Harlan County Fish Pond Hit Again by Mining

Nearly three years ago, Elmer Lloyd began a journey for justice on his property in Cumberland, KY after the Nalley & Hamilton owned strip mine above his home completely devastated his family's fish pond. Excessive drainage of toxins, sediment, and mud killed hundreds of fish and nearly filled in the entire pond, as shown by video footage here. Years of lawyers, inspectors, court battles, and coal company lies, ended in Elmer having to settle with the company.

"I fully believed there were enough laws to protect my property. Boy was I wrong.â€ Elmer, disabled underground coal miner, says of the tragedy. This past November Elmer received his small settlement and began a new journey to restore his pond. Since then he has spent nearly three thousand dollars on the restoration.

Late last week, the site above Elmer's home, now considered "reclaimedâ€, released another slide of silt and mud into his pond. "We had some rain, but the stream coming off Pine Mountain [onto my property] was crystal clear. The stream running off that strip job was thick mud running right into my pond.â€

Inspectors came out but were resistant to give Elmer any information. They told Elmer they would be in touch about the water samples they took, and they couldn't write a violation if the company was in compliance.

"They probably won't give them an off permit violation because of all the mess I made about it the last time. They know I won't shut up about it and I'll stay right on 'em.â€

Elmer is hopeful that this incident isn't as detrimental, although still very damaging. He is yet to find any dead fish, but it will take some work to fix it. If his pond takes a couple similar hits to this one, it will be right back to the destroyed state it was three years ago. 

A lot of people around here have serious damage to their homes and property, but are scared to talk about it because them or their families work in the mines. I'm just a drop in the bucket, but I don't care to tell about it.