This just in from our friends at Coal River Mountain Watch:
DEP Denies Public Hearing For Edwight Show Cause
Contact: Judy Bonds 304-854-2182, Vernon Halton 304-913-4113
WHITESVILLE, W.Va. — The West Virginia Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) has denied local citizens a public hearing regarding a show cause order on the Edwight Surface Mine. According to state law, show cause orders, intended to be the last step before the DEP shuts down a mine site, are supposed to be settled in public hearings. Despite the law, the DEP has decided not to hold a public hearing, and is instead privately negotiating a consent order with the mine operator, Alex Energy, a subsidiary company of Massey Energy.
After repeated requests, the DEP has granted CRMW the right to submit comments on the drafted consent order but is still refusing to hold a public hearing. CRMW is asking community members to submit comments to them, as well as suggesting they file for their own right to comment.
Due to the DEP’s continual failure to follow the law, CRMW is now looking to the Office of Surface Mining Reclamation and Enforcement (OSMRE).
“Massey Energy’s Edwight permit is one of the most flagrant examples of the DEP failing to regulate this outlaw company. The OSMRE needs to act now to takeover the duties that this failed agency refuses to perform,” said Vernon Haltom, co-director of Coal River Mountain Watch.
Other community members are also expressing frustration with the violations on Edwight. Last April, local citizen Bo Webb took his case all the way to Washington, D.C. after he observed violations going unnoticed by the West Virginia DEP. As a result, OSMRE shut down that area of Edwight until the violations were issued.
Currently, there have been 33 cited violations on the Edwight Surface Mine. Besides the violations mentioned in the show cause, there are nine others that exhibit a negative pattern, a label given by the DEP when at least three violations of the same type occur within 12 months of each other. The current show cause order was issued in November for six repeated violations.
As these violations continue and the DEP refuses to enforce the law, community members are left to deal with the consequences. As local resident Tom Beckner said in reference to Edwight, “We used to have some of the best drinking water. Now it’s nothing but a slush pond.”
eM, do your drink city water or bottles water? By what means do you provide energy to your home? Mountain Witch you are correct we are on a website ANTI-MTR, but here is your Bible lesson for the day, and one I strive to live by also, Set no other gods before me… you see the verses you quoted happen to be Old Testament and God referring to Israel, and his plan to lead them to the Promise land. Now I am an a New Testament Christian, but seek the word and instruction of the Old Testament as well. You see He is a jealous God, and that is why he punished the people of Israel, they set other gods before them. Anyways thank you for the quoting of the infallible word of God, I love seing it! I am not trying to use God’s word to disguise anything, just to stand for something. We all do things to harm, whether you like it or not, you may just do something different from myself.
Progress Miner:
It’s wonderful you have your Christian beliefs. I respect your point of view. I really don’t see using your belief in a way that I personally believe to be offensive. You wrote about what you believe from the book that you believe in. If you were trying to persuade em in hopes to get her to believe in yours, I am can’t speak for her, but I am sure she is content with her spirituality the same as you are yours. We live vast and diverse world with many cultures and beliefs systems. Spirituality is a very personal thing. Everybody has to find their own path. It’s my humble opinion,it’s wrong to think that only one group can be right and everybody else is wrong. It also tends to bother me when people try to use it to harm another person. Especially when it’s not of what they claim to be.
As far harming others. We all do. Nobody is perfect. We all leave a carbon foot print on this earth. We are the only species that thinks they are superior to every living thing. That is why we have things like murder, rape, etc. (MTR) I have to remind myself some days that there are people out there that are good and have compassion for things other than themselves. Otherwise, I think I could loose all faith in humanity.
Progress Miner:
My apologies. I see now you were talking to me as well. LOL I think I am still adapting to the time change. It’s a good thing I wasn’t putting my nose where it didn’t belong as much as I thought I was ..he he
don’t you think we are getting a little bit off topic here
Thanks MountainWitch. I appreciate someone praying for me, I am not proud to admit that I am above prayer. Thanks so much again.
Here’s the thing. When I was a little girl my parents couldn’t get me out of the woods. From sun up til sun down I played in the woods. Catching crawl dads, making playhouses on the mossy banks near a creek or just going on adventures. When I was going through my divorce I ran the logging roads summer and winter. I ran for my sanity and those mountains were my peace. I used to walk in those mountains with my Grandmother and pick ramps, poke greens, berries, molly moochers, etc. I’ve even made love in those woods and my heart absolutely breaks to see what is happening to them. It’s like if someone came into your town and started blowing up your churches. That is what those mountains are to me. A place to be close to my god. That is where I feel connected to heaven and earth. Then when you throw in the factor that the fill being dumped into the valleys is truly poisoning our waters perhaps beyond repair, I can’t see how we all can’t agree there either has to be a better way or no way. Is there nothing more important than money is this world. Is the value of what those mountains are not more important than a dollar?
Mountainwitch, I guess you would also include Al Gore and his minions in this group you mention. I mean after all, we all know he’s right and everyone’s wrong.
Mountainwitch, I guess you would also include Al Gore and his minions in this group you mention. I mean after all, we all know he’s right and everyone’s else is wrong. Pardon the mistake.
eM are you talking about the mountains in Seng Creek? If so I have yet to see any of those mined by MTR methods. Oh and by the way, I have climbed those mountains there also. I walked the tracks from the old tipple near the Washingtons home to the car wash in Whitesville. Underground mineshafts were still open, tracks still layed, and coal cars sitting along the way. It was kinda like they up and left, no cleanup, no reclamation. I just hoped no one ever got hurt up there.Wasn’t the tunnel built for the miners? To travel from Seng Creek to Cabin Creek? I always seen the locals of both hollows partying hard up there. They never had anything against coal then. They sure did throw a hooping fit when it was filled in. See ya at 4:30 in the morning!
I also have climbed that mountain and the view from the top is shameful. Yes part of that mountain has been stripped. Technically is it the exact same mountain…?? I’m not sure but they are connected. Kind of hard to tell where one ends and the other begins. You know why you guys try to pick everything apart because you know it’s wrong and you won’t admit it.
I wasn’t picking anything apart. I was just asking and stating. If anyone is insecure it’s boldly visible by you assuming anything otherwise.
Progress Miner I had to call my dad to be sure but he says both mountains on each side of Seng Creek has had MTR operations. The one you spoke about where the Washington family lived was stripped but it was more up the hollow and back towards clear fork maybe not the exact same mountain and the one on the other side was too. The big dragline was almost hanging over the Frieson familiy’s house. It was the operation that blasted my house off of it’s foundation and then they refused to pay because my husband and I were active duty at the time and could not give them a specific date of the occurence. How convenient. Anyway, I’m not versed on the names of all the specific mountain ranges….where they end and begin but it happened all around my home.
eM , If the ‘fill’ being dumped into the valleys is truly poisioning our waters, then by that same reasoning should’nt all highway construction and development in southern W V that involve ‘fills’ come to a halt ? Oh that’s right , the poision you mention is absent in the other ‘fills’ as they don’t contain the word ‘mine ‘ or ‘mining’. Believe me that’s the only difference.
Stephen…
This is one of your best posts, I gotta get to sleep now though…
Wait you first state you in fact have climbed those mountains, and now you say you had to call your dad to make sure? Now if the mountain has been stripped where George lived it has happened very recently. I honestly can tell you I haven’t made it up past the Frieson’s home since the late 90′s. Good friends of mine, anyways since I have many friends there and coworkers in Seng Creek, I think I will plan a ride there tomorrow.
Progress Miner, like you it has been a while. I know the mountain behind where the Frieson family lived was stripped and it was happening in 04/05. The one across up closer to where the tunnel used to be was done in the 90′s. I called my dad because he has a mind of an elephant and remembers more. I have climbed the mountains but I don’t know all the names of each individual one. To me they were the one on the clearfork side and the one on the sylvester side. :O Sorry, I know it’s not very technical but I can guarantee you I’ve walked them and I’ve ridden the four wheeler all over them.
eM, what about the ‘fills’,simple question? If the ‘fills’ from mtr mining is poisioning our waters,so should the ‘fills’ that form I64 ,I 77,corridor G, Southridge mall , Dudly Farms mall, Fountainplace mall, route 10 and virtually any development in the steep topography of southern W V. Should we stop any further development?
Yes, Watcher I believe if those “fills” were the same then they should not be allowed either. Destruction in the name of progress is still destruction.
No question about it those fills ARE the same. Would you rather we revert back in time to avoid all the “distruction” as you call it that’s gotten us to where we are today? Just about where would satisfy you 1960 1950 1910 or maybe the 1800s ?
actually watcher i would…it should go back to the native americans…people who lived as one with the earth and did not see themselves as above nature or other creatures. i would love to live that way.
Yeah eM, I would love to hop in my personal spacecraft and fly to Venus, but we both know that wer’e only dreaming. Good luck.
Geez Watcher, you ask me a question so I answer you and then you act like a smart ass. See, you are the kind of people we are dealing with. Damn if we do and damned if we don’t. ???? By the way why in the world would you want to fly to Venus….we all know it does not support life. Just stay here a few more years if that is what you’re looking for and you’ll have it right here in WV.
Hey, I figure one good smart ass comment deserves another.
eM not meant to a smart %&* comment, I’m just not a dreamer I guess.
Oh, by the way, Don pledged one million dollars toward a new Marsh Fork school, CRMW ten thousand. How bout it C G Z , how much can we put you down for?
How bout it Mikey, Tree Spiker making any money yet? This is a good cause, wanna step up like CRMW and match their donation?
Watcher,,,,,,,you’re not a dreamer….gonna fly to Venus…???? Okay…whatever…
No ma’am, I’m sure not a dreamer and I’m sure you know they can’t dream a new school for Marsh Fork, so your donation would be most welcome.
I made about a $30,000 donation this year Watcher. Thank you very much.
Wow, that’s a sizeable chunk of cash. Could’ve gone a long way on your solar system you mentioned. You could have been close to getting of the grid and it’s coal fired power, but thank’s anyway, the kids will enjoy the new school.
Well, that is about what I paid in fed taxes this year so I’m sure some of it went for schools….well, at least I hope. And I am glad that Massey stepped up and is helping with the new school even though I still don’t like MTR and think it’s a “token” to keep people quiet.