Sometime before Labor Day during the last days of August, construction slurry from a Dominion Energy fiber-optic drilling operation in Haymarket, VA was transported across state lines and dumped illegally on several sites in southern Berkeley County, WV. At one dump site alone, over 30 loads of construction drilling mud were dumped into a gully that feeds Specks Run, a tributary of Opequon Creek, a prime fishing and boating stream, and a tributary of the Potomac River, a drinking water source for six million people. The Downstream Project, in support of Opequon Creek Watershed, took immediate action to initiate a Video Journal to document the event and the subsequent, and still ongoing, cleanup operation. This initial, 3.5 minute video includes interviews with local landowners and conservation experts, who have called this event “devastating” . . .
Ongoing Video Journal entries on this event can be found on the Opequon Creek Watershed Website.
