FRANKFORT — Ricky Handshoe has tried calling state officials charged with monitoring water quality in Kentucky. Last February, he participated in a sit-in at the governor’s office and subsequently hosted Gov. Steve Beshear during a visit to the Handshoe home in Floyd County to see the orange water running in Raccoon Creek behind his home.

Nothing, he says, ever changes. In fact, Handshoe said Thursday, the situation has worsened. Over Memorial Day weekend, the creek ran orange from runoff from a sediment pond below a reclaimed surface mine and a couple of active underground mines for five consecutive days. He claims he made repeated calls to the Department of Mine Reclamation and Enforcement and to the Division of Water that weekend – but no one showed up to look at the creek.

Only after contacting Mike Haydon, Beshear’s Chief of Staff, the next week did anyone come to Handshoe’s place to look at the creek that eventually drains into the Allen water treatment facility at the mouth of Beaver Creek and the Big Sandy River.

So Handshoe plans to file a complaint with the Kentucky Attorney General, alleging the state Cabinet for Energy and the Environment hasn’t enforced environmental laws.

Thursday, Handshoe and six other members of the Kentuckians for the Commonwealth – including noted author and conservationist Wendell Berry – showed up again at the governor’s office. When Beshear exited by another door to go to a press conference down the hall, the group followed and stood silently at the rear of the room holding signs such as the one that read “Water Trumps Coal.”

At the end of the press conference, one of them, Ted Withrow, politely asked Beshear if he could give him some information and Beshear took it, saying, “Thank you.” But that’s all. The information included a history of Handshoe’s water woes and a study by researchers from Washington State and West Virginia universities which shows a correlation between mountaintop removal mining practices and higher incidences of birth defects in central Appalachia.

Later, the group met with Chief Deputy Attorney General Patrick Hughes seeking help in what they see as “non-enforcement” of clean water laws and damage to their health and their neighbors by the effects of mining runoff.

Withrow gave Hughes charts of discharged pollution by two mining companies the group is trying to sue in federal court and a copy of the research about birth defects. He said the charts show when the companies changed testing labs, employing a certified, independent lab, the level of pollutants rose dramatically.

“What you see here, in these graphs, is what’s causing this,” said Withrow, pointing to the university study about birth defects. “We’re killing children. We’re harming children. We’re causing birth defects. It’s a direct correlation. We’ve got to stop making throw-away people.”

Berry told Hughes the group has tried unsuccessfully to follow proper channels of command and protocol to seek government action on their concerns but no longer knows where to turn.

“We don’t know where to go – unless it’s to hell which is the implication very often that that’s where we can go to,” Berry said. Hughes said that’s not the attitude of the Attorney General, Jack Conway, or his office. But he also told the group he wasn’t sure if the office has jurisdiction over environmental matters or the authority to investigate other executive branch agencies.

“Historically, this office is not the enforcer of these laws,” Hughes told the group. “But I can make the Attorney General aware of these issues.”

He did concede the office “is looking at” information provided by environmental groups at an April meeting with Conway about what they allege are deliberate violations of the Clean Water Act by at least two coal companies – but added he couldn’t comment further about an on-going or potential investigation. Hughes also said the office will review any complaint filed by Handshoe.

“I’m asking you for help, to investigate,” Handshoe said to Hughes. “I’m begging you for help. I’ve exhausted going to the Division of Water, going to the Division of Mine Reclamation and Enforcement – they refuse to come out. Who do I go to?”

Handshoe said he’d like Conway to visit, to talk to his neighbors whose water supply and tap water are affected.

“These are good tax-paying people,” Handshoe said. “We may be from the hills, but we’re supposed to be part of Kentucky. We don’t feel like it.”

Hughes agreed to meet with the group in September after he reviews the information they provided and Handshoe’s complaint.

Ronnie Ellis writes for CNHI News Service and is based in Frankfort, Ky. He may be contacted by email at rellis@cnhi.com. Follow CNHI News Service stories on Twitter at www.twitter.com/cnhifrankfort.