The following post is a coalfield resident’s reaction to the shameful conduct of coal supporters at the Nationwide 21 Permit Hearing in Charleston, WV.

============

Click below to watch a video of the permit hearing.

Nationwide 21 Permit Hearing, Charleston, WV.

The events that occurred at the EPA hearing in Charleston, WV, on Tuesday, October 13, are a disgrace to humanity. I cannot believe that our Law enforcement was so disengaged from upholding the law!

My God, how did this happen? Do people not have some sort of Voice in America? Do Americans not have a constitutional right to be heard?

What would these coal thugs have done if someone had backed their Mother or Grandmother against the wall like they did that elderly lady in the video? If that poor, little woman would have had a heart attack would these coal thugs have cared?  NO! Not one of them would have cared. I am totally blown away by this.

I did not attend this hearing for this very reason. I expected something like this would take place.

I’m just SO absolutely disappointed in our system. In the past, I have tried to believe that we could come to an agreement to disagree and allow the powers that be to decide what needs to be done. But this looks like something from overseas and not something that could happen in the United States of America.

This is total disregard for the Right to Free Speech. I just don’t know how to put my feelings into words for the group of people who disrupted this hearing. My husband is a retired Coal Miner and I am almost ashamed to be associated with the term. The West Virginia Coal Association is almost worse than the Taliban. And the Government has a list of ECO-terrorists? What would you call this group?

I just can’t believe what was allowed to occur in the Charleston Civic Center at an official hearing by the United States government.

No matter what side you are on, respect for human life and even if we disagree with them, people with different opinions should at least be given the chance to voice their opinions.  This is what I was taught in school. But then school ain’t what she used to be.

Please watch this video and have someone make a public statement of apology to the people that just wanted their opinions to be heard…and didn’t get to speak due to the total disregard for human rights and the blatant intimidation by the coal industry and its minions.

I was under then impression that the LAW was here to protect all of us. Not just one group of people.

Totally Disgusted by our system,

Maria Lambert

Boone County, WV.

I have been to the Eighth Circle of Hell and have returned to tell the tale.  Just as Dante’s “Inferno” detailed the conscious fraud and treachery in the Eighth Circle of Hell, those same vices could be used to describe the Eighth Circle of Hell that I visited this past weekend.  In case any of you are wondering, the Eighth Circle of Hell is not a place of mythology; rather, it is located just outside of the modern-day community of Sarah Ann, West Virginia.

But one can clearly recognize the community of Sarah Ann was not always this way.  It is readily apparent that it was once a nice little community full of people who cared about each other and the land.  It is also a historical location, as it was home of the Hatfield Family of Hatfield-McCoy Feud fame.  The patriarch of the Hatfield family, Devil Anse Hatfield, is buried in the family cemetery nearby.  But decades of fraud and treachery by a roughshod coal industry has laid Sarah Ann low.  Sarah Ann is a prime example of the lost potential of a people and community that must forever remain a black eye upon the coal industry as a reminder of its inherent deceptiveness!

As my wife and I were driving down Route 44 through Logan County on our way to Iaeger in McDowell County, I witnessed poverty like I had never before seen. Everywhere there were remnants of a once thriving economy that had long since vanished.  Crumbing homes with broken windows, horrible roads crisscrossed by abandoned rail lines, and countless boarded up stores and businesses.  I couldn’t help but notice the irony. Around every bend in the road there was another coal facility, just bulging with the wealth of the mountains.  How could this be?  How could there be so much obvious wealth in one place with so very little of that wealth benefitting the very location from which it was being exploited? Then, I looked up on the ridgelines and mountaintops that surrounded the roadway, and I saw the problem…mountaintop removal.

While the mines that pervade the area are producing as much coal as ever, these mines no longer require manpower to extract the coal.  Though the current stock prices of coal companies indicate that the industry is booming (despite what we hear on the news), it is in fact, a jobless coal boom.  Only the coal companies are making any money off of the coal these days, and the people of the coalfields are once again left out in the cold. The people of the southern coalfields are not the types to just sit around and wait for a hand-out, and on our trip you could tell that the people we encountered were hardworking people who have simply fell on hard times.  But with only ONE option for employment, where do these people go when that option is no longer available?

The “lucky” few who do manage to find a job on these large equipment intensive mine sites are still faced with the no-win situation of destroying their communities in order to work there.  Just as was the case 100 years ago, when the UMW was trying to organize coalfield workers, coal was not then, nor is it now, a friend to southern WV! Whenever I see a bumper sticker that reads, “Friends of Coal,” I want to ask the person driving the vehicle, “Do you by any chance remember Cabin Creek?  Paint Creek?  Matewan? Blair Mountain?”  Now, I don’t know about you, but I tend to reserve my friendship for people who deserve it, and I typically don’t befriend inanimate minerals.  I can’t help but wonder if the whole Friends of Coal campaign is merely a means of mass communication among the ignorant?  Obviously the people who carry this message are ignorant of their history, their heritage and their future!

However, like many who are opposed to MTR, I am not diametrically opposed to coal mining. In fact, I realize that it is a fact of life in the monoeconomies of the central Appalachian coalfields and that, in fact, it would be immoral to stop all coal mining in central Appalachia. Still, I will say it just makes good sense to obtain the coal from underground and not by mountaintop removal methods.  There is a readily available workforce just waiting to again be employed by the coal industry.  If Coal really is good for West Virginia, as the industry and the bought-politicans readily tout, then the mining of coal should be conducted in such a way as to maximize the employment of West Virginians.  Only in this manner will coal revenue truly increase the tax base and improve the standard of living for the average West Virginian.

You might ask, “But what can be done?” “Is it fair to judge the situation at face value?”  Is it fair to say, “If you don’t like it, then leave” as so many coal industry advocates spout?  I ask you this, why should someone have to leave their ancestral home simply so that someone else can draw a paycheck from its destruction? Only in central Appalachia can the victim be made out to be the villain! Why should corporate interests be given superiority over the value of human life and individual property rights?  I recently heard someone say, “We don’t live where you mine coal, you mine coal where we live.  We were here first.” That statement is so very true.  A real mountaineer will recognize the problem and fight to make it better instead of cutting and running, like the perpetrators of MTR do.

The majority of problems currently asscoiated with mountaintop removal are clearly human rights issues, as it is chock full of violations on that front. So why do so many see mountaintop removal only as an environmental problem?  Is it because it is hard to paint human rights violations when they primarily involve poor, white families, or is it simply because it is easier to villainize “environmental extremists”?  If it is the former, that white people are not poor, or cannot be discriminated against, then I invite you to visit the southern West Virginia communities that I visited this weekend. You see, the social justice issues in the coalfields are not racially motivated, but rather, they are based on simple economics. We’re poor, so we don’t matter. Yes, class warfare is alive and well in the central Appalachian coalfields.

But all is not hopeless, I did see a few glimmers of hope on my trip through the coalfields. For example, in Gilbert, West Virginia, I saw a few brave citizens trying their best to break the stranglehold of the monoeconomy perpetrated by the coal industry by taking up the banner of tourism. These people were trying their best to cater to the influx of visitors to the Hatfield/McCoy Trail.  In spite of all the efforts there, I see one big catch-22, a community cannot have a tourism industry when mountaintop removal is destroying the very thing these people are coming to visit…the mountains.  Now I know the claims, that the Hatfield/McCoy trail is partially built on old strip mines and without the coal industry leaving this abandoned mine land to the state, the trail system would not be possible.  That is a faulty argument and is the equivalent of saying that Coca-Cola wouldn’t exist without obese people to drink it!  There is already more than enough abandoned strip mines in southern West Virginia to have 100 Hatfield/McCoy trails.

After my visit to the coalfields, the bottom line of the matter is the residents of these communities desperately need roads, and they need them yesterday.  I know we’ve all heard the line from, “O Brother, Where Art Thou?” where George Clooney comments that the little town he was in was a geographical oddity because it was 2 weeks from anywhere. Well, many of these little communities share that geographical oddity because they are 2 hours from anywhere.  A successful community has a solid infrastructure. Good roads are the cornerstone of this infrastructure. For businesses to excel, there must be a good tranpsortation system. While these tourism entrepreneurs in Gilbert are laying the foundations and hedging their bets that a new day is dawning in the coalfields, it is up to the rest of us to demand that funds be allocated to advancing the economic conditions of the coalfields.  Without good roads and the economic diversification that comes with them, these citizens of the southern West Virginia coalfields will remain virtual slaves and a captive workforce for the coal industry that continues to use fewer and fewer workers.

But don’t be mistaken.  These are not a broken people, and to realize this one but has to look into the eyes of the children. For too long, these areas have remained forgotten and the people written off as lost causes. The children tell a different story. These kids truly are the hope of the future, but they must be encouraged when they are young. The inquisitiveness and intelligence of these children rival any in the nation, but without nurturing these hopes will die. There is a stark difference between the hopes and dreams of children in the coalfields and the twenty-somethings that remain in this area. I have seen this firsthand, and it made me wonder what went on in that space of time to completely eradicate that optimism?  Could it be the 130+ years of oppression wrought by the coal industry? Continually being told (and shown) that you and your land are good for nothing except coal mining, and then being told that you need to keep your mouth shut if your opinions differ from those of the coal industry, has to take its toll on any human psyche.  For far too long, the people of the central Appalachian coalfields have been America’s forgotten people.  It is shameful that the very people who have sacrificed the most (and continue to sacrifice) for the prosperity of the United States, have received so very little.

Still, the seeds of oppression have sprouted into the flower of discontent, and the southern West Virginia coalfields now finds itself at a crossroads.  No longer will it depend on a one resource economy. No longer will it rely on corporate politicians.  No longer will its citizens sit idly by and watch their heritage be destroyed for the benefit of some faraway place.  No longer will we accept being second-class citizens.  Standing with us at this crossroads are the spirits of mountaineers long since passed; from Simon Kenton and Daniel Boone; to Michael Stoner and Mitchell Clay; from Devil Anse and Smilin’ Sid Hatfield; to Mother Jones and Governor William C. Marland.  Their presence strengthens and unites us, and they root us in the knowledge that we are as much a part of this rugged land as the coal that is being ripped from the mountaintops.

Let’s stand together on this issue of economic diversification in the coalfields and demand better of our elected officials. No matter where you are from, contact your elected officials by email or letter, better yet call them and tell them your mind!  If they continue to refuse to address this grave injustice, then I ask you to join me in actively campaigning against them (regardless of political party) in the next election.  The coalfields are at a critical point in its history, and a changing of the guard may be just what is needed to save the coalfields from the coal industry.

Above photo by Denny Tyler.

This past weekend, my wife and I attended her family reunion in Wyoming County.  We decided to drive down through Boone County rather than going by interstate since we weren’t in a terrible rush.  It had been a few months since we had been through Boone County and I must say, things have changed…and not for the better. 

One of the most stark changes was on the ridges around the little towns of Bim & Bob White.  I remember the last time we drove through there, there were these two little mountain peaks that were both about the same size and they loomed rather impressively over the town of Bob White.  Well on this trip, I looked for the mountain peaks but there was only one of them…that’s right, one of them had been destroyed and in its place was a little flat, barren spot and wide-open sky.  Being who I am I looked at the creek below there and just on visual inspection, it looks horrible.  The last time we drove down through here, we saw people fishing in the creek, I doubt that there is any fish alive in this creek now.  As we drove on up around the bend, we saw a huge MTR site in full operation, I’ve no doubt it is only a matter of time before the 2nd little mountain peak is laid low.

What impresses me the most is the people who live in Bim & Bob White are able to continue to live their daily lives there, I don’t know that I could live that close to all that crap, knowing what goes on there and the dangers their operations posed to me, and also knowing full well that your government doesn’t care what you think.  I applaud them for standing and fighting for their homes, it definitely takes a special kind of person to be able to do that.

I was really shocked to see how quickly a mountain can be destroyed.  I was aware that MTR activities had increased over the past few months but I suppose I didn’t fully understand the extent of the greed of man when coal is $120 a ton.

On the way back to Charleston, we decided to drive down through Coal River to see all of the changes that were sure to have happened there. We had hoped we’d see Pauline and Mary out in their yards so we could stop and see them again, but we didn’t see any sign of them when we went through Sylvester.  It had been a couple of years since we traveled that road, and I’ll just say this, if a person wants to see the real costs of MTR, just take a drive through Boone County, WV. 

I can’t believe that we, as a society, continue to allow this to occur!

Let me preface this post with saying that I’m not yet sure who I am supporting for president.  My issue is not race, religion or gender (as the mainstream media would have you believe), in fact, the main issue for me in choosing a President is which one will most likely promote legislation that will end MTR.  It seems whomever I start to lean toward they do, or say, something stupid which makes me rethink my decision. 

I really liked John Edwards but we all know where that went.

Hillary says there’s got to be a middle ground between the environmental costs of MTR and the economic benefits derived thereof.  She promotes green energy, (i.e. solar panels in the Great Basin, Wind Farms in TX and on the coast, Hydrogen fuel cells) but she also says Clean Coal is green. There’s nothing clean about coal, and there is no middle ground between the environment and economics of MTR.

McCain says he is against MTR and “will work to end the destruction of the mountains”.  But he is for continuing the war, which I see as counterproductive to ending MTR.  Also, he introduced a bill in 2005 to depopulate the Black Mesa region in the American southwest so the coal strip mine there could expand.  In my mind, I wonder if he would try a similar bill for the coalfields of Appalachia, after all, it could be twisted to sound like it would be in the national interest to do so.

Obama says he will protect America’s waterways, and states that the EPA under his administration will fully enforce the Clean Water Act. Earlier in his campaign he was against MTR but has since backslid and now promotes Clean Coal Technology.  I’m still haunted by his remarks “Miners in West Virginia need work”. Also, Obama introduced the “Coal-to-Liquid Fuel Promotion Act of 2007″ to the Senate.  We all know that Coal to liquids is code for more MTR.  Promoting Clean Coal Technology and Coal-to-liquids seems to me to the exact opposite of ending MTR.   Sounds like he is trying to play both sides of the fence here.  Of course, they all are! 

So who do I vote for?  Who best represents my interests? 

It seems to me that the only question left to ask is “Can I vote for none of the above?”.

http://www.ohvec.org/galleries/people_in_action/2003/08_26/timmermeyer.pdf

Yes, folks, the sad reality of it is even after that blatant piece of propaganda, Ms. Timmermeyer was appointed to the head of the WV DEP. How, you might ask, could a person with such biased views, who had graduated law school less than 2 years prior to her appointment, be appointed to a post that is supposed to uphold and enforce the environmental regulations of the state? In West Virginia, it is easy to get such a post if you have the right connections and if you are pro-coal. Many concerned citizens preferred Patrick McGinley, a WVU environmental law professor with nearly 30 years of experience under his belt, to head the DEP. Instead, the Wise administration appointed a fledgling lawyer whose only prior experience was as an industry consultant and for a brief time, an industry lawyer. (Profile: Environment is a priority for Wise, says new DEP chief, Ken Ward, Jr., Charleston Gazette, 4/14/03.)

I won’t delve too deep into Ms. Timmermeyer’s role in the “dismissal” of Matt Crum, the former director of Mining and Reclamation at the WV DEP, whom many of the coalfield residents found to be a reasonable person to deal with. But, the powers that be felt that Crum was getting too chummy with the “radical environmentalists” in the ever-growing MTR movement. Timmermeyer simply cited differences in “management style” and told the press that Crum was an “at will and pleasure employee” of the state, so she didn’t have to give a reason for his dismissal. (State Forces Out West Virginia’s Mining Reclamation Chief, August 23, 2003, Charleston Gazette, Ken Ward, Jr.) So you can clearly see that from the get-go, Ms. Timmermeyer was “looking out” for the people of the state, starting with getting rid of one of the most effective and competent members of the DEP.

Upon taking the helm of the DEP, Ms. Timmermeyer had a backlog of fifty or so mining permits. Many of these were in a backlog because the former Mining and Reclamation director Crum wasn’t satisfied that safety concerns were adequately addressed. Still, less than six months after taking over, Timmermeyer bragged to the press that she was proud to say that there was now no backlog of pending permits (this, of course, would include MTR permits)! (The Charleston Gazette, February 19, 2005, Saturday, “Timmermeyer touts faster mine permitting” By Ken Ward Jr.)
As a result of the fast, less scrutinized mine permitting process of the DEP, the issue of the “migrating” property lines at the Goals Coal Facility behind the Marsh Fork Elementary School came to light. (for more information on this saga, see Ken Ward’s “Mining the Mountains” series during July 2005 at www.wvgazette.com/news/Mining+the+Mountains) I’m sure that this instance of “departmental oversight” is just scratching the surface of the interesting information that will eventually come out in the future regarding this speedy mine approval process now adopted by the DEP. With such swift approval one thing is evident, those pending permits were practically rubber stamped by the Timmermeyer-led DEP, and it would appear that little or no investigative review was conducted on them. It has long been known that time is money in the coal industry, and now that a coal lackey was heading the DEP, it was certain that very little time would be exercised by the DEP in the mine approval process.

During the tenure of Timmermeyer, it was becoming evermore apparent that the DEP was an extended arm of the coal industry. It operated in blatant disregard of the laws, and in total disrespect of the concerns of the citizens of the coalfields. One just needs to look into the continuing saga of Ed Wiley and Marsh Fork Elementary to see this. When Ed confronted Gov. Joe Manchin about school children getting sick and the deplorable conditions at Marsh Fork Elementary, which was brought about by the Goals Coal facility located immediately behind the school. Governor Manchin was on record as saying that he would do “everything humanly possible” to ensure the students were safe, the governor, also a grandfather, said that he did not know if he would want his grandchildren attending Marsh Fork Elementary. (DEP approves Massey Permits near school, Charleston Gazette,7/1/05;Raleigh Man Ends Capitol Sit-in, Charleston Gazette, Ken Ward, Jr., 7/5/05.)

So, in early July 2005, Ed Wiley felt compelled to do a sit in at the state capitol, and refused to leave until Gov. Manchin came out and answered some of his questions, such as “why Massey Energy’s profits are more important than these kids’ health and safety?”. At first, Manchin refused to meet with Ed but later reconsidered when Ed began to get media coverage from all over the state. Sensing a media nightmare, Gov. Manchin met with Ed Wiley, and soon found out that Ed was there for results, and no amount of Manchin’s infamous slick-talking, political double-speak was going to satiate Ed’s thirst for justice. After the meeting, Manchin ordered the DEP to investigate Marsh Fork Elementary. The DEP complied, and a few days later they walked through the school and commented to each other that everything looked fine. They reportedly took no dust samples, no water samples, they didn’t talk to any of the children or parents there They more or less dismissed the whole affair. With so little attention paid to detail, it begs the question if these people were inherently incompetent, or if they were following orders from a Division superior. A few days after Ed’s meeting with Manchin, a permit for a second silo, to be located even closer to the school was approved, then rescinded, and then eventually re-approved. Many legal wranglings ensued. When the new school year opened in late August 2005, Marsh Fork Elementary opened as usual, with no apparent change in safety procedures. Through all of these political maneuvers, Manchin deferred to the DEP expertise, and the DEP deferred to Manchin. Once again, the clear losers were the residents of the coalfields. (for more information on this saga, see Ken Ward’s “Mining the Mountain” series during July 2005 at www.wvgazette.com/news/Mining+the+Mountains)

One of the most egregious issues to come about during the Timmermeyer reign at the DEP was the whole settlement of more than 200 violations by Massey Energy. These violations resulted from a number of black water spills and a whole cacophony of environmentally devastating practices that accompany MTR operations. For a paltry sum of $1.4 million, Timmermeyer settled all of these violations with Massey (including Massey’s subsidiaries). (Massey to pay $ 1.4 million in settlement with agency, Ken Ward, Jr., Charleston Gazette, 1/7/06; MINING: W.Va. to settle hundreds of Massey violations for fraction of cost, Greenwire, 2/27/06)
These violations certainly cost the State, which the responsibility then fell to for the ultimate payment of these legacy costs, more than $1.4 million. If the DEP, headed by Timmermeyer, had not rolled over for Massey Energy, it is reasonable to believe that the state could have shared in the $20M fine by the federal government for Massey’s violations of the Clean Water Act. The federal government also secured an additional $10M for streamside restoration in the areas most impacted by these violations. (Fines to Force Change, Feds Say: $20M Penalty Against massey in Settlement, Ken Ward, Jr., Charleston Gazette, 1/19/08; see also Massey Energy Company Clean Water Act Settlement at www.epa.gov/compliance/resources/cases/civil/cwa/massey.html)

Had Timmermeyer not sold out the state of West Virginia for a paltry $1.4M, then it is reasonable to believe that the WV DEP could easily have gotten a piece of this piece, or even a pie of their own! Joe Lovett of The Appalachian Center for the Economy and the Environment discussed the settlement in the following statement:

“If the state had brought this action, this money would be going into state coffers instead of to the federal government,” said Joe Lovett, a lawyer for the citizen groups. “DEP has the primary responsibility for enforcing the Clean Water Act permitting program, and this should have been something the DEP and the Manchin administration did, instead of allowing the federal government to do it.”

But no, with the settlement with Massey, Timmermeyer’s DEP completely released Massey from responsibility for their actions.
So, good riddance to those who portray themselves as upstanding leaders of West Virginia even while selling out its residents. It is no great surprise that many of the citizens of the State of West Virginia, and even Appalachia as a whole, breathed a great sigh of relief upon hearing of the resignation of Stephanie Timmermeyer. Now, we face the future with both optimism and apprehension, and we wonder whom the Manchin Administration will now appoint to this vital post.

By Matthew H. Burns ©15 March 2008