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Send Flood Study Comments to DEP ASAP
UPDATE: Legal Action and Massey Picnic
Art for OVEC opening is Friday 6. p.m.
Easy Web Action for Blackwater Canyon
COMMENT TO DEP ON FLOOD STUDY ASAP Coal and timber lobbyists are flooding the WV Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) with pleas to water down recommendations that, if followed, might limit the industries’ practices that exacerbate flooding. Yup, the draft report from the DEP’s flood advisory committee says, “Mining and timbering impacts did influence the study watersheds, surface water runoff and resulting stream flows.”
See The Gazette article, “Mining and logging make flooding worse, DEP study says; Water runoff increased by up to 21 percent.” (You can download the DEP draft flood report from this Gazette web page. It’ s also on the DEP website, but it takes much longer to download there, and my desktop computer crashed while I attempted to download it from DEP. It is still crashed.)
Of course, coal and timber lobbyists are spewing their usual spin — "If you regulate us, we will die." See the Gazette article, “Coal, timber seek to weaken DEP flood report.”
According to the article, “Ben Greene, a longtime coal lobbyist, repeated his opposition to a change to require mine operators to build valley fills from the bottom up.
“DEP officials say this technique will control more runoff than the current practice of simply dumping rock and dirt over hillsides into valleys to build fills...
“…DEP…said that (the) agency would consider comments on its report and recommendations.”
So, please comment to the DEP ASAP! After last week’s valley fill disaster at a Massey Energy mountaintop removal site in Logan County, DEP said it would like to enact the valley fill change (which is actually going back to a decades old requirement for valley fills) via its emergency rule making authority.
SEND COMMENTS TO:
Matt Crum, director DEP Division of Mining and Reclamation mcrum@dep.state.wv.us 10 McJunkin Road Nitro, WV 25413
At Tuesday’s meeting, Matt commented that the many, many comments DEP had received from timber interests looked like form letters. If you have time, please read the two articles linked above and create your own comments based on those.
OUR BASIC POINT: Do not allow timber and coal interests to pressure the DEP into watering down the recommendations proposed by the flood advisory committee.
UPDATE: PROTEST MASSEY SATURDAY!
Charleston attorney Jason Huber is today preparing a TRO (temporary restraining order) and a request for a preliminary injunction on behalf of author Denise Giardina and Reverend Jim Lewis, in an attempt to give the public a right of access to Magic Island (a public park) during the Massey picnic.
We have a sailboat to take a few folks with signs out on the Kanawha River, right in front of the Massey picnic.
Join us 11 a.m. Sat. July 27 as we protest Massey Energy. We'll meet in the Unitarian Universalist Church parking lot (though parking will be tight everywhere). That's at 520 Kanawha Blvd. West, on the corner of Vine and Kanawha Blvd. (Massey will have Kanawha Blvd. shut down, so don’t come that way!) From downtown Charleston, take Washington Street W., turn left on Delaware (Krogers is on Delaware) - you have to maneuver around a little to get onto the part of Virginia Street W. off which Vine Street runs.
See our previous Action Alert! for protest sign ideas.
ART FOR OVEC THIS FRIDAY The opening reception for an exhibition of art quilts by Winter Ross at Taylor Books' Annex Gallery (226 Capitol St.) in Charleston is on FRIDAY July 26 beginning at 6:00 p.m. A portion of the sales from Ross' "Earth Goddess" quilt series will benefit OVEC. Some of you who live in or near Charleston may have received postcards stating that the opening was Thursday, but there were last minute changes and the opening definitely is Friday.
SUSTAINABLE FAIR AUG. 3 Mark your calendar for the 3rd Annual West Virginia Sustainable Fair, Saturday, August 3, from 9:00 a.m. to 10:00 p.m. (gates open at 8:00 a.m.) at La Paix Herb Farm, 3052 Crooked Run Road, Alum Bridge, WV., 15 miles west of Weston, WV on Route 33 (follow the signs). $10 per person; $15 per couple or family; pay at the gate. Camping available on a first come, first serve basis. Contact Myra Bonhage-Hale at lapaix@iolinc.net or Denise Poole at deniseap@earthlink.net for more info.
EASY WEB ACTION FOR BLACKWATER CANYON One of the premier symbols of West Virginia’s beauty, Blackwater Canyon is still not safe from John Crites’ chainsaws. Please read about the latest threats to the canyon at in this Gazette article.
Take action now at www.saveblackwater.org/actionalert.html.
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