Oct. 18--CANADYS -- People living in the shadows of the South Carolina Electric & Gas coal plant here have wondered for years about the black specks in their drinking water. When they turn on their faucets, water sometimes pours out in a gray gush. When they do laundry, their clothes get stained.

Worse, they worry that those black particles might be harming their health. It reminds them of the dust that settles on their cars after a still night. But their water comes from wells drilled deep into the area's limestone. How could dust particles get into their wells? Is there some other explanation?

Raymond Lewis is a retired shipyard worker who lives near the plant. He once asked the state Department of Health and Environmental Control to test his water.

"They sent me back a letter saying there was nothing wrong. That's bull," he said. "I have to buy water because I can't drink the stuff. I sent the power company a letter and never heard from them."

To find out what's in their wells, Post and Courier Watchdog examined hundreds of documents about the plant's operations and teamed up with researchers from the College of Charleston. To identify the black specks, these researchers used an electron microscope, X-rays and equipment that breaks down and measures materials with a torch as hot as the sun.

The search for an answer leads to a broader tale, a story that stretches back decades and comes as coal plants face intense scrutiny over their effects on everything from mercury in fish to global warming.

It begins in the 1970s when SCE&G quietly settled lawsuits by nearby residents who were fed up with coal dust coating their homes. The story continues through the 1990s, when the power company struck deals with state regulators over its groundwater pollution and bought up property next to the plant when the contamination spread.

And the black stuff in residents' water?

After extensive tests, College of Charleston researchers said they're "fairly confident" that the particles are fine grains of coal. So far, the newspaper's investigation has identified a half-dozen residential wells around the plant that have been affected.

An official with SCE&G questioned the validity of the tests. He said the power company hasn't heard about any problems with residents' water but would be happy to test their water.

Officials with DHEC also weren't aware of residents' complaints but immediately began making plans to investigate the matter.

"We have a lot of questions right now, more questions than answers," said Thom Berry, director of DHEC's media relations department. "We're going to follow up with the individuals and see what we find out."

Raw coal typically contains trace amounts of arsenic, cadmium and other toxic heavy metals. But it's unclear whether the particles are harmful if ingested. Researchers working with Watchdog said more tests are needed to answer that question.

Meanwhile, residents said they're sure of one thing: "That stuff shouldn't be in our water in the first place," Lewis said.

'Gray clouds' Canadys is a cluster of homes and farms near the Edisto River, about an hour's drive north of Charleston. Though far inland, the sea has claimed this land from time to time over the eons, eventually creating wedges of sand and limestone that piled up like a layer cake. Ancient earthquakes pushed these layers upward south of Canadys, enough to divert the Edisto toward the ACE Basin and away from the Ashley River.

In the 1950s, SCE&G bought land along the Edisto for its third coal-fired power plant.

"There was a lot of opposition to it at first," said Henry Chambers, 72, who helped build and maintain the first unit and lives a few hundred yards away in a neatly kept brick ranch-style house. "My brother was so mad he even tried to call the president of the United States." He pointed to a concrete slab behind his house where black dust sometimes collects after a hard rain. "After a while, I guess we got accustomed to it."

Chambers drilled his drinking well more than 475 feet into the ground and hasn't noticed any particles in his water. But a few homes away, residents with more shallow wells tell different stories.

Danny Coe moved to the area in the 1970s and says his well is 389 feet deep. He said black flecks sometimes fill their bathtub. "Over the years, it came out pure black for a bit and then cleared up." He said the substance in the water looked similar to the particles they see floating in the air.

"We used to have gray clouds of the stuff coming down on the cars, especially in the late seventies and early eighties." Coe said he sometimes wondered about the pollution's effects; his father died of emphysema, and he remembers when an uncle, Madison Bailey, now deceased, sued SCE&G in 1970.

Bailey lived across a road from the plant at the time. His lawsuit said "a dense smoke has been given off containing cinders, fine dust and various other waste products." He also complained that "great clouds of coal dust from huge piles of raw coal" had made his family cough and sneeze incessantly and coated the inside and outside of their house.

Bailey demanded $100,000.