By Jeff Biggers [exerpted]
This might be a first in the country: The failed West Virginia Department of Environmental Protection is emerging as such an embarrassingly pro-coal anti-mountain public relations nightmare for Gov. Joe Manchin that even retired coal miners have taken to the streets against the state's environmental regulators, calling on the federal EPA and Office of Surface Mining to take over the key duties of the dysfunctional state agency. [...]
On Monday, August 10, in a rare call for federal intervention in this growing national emergency, coalfield citizen groups including Coal River Mountain Watch, Ohio Valley Environmental Coalition and West Virginia Highlands Conservancy, along with the Sierra Club and the Appalachian Center for the Economy and the Environment, formally petitioned the OSMRE to withdraw approval of the state's surface mining program and substitute federal enforcement. The petition concludes:
"Given West Virginia's refusal to enforce the law in the face of coal industry interests, we believe that the only remedy that will protect the State's essential environmental resources is for OSM to substitute federal enforcement, in whole or in part, of the state's surface mining program." [...]
Testifying last month at the first bipartisan US Senate hearing on mountaintop removal in a generation, DEP Secretary Huffman stunned the crowd by chucking his environmental protection mandate out the window and openly defended the reckless part of West Virginia's Big Coal economy beholden to devastating mountaintop removal operations. Huffman defiantly lectured the US Senators: "West Virginia and the nation need jobs and coal. Nothing in the debate over mountaintop mining debate is going to change that in the short term." [...]
On April 20, Huffman made an extraordinary admission in an interview with the West Virginia Public Radio, declaring that the mountains impeded the state's development, and therefore, needed to be destroyed through mountaintop removal.
"Mainly what we're concerned about as regulators is the ability to develop land after mining," he said. "You need valley fills if you're going to have a viable post mining economy. You need flat land. And in order to have flat land you need to have valley fills, and one of our biggest concerns is that EPA is wanting to reduce the size and number of valley fills in Appalachia." (The radio interview is here.) [...]
"The WVDEP simply fails to adequately regulate the coal industry," said Rock Creek resident Lorelei Scarbro. "When WVDEP Secretary Randy Huffman runs off to lobby the EPA to grant illegal valley fill permits, he's abdicated his responsibility to the people. Corporate coal influence has become so great inside the WVDEP that he has become a public relations spokesperson for the coal industry instead of an enforcer of mining laws and regulations."
"We will not sit idly by today while the WVDEP is granting blasting certifications for coal companies to demolish our mountains and ruin our homes and communities," said Bo Webb of Naoma. "It is time for Huffman to resign or be fired. He's derelict in his duties and grossly incompetent at best. Quite possibly a case for criminal negligence could be made."
Read the entire article here.
Tuesday, August 18, 2009
SUCCESS STORY: Public discussion held on former coal plant
By Michelle Wolford
Aug 17, 2009 (The Dominion Post - McClatchy-Tribune Information Services via COMTEX)
PRESTON COUNTY -- A former coal prep plant site here offers a wealth of recreation and education options.
The 17.5 acre parcel along Cheat River between Kingwood and Rowlesburg was purchased from International Coal Group by Friends of the Cheat (FOC) in June. The watershed preservation nonprofit asked area residents to tour the site Saturday and offer suggestions for further uses.
More than 20 showed up at the former Patriot Coal site in the community of Preston, including environmentalists, teachers and Barbara Banister, the mayor of Rowlesburg.
"Our vision is for this site to provide river access and future rail-trail access, said Janet Lenox, associate director of Friends of the Cheat. Steps are being taken to purchase the CSX rail corridor that runs from Kingwood to Rowlesburg along the river, she said. FOC Executive Director Keith Pitzer said more than $500,000 has been promised to acquire the land.
Read the entire story here.
Aug 17, 2009 (The Dominion Post - McClatchy-Tribune Information Services via COMTEX)
PRESTON COUNTY -- A former coal prep plant site here offers a wealth of recreation and education options.
The 17.5 acre parcel along Cheat River between Kingwood and Rowlesburg was purchased from International Coal Group by Friends of the Cheat (FOC) in June. The watershed preservation nonprofit asked area residents to tour the site Saturday and offer suggestions for further uses.
More than 20 showed up at the former Patriot Coal site in the community of Preston, including environmentalists, teachers and Barbara Banister, the mayor of Rowlesburg.
"Our vision is for this site to provide river access and future rail-trail access, said Janet Lenox, associate director of Friends of the Cheat. Steps are being taken to purchase the CSX rail corridor that runs from Kingwood to Rowlesburg along the river, she said. FOC Executive Director Keith Pitzer said more than $500,000 has been promised to acquire the land.
Read the entire story here.
Obama Administration mulls reforestation proposal
By ROGER ALFORD (AP)
FRANKFORT, Ky. -- The Obama Administration is mulling a proposal for a jobs program that would plant trees on Appalachian mountaintops scalped by mining companies searching for coal, an official said.
A group of researchers, mining executives and government field workers, collaborating under the banner of the Appalachian Regional Reforestation Initiative, proposed the project that would both ease unemployment in the economically depressed area and restore forests annihilated by coal mining.
"This offers a tremendous opportunity for creating green jobs that will have far-reaching impacts on the economy and ecology of the region," said Office of Surface Mining forester Patrick Angel.
Angel said Thursday he discussed the initiative via telephone with Van Jones, President Obama's special adviser on green jobs at the White House Council on Environmental Quality. Angel said Jones "expressed great interest."
The proposal, Angel said, meets many of the goals of the administration: it's ready to start now, environmentally friendly, and would be an economic boon to communities struggling with unemployment rates that in some cases exceed 20 percent.
"It's like all the stars and the moon in the night sky are in perfect alignment for the development of this thing," he said. "It is an idea whose time has come."
Read more here.
FRANKFORT, Ky. -- The Obama Administration is mulling a proposal for a jobs program that would plant trees on Appalachian mountaintops scalped by mining companies searching for coal, an official said.
A group of researchers, mining executives and government field workers, collaborating under the banner of the Appalachian Regional Reforestation Initiative, proposed the project that would both ease unemployment in the economically depressed area and restore forests annihilated by coal mining.
"This offers a tremendous opportunity for creating green jobs that will have far-reaching impacts on the economy and ecology of the region," said Office of Surface Mining forester Patrick Angel.
Angel said Thursday he discussed the initiative via telephone with Van Jones, President Obama's special adviser on green jobs at the White House Council on Environmental Quality. Angel said Jones "expressed great interest."
The proposal, Angel said, meets many of the goals of the administration: it's ready to start now, environmentally friendly, and would be an economic boon to communities struggling with unemployment rates that in some cases exceed 20 percent.
"It's like all the stars and the moon in the night sky are in perfect alignment for the development of this thing," he said. "It is an idea whose time has come."
Read more here.
In Support of Joe Pizarchik as OSM Director
by Bruce Golden,
Regional Coordinator, WPCAMR
ECRR Board Member
There are times when simple actions we take now may be especially consequential for the future. For those of us involved in mining reclamation activities (a majority of this readership), I believe this is one of those times. The answer to “Who will become the federal Office of Surface Mining’s (OSM’s) next director?” will be very consequential at the national and state levels during the Obama administration. You have an opportunity to support an eminently qualified and suited individual for that position in Joseph G. Pizarchik, currently the director of Pennsylvania DEP’s Bureau of Mining and Reclamation. I’ll save for later how best to support his candidacy. First, some background.
Pennsylvania DEP’s Joe Pizarchik is President Obama’s choice (nominee) for the new Director of OSM. As it currently stands, Joe is part way through the confirmation process, having recently testified before the U.S. Senate’s Energy and Natural Resources (ENR) Committee. (You can watch the video of his hearing by clicking here. Note: Advance the program slider to about 16 minutes to avoid a long viewing of the opening screen!) When the Senate returns from summer recess after Labor Day, the Senate ENR Committee will vote on forwarding Joe’s candidacy to the entire Senate. If it reaches the Senate floor, a simple majority vote will decide the fate of his nomination. An affirmative Senate vote means Joe Pizarchik would be sworn in as OSM’s new Director.
My first hand experience with Joe have been nothing but positive. I believe him to be fair and open-minded with everyone (which includes the environmental community and coal operators). He makes himself easily available and goes out of his way to provide information. Joe is smart and well spoken, although you can sometimes tell he’s an attorney :-). (I won’t hold that against him.) With his years of experience, Joe knows the issues and the law regarding mining and reclamation. Joe has the right stuff to make an outstanding, effective OSM director for the entire nation. I don’t expect PA to receive any favored treatment… but am confident Joe will act as he does in his current position at DEP: fairly, thoughtfully, consistently and within the boundaries of the law.
Pennsylvania watershed groups and conservation districts know of and have benefited from Joe's work and experience in Harrisburg. Here are examples:
• Being able to use co-gen ash as a beneficial material in mining reclamation projects for both land reclamation and acid mine drainage (AMD) remediation projects. (See WPCAMR brochure "Burning Waste Coal in CFB Power Plants")
• Enabling the coal industry to do remining as a no-cost-to-taxpayers way of reclaiming mine-scarred lands and eliminating or improving AMD discharges. (See WPCAMR brochure on "Remining")
• Co-authoring the Pennsylvania's Good Samaritan Act, which gives land owners and non-profit groups participating in reclamation projects legal protection statewide.
For more, and to find out how to support Pizarchik's nomination, click here.
Regional Coordinator, WPCAMR
ECRR Board Member
There are times when simple actions we take now may be especially consequential for the future. For those of us involved in mining reclamation activities (a majority of this readership), I believe this is one of those times. The answer to “Who will become the federal Office of Surface Mining’s (OSM’s) next director?” will be very consequential at the national and state levels during the Obama administration. You have an opportunity to support an eminently qualified and suited individual for that position in Joseph G. Pizarchik, currently the director of Pennsylvania DEP’s Bureau of Mining and Reclamation. I’ll save for later how best to support his candidacy. First, some background.
Pennsylvania DEP’s Joe Pizarchik is President Obama’s choice (nominee) for the new Director of OSM. As it currently stands, Joe is part way through the confirmation process, having recently testified before the U.S. Senate’s Energy and Natural Resources (ENR) Committee. (You can watch the video of his hearing by clicking here. Note: Advance the program slider to about 16 minutes to avoid a long viewing of the opening screen!) When the Senate returns from summer recess after Labor Day, the Senate ENR Committee will vote on forwarding Joe’s candidacy to the entire Senate. If it reaches the Senate floor, a simple majority vote will decide the fate of his nomination. An affirmative Senate vote means Joe Pizarchik would be sworn in as OSM’s new Director.
My first hand experience with Joe have been nothing but positive. I believe him to be fair and open-minded with everyone (which includes the environmental community and coal operators). He makes himself easily available and goes out of his way to provide information. Joe is smart and well spoken, although you can sometimes tell he’s an attorney :-). (I won’t hold that against him.) With his years of experience, Joe knows the issues and the law regarding mining and reclamation. Joe has the right stuff to make an outstanding, effective OSM director for the entire nation. I don’t expect PA to receive any favored treatment… but am confident Joe will act as he does in his current position at DEP: fairly, thoughtfully, consistently and within the boundaries of the law.
Pennsylvania watershed groups and conservation districts know of and have benefited from Joe's work and experience in Harrisburg. Here are examples:
• Being able to use co-gen ash as a beneficial material in mining reclamation projects for both land reclamation and acid mine drainage (AMD) remediation projects. (See WPCAMR brochure "Burning Waste Coal in CFB Power Plants")
• Enabling the coal industry to do remining as a no-cost-to-taxpayers way of reclaiming mine-scarred lands and eliminating or improving AMD discharges. (See WPCAMR brochure on "Remining")
• Co-authoring the Pennsylvania's Good Samaritan Act, which gives land owners and non-profit groups participating in reclamation projects legal protection statewide.
For more, and to find out how to support Pizarchik's nomination, click here.
Thursday, August 13, 2009
Patriot Coal idles 300
Patriot Coal, the third largest coal company in the eastern United States and a company on whose mine site one of the ARRI/ACCWT tree plantings was held, is closing a mine at the border of Raleigh, Boone and Kanawha Counties, WV, and laying off 314 miners.
This is the latest in a series of reported layoffs over the past three weeks by various coal companies. The layoffs are prompted by low coal prices caused by coal surpluses in China and a dirth of steel production resulting from the near collapse of the auto industry and cutbacks in new construction.
Read the story here.
This is the latest in a series of reported layoffs over the past three weeks by various coal companies. The layoffs are prompted by low coal prices caused by coal surpluses in China and a dirth of steel production resulting from the near collapse of the auto industry and cutbacks in new construction.
Read the story here.
So what does President Obama’s nominee to run the U.S. Office of Surface Mining Reclamation and Enforcement think about mountaintop removal? If confirmed, how would Joseph G. Pizarchik deal with this huge issue?
Well, anybody who was hoping to gets answers to those questions during today’s U.S. Senate committee confirmation hearing was sadly disappointed. Pizarchik sure didn’t say much, even though he was given three chances by Sen. Robert Menendez, D-N.J.
During the first round of questions, Menendez asked Pizarchik about mountaintop removal as part of a multi-part question. Pizarchik answered the other parts, but didn’t respond on mountaintop removal. Menendez came back to it during the second round of questions, and asked Pizarchik would he would do as OSMRE director to implement the White House’s announced intention to reduce the environmental impacts of mountaintop removal. Pizarchik responded:
If confirmed, I will get involved in that project and learn more about the different perspectives held by the Environmental Protection Agency, the Army Corps of Engineers, as well as the other stakeholders of interest, the citizens, environmentalists … the state agencies that regulate the actual mining activity that occurs … Getting involved and getting a better handle on the details of that, and how that is actually being implemented, and getting an understanding of the facts would be the first basis to determine what has transpired in the past, has that activity been done in accordance with the law as enacted by Congress and the regulations adopted by the state and federal agencies, and then looking at those facts and deciding what would be the appropriate action to take at that time.
Sen. Menendez knows a dodge when he sees one, so he asked Pizarchik again, and got this response:
Without knowing the nuances and details of that, but if confirmed, I will be working for the president and I will be carrying out the course charted by the administration on that.
UPDATED: 1:15 P.M.:
Pizarchik’s prepared testimony to the committee is available now online here, and you can also watch archived video of the hearing here.
In addition, readers might want to visit the Environmental Integrity Project site for updated information on citizen groups who are opposing Pizarchik’s confirmation, and check out previous Coal Tattoo posts here and here.
Well, anybody who was hoping to gets answers to those questions during today’s U.S. Senate committee confirmation hearing was sadly disappointed. Pizarchik sure didn’t say much, even though he was given three chances by Sen. Robert Menendez, D-N.J.
During the first round of questions, Menendez asked Pizarchik about mountaintop removal as part of a multi-part question. Pizarchik answered the other parts, but didn’t respond on mountaintop removal. Menendez came back to it during the second round of questions, and asked Pizarchik would he would do as OSMRE director to implement the White House’s announced intention to reduce the environmental impacts of mountaintop removal. Pizarchik responded:
If confirmed, I will get involved in that project and learn more about the different perspectives held by the Environmental Protection Agency, the Army Corps of Engineers, as well as the other stakeholders of interest, the citizens, environmentalists … the state agencies that regulate the actual mining activity that occurs … Getting involved and getting a better handle on the details of that, and how that is actually being implemented, and getting an understanding of the facts would be the first basis to determine what has transpired in the past, has that activity been done in accordance with the law as enacted by Congress and the regulations adopted by the state and federal agencies, and then looking at those facts and deciding what would be the appropriate action to take at that time.
Sen. Menendez knows a dodge when he sees one, so he asked Pizarchik again, and got this response:
Without knowing the nuances and details of that, but if confirmed, I will be working for the president and I will be carrying out the course charted by the administration on that.
UPDATED: 1:15 P.M.:
Pizarchik’s prepared testimony to the committee is available now online here, and you can also watch archived video of the hearing here.
In addition, readers might want to visit the Environmental Integrity Project site for updated information on citizen groups who are opposing Pizarchik’s confirmation, and check out previous Coal Tattoo posts here and here.
Obama EPA approves another mountaintop removal mine
Ken Ward Jr.
Charleston Gazette
CHARLESTON, W.Va. -- The Obama administration late last week quietly approved one of six major mountaintop removal permits that were said to be undergoing close scrutiny by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.
Without announcing the move publicly, EPA gave the nod for the federal Army Corps of Engineers to issue a Clean Water Act permit for CONSOL Energy Inc.'s Peg Fork Surface Mine near Chattaroy in Mingo County.
EPA approved all eight valley fill waste piles originally proposed by CONSOL, provided that additional water testing is done before six of those fills are constructed, agency officials said.
Corps officials in Huntington approved the permit on Friday. Copies of key permit documents were not yet being made public, despite a promise from the Obama White House of increased transparency in the permit review process.
Read the story here.
Charleston Gazette
CHARLESTON, W.Va. -- The Obama administration late last week quietly approved one of six major mountaintop removal permits that were said to be undergoing close scrutiny by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.
Without announcing the move publicly, EPA gave the nod for the federal Army Corps of Engineers to issue a Clean Water Act permit for CONSOL Energy Inc.'s Peg Fork Surface Mine near Chattaroy in Mingo County.
EPA approved all eight valley fill waste piles originally proposed by CONSOL, provided that additional water testing is done before six of those fills are constructed, agency officials said.
Corps officials in Huntington approved the permit on Friday. Copies of key permit documents were not yet being made public, despite a promise from the Obama White House of increased transparency in the permit review process.
Read the story here.
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