Water Pollution in Central Kentucky
by Eric Dunstan Webb on 11 September 2002 @ 06:54 PM
There was a tenfold increase in the number of stillborn horses and cows in the Lexington area in 2001. Besides the stated cause, the ingestion of caterpillars by the pregnant animals, there were two other factors that seem to be relevant in explaining the dramatic increase in stillborn deaths. First, there was much less rainfall in 2000 than normal causing the water to smell and taste rather nasty. Second, a few months earlier in 2000 there was a massive coal slurry spill that emptied thousands of tons of coal mining waste into local streams and ponds. These streams empty into the Kentucky River, the source of all tap water in the Central Kentucky area. It was the combination of low river water levels and increased pollutatants that caused the concentration of toxins to increase to proportions deadly to unborn fetuses. It is apparent that local news reporting gives to the coal barons of Kentucky resulting in the censorship of the real cause of events that are significant to the health of life in this area.
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