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Article: Mine's selenium deforms fish, expert says
- Article from:
- Sunday Gazette-Mail
- Article date:
- April 27, 2008
- Author:
CopyrightCopyright 2008 Sunday Gazette-Mail. Provided by ProQuest LLC. (Hide copyright information)
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kward@wvgazette.com
Selenium pollution from one of West Virginia's largest
mountaintop removal mines is dangerously poisoning Mud River fish,
leaving some with serious deformities, according to one of the
nation's leading experts on the issue.
Fish samples showed some specimens with two eyes on one side of
the head, and others with curved spines, according to a report filed
in federal court by fisheries biologist A. Dennis Lemly.
Lemly blamed high concentrations of selenium in discharges from
the Hobet 21 mountaintop removal complex upstream from the Mud and
from the Mud River Reservoir.
"The Mud River ecosystem is on the brink of a major toxic event,"
Lemly said in a report, filed April 18 ...