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CHARLESTON, W.Va. -- Water quality downstream from surface coal-mining operations in West Virginia and Kentucky greatly exceeds recommended toxicity limits, according to previously unreleased sampling data from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.

EPA scientists found toxicity levels as high as 50 times the federal guidelines in water downstream from mining operations. In-stream water samples from 14 of 17 sites EPA tested exceeded the agency's guidelines.

Government officials took the samples in 2007 and 2009, but have never released their own report to outline the findings.

Environmental groups obtained the data under the federal Freedom of Information Act, and had Carys L. Mitchelmore, a toxicologist from the University of Maryland Center for Environmental Science, analyze it.

Mitchelmore's report was made public Monday when it was attached to a petition asking EPA to take over water pollution permitting for mining from the state of Kentucky.

The findings are important because the type of testing provides a more complete and accurate picture of the toxicity of water than sampling for any one pollutant alone.

"This is the first-line red flag," Mitchelmore said in an interview. "This is the best way to show what the whole toxicity of that pollution is."

EPA conducted what is known as whole effluent toxicity, or WET, testing. This type of testing is designed to investigate the total toxicity of water that may contain many toxic compounds.

Water samples taken from streams are used in a laboratory to test the water's toxicity to various species of aquatic life. Results are calculated in terms of "toxicity units."

EPA recommends a limit of 1.0 toxicity unit to protect against more chronic, or long-term, exposure. West Virginia does not have a water quality standard for toxicity units, and does not require companies to conduct WET tests as part of their water pollution permits. Kentucky has adopted EPA's recommended guideline of 1.0.

In West Virginia, six of the nine sites tested by EPA turned up WET results greater than 1.0. The results ranged from 3.1 toxicity units to 6.9 toxicity units.

In Kentucky, all eight sites sampled by EPA were greater than 1.0 -- with two sites recording greater than 50 toxicity units.

One of the Kentucky sites with the highest toxicity levels was just downstream from the Guy Cove Research Project, where University of Kentucky scientists are trying to recreate a headwater stream to demonstrate viable mitigation to offset mining's impact on water quality.

In their petition concerning Kentucky's water pollution program, the Appalachian Center for the Economy and the Environment and other groups noted the Guy Cove site was recently touted in a local newspaper article as a possible solution to mountaintop removal damage.

But EPA's tests showed "that serious cumulative downstream water quality impacts still remain," the petition said.

"Researchers at Guy Cove constructed experimental, partially sealed channels that could carry water down the face of a valley fill, but did not prevent the water quality problems downstream of the base of the fill," the petition said.

Officials from the Kentucky Department for Environmental Protection also declined comment.

Bill Bissett, president of the Kentucky Coal Association, said the petition was just another step in a legal strategy to "stop Kentucky's coal production and our use of this abundant and reliable natural resource."

Bissett said Kentucky's permitting of coal mining has previously been approved by EPA as "being consistent with the Clean Water Act."

Officials from the Kentucky Department for Environmental Protection declined comment on the EPA petition and the new toxicity testing.

Kathy Cosco, spokeswoman for the West Virginia Department of Environmental Protection, said DEP officials hope EPA conducts a further study to "understand the root cause of the toxicity" identified in the federal testing.

Earlier this month, EPA officials delayed the announcement of a plan that would have required periodic WET testing by all coal-mining operations in Appalachia.

Mitchelmore said the EPA data she analyzed contained only a "snapshot" of water quality, and that more frequent testing would provide better detail about toxicity.

Also, she said, EPA tested the water's impact on only one species -- the aquatic crustacean known as water fleas -- rather than by using the least pollution-tolerant of three difference species of aquatic life, as recommended by EPA's own guidelines.

"It is quite possible that [water fleas] may be less or more sensitive to one or more toxic compounds in the water samples compared to resident species," Mitchelmore said in her report.

Reach Ken Ward Jr. at kw...@wvgazette.com or 304-348-1702.