Some people in Breathitt County think surface mining made their recent flooding problems worse, but there's hardly a consensus on the matter.

One farmer has filed a formal complaint with the state.

James Holbrook says his hay crop looked like this before the May flooding.

“Now it looks like a coal field and a sand bar,” James Holbrook said.

Coal and sand still cover the ground and it's piled up along the creek bank. 12 miles upstream is the first of two surface mining sediment ponds.

Holbrook's attorney filed an affidavit saying the flooding was "Exacerbated by the failure of two large coal sludge impoundments." He also hired the retired Director of the National Mine Health and Safety Academy to investigate. Jack Spadaro has little doubt this is surface mining runoff.

“The peak discharges during rainfall periods increase by as much as 60 percent,” Jack Spadaro said.

State mine reclamation officials say they responded to Holbrook's complaint, and their inspectors reached a different conclusion.

“Our inspectors determined that the sediment structures were functioning normally, that they had not been overtopped, and they had not been breached or broken,” Jim Dickinson said.

They say the coal here is weathered, and could not have washed 12 miles away so quickly.

“Our thinking is that the quicksand creek, which overflowed its banks on May 14th, probably deposited the material on his hay land,” Dickinson said.

Spadaro says his investigation is not over, and he's looking into similar situations in West Virginia.

State officials say since the sediment ponds are in good shape, they have no basis to continue an investigation.

Holbrook say's he's not ruling out further litigation.