Aerial of Impoundment

The Marsh Fork Elementary School in Sundial, West Virginia is located 400 yards downslope from a mountaintop removal mine. Sundial is a community in the coal river valley about 10 miles south of Whitesville. The mining site above the school, operated by Massey Energy, houses the Shumate sludge impoundment. With 2.8 billion gallons of coal sludge held back by a 385-foot-high earthen dam, it is one of West Virginia's largest impoundments. This photo shows the 2.8 billion gallon coal sludge impoundment