Floyd County KFTC Members Preach Truth to Big Coal at Permit Hearing

"I expect the state to do what you are hired to do,â€ Floyd County resident Dolvin Ratliff told representatives from the Miller Brothers Coal Company and the Division of Mine Reclamation and Enforcement (DMRE) during a permit hearing on Wednesday.

Supporting Ratliff at the hearing were 20 KFTC members in attendance who also gave personal testimonies about coal company abuses and lack of enforcement by local inspectors.

The hearing held at the DMRE office in Prestonsburg was in response to a new amendment to an existing permit on the west side of Route 7. The permit would increase the size of one valley fill and add two new valley fills to an existing Miller Brothers mountaintop removal operation. This amendment moves the operation down the west side of Raccoon Creek and is near where KFTC members Dolvin and Charlene Ratliff live.

Floyd County KFTC members took the opportunity to ask the DMRE and Miller Brothers directly why their complaints were not being heard by the company or the state. To date, there have been countless complaints about blasting, dust, mud and ashes from burning tires, but zero violations have been issued.

Barbara Bailey, a KFTC member from Raccoon Valley told the group that what she once considered her "paradiseâ€ has turned into "a danger zone.â€  She reported problems with dust and harassment from coal truck drivers.  Rick Handshoe of Hueysville asked what progress had been made on complaints and violations in his neighborhood.

Dolvin Rattlif told the DMRE that community complaints are falling on deaf ears with reports of  inspectors telling community members to stop complaining about blasting. In two cases, state inspectors told both Dolvin and KFTC member Lowell Shepherd that the state will no longer respond to their complaints about blasting. Ratliff said this will not keep him from speaking the truth, "I’m a pastor and I do not lie.  I will not give up my salvation for a lie.â€   He then took the coal company to task, "And this is to the coal company- you don’t have my property and you’re not going to get my property.â€

KFTC members in Floyd County left the hearing determined to keep speaking out until their complaints are answered and violations issued. Read more about this and other Floyd County updates in the next balancing the scales.