Public hearing on mountaintop mining waste draws large crowd

BIG STONE GAP – A raucous crowd arrived Thursday for a public hearing on the future of permits allowing surface mine waste to be dumped into streams.

Speakers on both sides competed with the cheers and boos of more than 400 people crammed into an auditorium at the Mountain Empire Community College, while hundreds more listened from outside. Many had parked their cars along the highway and walked up a big hill to the college to participate in the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers hearing on whether to stop issuing Nationwide 21 permits, which provide a more-streamlined process than individual permits for the waste sites, known as valley fills.

Thursday’s hearing is one of several scheduled in six Appalachian coal mining states on the Corps’ proposed change in regulations, which would require a longer and more costly individual permitting process.

"This is probably one of the most important public hearings that will be held in Southwest Virginia this year and maybe the next several years," said Delegate Bud Phillips, one of many elected officials who spoke in favor of keeping the permits.

"Coal has been the lifeblood of our community for over 100 years. It continues to be the lifeblood of our community," Phillips said. "Let’s preserve 21, and let’s preserve the families and the communities in Southwest Virginia."

Local elected officials, who rely on the severance tax generated by coal to pay for basic county services, spoke for continued use of the permits.

"I plead with you and I beg with you," Supervisor Bob Adkins said, "don’t destroy the jobs that we have here in Wise County."

Opponents of Nationwide 21 permits, some local and some from outside the region, spoke just as passionately.

"It not only destroys the water, it destroys every living creature that comes in contact with it," Pete Ramey, president of the Big Stone Gap-based Southern Appalachian Mountain Stewards, said of surface mining in the area. "The Army Corps of Engineers has the authority to stop this."

Haiz Oppenheimer, an environmental activist who traveled from Blacksburg for the hearing, said the issue goes beyond the coalfield region.

"This issue extends beyond Appalachia," he said. "Mountaintop removal poisons the water supply here and it threatens to damage the water of millions of people."

Representatives of several local coal companies also spoke.

John Paul Jones, director of environmental affairs for Virginia’s largest coal company, Alpha Natural Resources, said eliminating the permits would result in lost wages and lost jobs, missed opportunities for development of companies and higher energy costs for individuals.

"The majority of the people who are here to talk about that [mountaintop mining] do not even live in the area we’re in," said Mark Wooten, of A&G Coal. "We miners do not try to tell them how to stop their urban sprawl, and we surely do not need their help to run our lives."

Strother Smith, a lawyer from Abingdon, Va., said the whole regulation process as applied to non-navigable streams is unconstitutional – and he offered to take the issue before the U.S. Supreme Court.

"An issue that’s not often addressed is the issue of private property rights," said Harry Childress, who has been associated with the coal industry for some 40 years. "We have the right to mine the mountains that we pay the taxes on that we own."

"Yeah, OK, this country believes in property rights," countered Laura Miller, of Wise, "but property owners do not have the right to destroy our neighbors, to poison them, to poison the water, the air. Property rights do not extend that far."

"Coal has done a lot of wonderful things building our civilization," Miller said, "but now that we know how destructive it is, it is time to transition to something else."

"It’s not about jobs … it’s about money for the wealthy," said Jane Branham, of Big Stone Gap. "When the coal is gone, there will be nothing left, no jobs, no people, no environment to enjoy."

Thornton Newlon, of the Virginia Coal Association, said the permit issue is not about mountaintop removal – it’s an attack on the entire coal industry.

Three hours into the hearing, there were still scores of people waiting to speak, and the crowd’s cheering, booing and laughter was still going strong. A whole range of issues had been addressed – from jobs and the environment to the region’s culture and religion.

"Coal miners are outdoorsmen, and they respect and love Appalachia. Most are born and raised here and have no earthly reason to destroy the area in which we live," said Carson Mitchell, who described himself as an environmentalist.

"Some will say that God didn’t intend for man to remove the coal; I don’t believe that at all," Mitchell said. "Man is God’s greatest creation … and [He] has given us the capability to mine natural resources so that we can provide for our physical needs."