Concerned citizens speak out against proposed mine at Poor Fork

Nearly 30 concerned community and statewide residents, sportsmen, and KFTC members participated in a public permit conference hearing held the by State Department for Natural Resources, Thursday September 11th at the Oven Fork Senior Citizens center in Letcher County.

Under the Surface Mining Control and Reclamation Act (SMCRA) of 1977 residents have the right to submit public comments as the state is reviewing a coal company's mining permit application for official state approval.

Cumberland River Coal Company of Appalachia, VA has applied for a surface coal mining and reclamation operation permit affecting 1,299.25 acres of surface, constructing three hollow fills and five sediment ponds approximately 1.4 miles from the community of Eolia. The proposed operation would use the surface contour, area and highwall mining methods of surface mining along the Poor Fork of the Cumberland River near the Bad Branch Nature Preserve.

The Poor Fork is one of the headwater streams for the Cumberland River and is one of only six Kentucky designated class 1 streams for its pristine water quality and natural brook trout population.

Residents protesting the proposed mining permit are concerned about the impacts to the headwater streams of the Cumberland River, their communities and the future of Bad Branch.

KFTC members gave testimony in favor of protecting the streams and requested that the state deny the mine permit.

Local resident KFTC member, Jim Webb, quoted the late Harry M. Caudill, "reclamation is like putting lipstick on a corpse, I don't want to see Black Mountain become a corpse."

Local artist and KFTC member, Jeff Chapman-Crane presented the state with an analysis of Cumberland River Coal company's profit gains according to information combined from the Associated Press and Mountain Eagle reports published on July 30, 2008.

Cumberland River's parent company, Arch Coal Inc., reported that its second quarter profit tripled from $37.6 million in 2007 to $113 million in 2008.

But while Arch Coal officials and stockholders may be celebrating their profit margins the Appalachian region and its people are the one's who are paying the true cost of coal. We pay every time our homes are shaken off their foundations with each illegal blast the company sets off, the mountains pay one by one as they are blown up and made barren, and the streams pay into Arch's profits with each mile that is buried and contaminated."

Over the past 30 years jobs in the coal industry have decline significantly. Mean while the production of coal has increase and the price of coal has skyrocketed. This economic practice funnels more and more money to fewer and fewer people further jeopardizing our future.

--Jeff Chapman-Crane

Concerned citizens are awaiting for the state's decision to grant or deny Cumberland River Coal's proposed mine permit.

There was general consensus that the next step for community action is to monitor the permitting process closely. Residents need to make sure that the company does not begin to mine without a permit or decide to clear the land without permission.