04/10/2026
Bio-accumulation. Maybe all the PCBs would have been covered over with sediment, concrete slabs covering the former leeched sites of waste PCBs if no more were ever introduced; however, more PCBs are introduced in the Upper Bluestone due to ill planning and lack of protection.
In 1980, N & D Contracting built the PCB pit behind Joy Manufacturing's Plant just outside of the Bluefield, VA's Town Limit. Mr Robinette, Plant Manager at that time wanted to contain as much of the PCBs as possible. Upstream from Pemco and just above the Bluefield, VA water intake this site would yet have residue of the PCBs on the banks of the Bluestone. Prior to the pit being built and afterward, incidents were reported by employees of barrels of PCBs being moved and the forklift rupturing the barrel. Thus, the carcinogen was spilled and subsequently ran into the Bluestone directly below. Mine machinery and equipment was steam cleaned and more PCBs and oil ran down the bank into the Bluestone River. It is known that these PCBs will not break down for some five hundred years and will continue to leech from the soil above the river and sediment in the river and find their way downstream.
Pemco Corporation brought case damaged transformers and switchgear onto their property, dumping the leaking equipment on the ground beside of the plant facilities and in back of the building. The ground would become saturated with the waxy oil (PCBs) and eventually find its way to the Bluestone just a few feet away. In the year of '80 ~ '81 the International Brotherhood of Electric Workers had a union drive underway at Pemco. Some of the radical employees poured hundreds of gallons of used PCBs into the grounds by the river, allowing the carcinogen to run into the river. Again, saturating the ground and sediment with this carcinogen which will not break down in centuries to come. Doc Riley and Dick Wood the principle owners were aware of the incursions.
Abbs Valley Electric, the next mine equipment repair shop upstream from Joy Manufacturing was seized by the Internal Revenue Service in the mid 1980s and closed. Tetrachlorethylene barrels (15) had been left uncapped with rain running into them. The toxin being lighter than water was displaced, all running into the Bluestone directly behind their facility.
Power Washing Equipment facilities was another facility just upstream from Abbs Valley Electric. Often mine equipment was seen on the docks being power washed to strip the machinery of grease and whatever was coating it.
Since the 1980s, several other mine machinery repair shops from the Town limits of Bluefield have opened, upstream from the water intake. Several times in recent years, coating of oils have been seen in the Bluestone waters, all upstream from the water intake. Eventually, this finds it's way to the potable water treatment facility. As you are aware, we also had a golf course and another planned above our water source. Golf courses do not have to, but most do use pesticides, herbicides and nitrates. The Environmental Protection Agency scientists have written volumes concerning the benzene and pesticides finding its way through water filtration into the consumer's water source. It is inexcusable for a planning commission and elected officials who are educated to allow such a health travesty to occur, knowing the damage to the water quality and potential destruction of life and health of citizens. Since the 1950s, the gun club has fired approximately ten thousand rounds per week. The lead azide in each primer is spewed out like a sneeze; this accumulates and finds its way to the river eventually as rains come and snow melts. In recent years and months, oils have been seen running from some shops into the waters of the Bluestone River West of Bluefield on the stretch of Route 460 known as the Bluefield/Tazewell Road. Mercury has leeched from the landfill, which was placed above the headwaters of the Bluestone River and Clinch River. Other toxins leech from the landfill, and we all know or should be able to imagine what goes into a landfill. Compare that to a residential drain or commode, everything imaginable is flushed to rid the household of the toxin. Even the chemotherapy cancer patients have is flushed from their body through excretion and enters our waters, along with discarded pharmaceuticals flushed down the toilet. We also have failed septic tanks and straight pipes, putting that into our water above the Bluefield, VA water intake.
In the mining industry of which I was part for for most of my adult life, it is common practice to put any lubricant available into the tank of a miner or other machine using hydraulics to make it through a shift because of a blown line, etc. Used PCBs and other waste, discarded oils find their way to the river banks as the machine is brought to be repaired and steam or power washed.
My point is this. The persons accountable and responsible have failed to protect this source of potable water and must begin to do so. However, they refuse to stop the commercial car wash from flushing wastewater into the Bluestone River. Glyco, benzene and other toxins do come from car wash wastewater due to leaking tanks, spills, etc. A sewer line was placed in and under the Upper Bluestone, crossing under the River 14 times, which will inevitably expose the water to raw sewage in the future. So it is difficult to believe that any significant change will take place without the responsible agencies enforcing standing regulations.
All planning commission members and elected officials, along with those appointed who are responsible for the protection of citizens' drinking water, must be held accountable and act responsibly to prevent pollution, or the situation will only accumulate additional liability and health concerns.
I know that my record speaks for itself in developing industry and a successful, ongoing business enterprise. I know that it can be done sensibly, responsibly, and profitably in a manner not to create liability to self or citizen.
