan Coal has accumulated 17 DEP violation notices and cessation orders since 2021 on the roughly 372-acre permit in the Tug Fork River watershed for the Alpheus Prep Plant operation targeted by the lawsuit.
The DEP Public Information Office said in an email Wednesday that the agency “diligently carries out its regulatory and enforcement responsibilities under applicable law,” has performed “routine, in-depth inspections of the site” and “has not identified violations or conditions that would be expected to impact Gary’s water system.” The agency declined to comment further.
The Gary residents told the court they depend on the Gary municipal water system for their drinking water and for years have been precluded from using their tap water because it’s been mining-contaminated, rendering it black or brown, full of sediment and with a strong odor. It’s not suitable for drinking, cooking or bathing, costing them money spent on bottled water they’re forced to use and municipal water they do their best to avoid.
But the residents told the court they bathe in the contaminated water when they must and have to use it in their dishwashers and laundry machines, resulting in stained clothes and appliance corrosion.
“My kids need clean drinking water,” Sandra Blankenship, a Gary resident and plaintiff in the lawsuit, said in a statement released by environmental nonprofit Appalachian Voices.
Blankenship added that her family often pays $200 a month to buy water on top of a $100 water bill.
“They need to fix this situation and make sure we have clean water,” Blankenship said.
Lawsuit cites PSC staff inspection of wellhouse
The lawsuit draws heavily from a February 2026 West Virginia Public Service Commission staff report following up on an August 2025 staff finding of a “lack of technical and managerial ability” and engineering deficiencies to operate the City of Gary Municipal Water Works utility.
Staff recommended in February that the McDowell County Public Service District should acquire, operate and maintain the Gary water system, urging Gary to evaluate and potentially construct a new water source with better water quality than the Grapevine Branch well targeted by the residents’ lawsuit and improve its recordkeeping.
In an order finalized in May, the PSC approved an operation and maintenance agreement by which the agency said Gary would transfer day-to-day operations of its facilities to McDowell Public Service District while retaining ownership and continuing to pursue funds to refurbish the utility for its 416 customers.
The residents’ lawsuit noted a PSC decision observation that a well or spring near the Grapevine well showed indications of iron in the local water and that the well house has been flooded by surface water runoff that displaced material from remining operations. The runoff carried gray, dark gray and black material from the remining activities and covered the floor of the well house, per the PSC staff report filed in February 2026.
Coal refuse surrounded and coated the wellhouse floor during the PSC staff’s September 2025 inspection of the wellhouse, according to that report. The residents noted the dark gray or black material was observed during the PSC staff’s site visit “and was noted as being hardened, being approximately 2-4 inches thick, covering the entire floor [and] creating an unsafe work environment.”
The residents cited a PSC finding that the Gary well is located below the remining site, with mine waste carried toward the well house by rainwater and accumulating inside.
Gary’s tap water regularly exceeds national secondary drinking water standards for iron, manganese, sulfates and total dissolved solids, the lawsuit observes, citing Taishan’s own permit-required monitoring.
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 noticeable effects of secondary maximum contaminant level exceedance for iron include a rusty color, metallic taste and reddish or orange staining, according to the EPA. Manganese exceedance yields a black to brown color, black staining and a bitter metallic taste.
Residents seek water replacement supply
The residents’ lawsuit requests that the court compel Taishan to provide an emergency, temporary and permanent water replacement supply, award them “all reasonable costs” incurred by the owner in securing water supply before Taishan provides a replacement, and grant them damages as a result of what it calls Taishan’s “negligent and outrageous conduct.”
Taishan did not respond to a request for comment. The EPA and OSMRE declined to comment.
“It’s a travesty that the people of Gary have had to deal with contaminated water for as long as they have,” Rev. Brad Davis, codirector of From Below, Rising Together for Coalfield Justice, a coalfield social justice initiative of the West Virginia Faith Collective that oversees a free drinking water distribution program that serves Gary, said in a statement. “If Taishan is responsible for polluting the water, then Taishan should be required to clean up their act and make sure the community has a reliable clean water source.”
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