March 24 |
OVEC Action
Alert Ohio Valley Environmental Coalition |
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Huntington March 28 -30 Appalachian Studies Association Annual Conference
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Help Tackle A Root Cause of Mountaintop Removal--Support Clean Elections
Winds
of Change Online
The latest issue of OVEC's newsletter, Winds of Change, is
now
online. While you are clicking around our website, check out
our latest "in their own words" booklet,
Mountaintops Do Not Grow Back (pdf).
West
Virginians: Please Contact the DEP
Since
Massey Energy was ordered to pay a $20 million settlement to
the US Environmental Protection Agency for past Clean Water Act
violations, other coal industry officials are now rushing to the WV
Department of Environmental Protection to ask for
settlements over their own violations. Coal companies are
apparently concerned about further federal scrutiny of DEP's failure
to enforce laws here in West Virginia, as well as
new citizen suits such as those filed on behalf of OVEC and
the West
Virginia Highlands Conservancy by the
Appalachian Center for the Economy and the Environment over
selenium violations at several state mines.
We must speak up now, or DEP will wave its magic wands and these past violations will be swept under the rug, leaving citizens to once again bear the true costs of dirty violators. Once the DEP settles with these companies, citizens cannot step in to demand that DEP fully enforce the law. The companies are attempting to settle for less than the minimum penalties, which will assure industry officials that they can continue to dump on West Virginia communities without regard for the law. We want the coal companies to obey laws and treat communities with respect.
Please contact DEP--your letters will help local residents obtain an audience before the DEP. Write a comment letter to express your concern over the multiple recent settlements between the DEP and subsidiaries of Alpha Natural Resources.
Questions to ask include: --Why are these proposed settlements less
than the minimum penalties?
--What are the specific types of violations? --What are the
dates of the violations? --Where are the locations of the violations?
--Why hasn't DEP calculated the economic benefit to the company of its
non-compliance, as is required by law?
Below is a sample letter from one Mingo County resident. If you need assistance with writing your own letter, please contact patricia@sludgesafety.org.
Deadline for comments is April 4, 2008. Mail letters to:
WVDEP/Environmental Enforcement
601 57th Street SE
Charleston, WV 25304
RE: Comments for proposed settlements
Come Out to
the Appalachian Studies Association Annual Conference
From March 28 to30 the
Appalachian Studies Association's annual conference, "The
Road Ahead: The Next Thirty Years of Appalachian Studies," comes to
Marshall University in Huntington, WV. Check out the
conference
program and schedule (pdf) and note the sessions on
mountaintop removal and organizing. OVEC volunteers and staff will
participate in various panels.
Exhibitors, vendors and groups, including OVEC will exhibit at ASA’s
Appalachian Gallery and Marketplace, located in the basement of
Marshall’s Memorial Student Center, on 5th Ave. between 17th St and
John Marshall Dr.
See this Huntington Herald Dispatch article for information on late registration and conference highlights.
Five
Senses For Change
If you are in Huntington, whether or not you are
registered for the Appalachian Studies Association annual
conference, please stop by Five Senses for Change, an OVEC-sponsored
exhibition running concurrently with the conference.
The art exhibit will feature work from a wide variety of artists who feel in some way directly affected by mountaintop removal. The exhibit runs from noon on Friday, March 28 to noon on Sunday, March 30 at the Drinko Library Study Center on the Marshall University campus. The show is structured in a manner that allows the viewer to relax and unwind from the conference, but still be engaged in the conversation. OVEC is sponsoring the display of Jeff Chapman Crane's Gaia sculpture, which will be in the main foyer of the library. Be sure to check it out!
Help Tackle A
Root Cause of Mountaintop Removal--Support Clean Elections
Once we establish Clean Elections in West Virginia, we should have
an easier time working on assorted social change issues, because Big
Money Special Interests will lose thier stranglehold on many of the
state's politicians, and more ordinary folks (i.e. not rich) will be
able to run for office.
You can help advance our Clean Elections work. Citizens for Clean Elections has been given an exciting fundraising opportunity! The Piper Fund will provide a one-to-one matching Challenge Grant if we can raise $15,000 by April 1, 2008. These challenge grants are the main source of funding for our clean elections work, so meeting the goal is extremely important.
Please help us seize this
opportunity by sending a generous contribution right away to
OVEC (P.O. Box 6753, Huntington, WV 25773) or WV Citizen Action (1500
Dixie St., Charleston, WV 25311). You can also donate online via
PayPal by clicking on the credit card icon
here; be sure to put "Clean Elections" in the space provided for
notes.
Your assistance will enable us to step up our grassroots and legislative activity on public campaign financing, as well as continuing the database work of the People's Election Reform Coalition. Our public campaign financing bill is gaining legislative support every year, our coalition is stronger than ever, and we will be putting our full effort into passing the bill in 2009. Clean Elections will be the reform that enables many other reforms in West Virginia, resulting in better public policy that benefits all our citizens!
Upcoming
Events Near and Far
Please check our
online calendar often for more events.
Mar. 30: 7 p.m. Kathy Mattea will premier her new "Coal" CD on Mountain Stage, at Paramount in Ashland, KY. See here and here.
April 1: Fossil Fools Day. Events all across the U.S. If you'd like to more information or to participate in the Charleston, WV event, e-mail vivian@ohvec.org.
April 3-6: The feature documentary film "Mountain Top Removal" will screen at the 5th annual Vail Film Festival in Vail, Colorado. S
April 5: 10 a.m. The Blessing of the Mountain II. Sponsored by the Ansted Historical Preservation Council. We will gather on Fire Tower Mountain, just above Ansted, joining hands and hearts in community, giving thanks for the gifts of the earth and seeking Divine intervention and wisdom to contradict devastation created by mountaintop removal mining practices.
Directions: Travel East from Gauley Bridge on US 60 toward Ansted to mile marker 104 continue .1 mile, turn left onto Rich Creek Road -- Travel West from US 19 on US 60 toward Ansted to mile marker 105 continue .8 miles turn right onto Rich Creek Road -- travel .7 miles to Ansted Head Start turn left stay on Rich Creek Road up the mountain. Travel .9 miles to a fork in the road turn left onto a dirt road. Follow that road 1.2 miles to the blessing site.
April 5: 6 - 9 p.m. Reception and Electronic Biography--Ken Hechler: In Pursuit of Justice, with Congressman Ken Hechler there to answer your questions, in the Don Morris Room of Marshall University's Memorial Student Center, on 5th Ave. between 17th St and John Marshall Dr.
April 5-9 is the 3rd Annual Mountaintop Removal Week in Washington, the chance for people like you from all across the country to meet your representatives and ask them to stop the destructive practice of mountaintop removal coal mining.
April 18 - 20: Sustainable Fair 2008 ~ "Green Makes $en$e" Davis & Elkins College Campus - Elkins, WV. The fair focuses on sustainable topics including energy, sustainable economic development, food & agriculture, health, architecture, eco tourism, public policy, transportation, small businesses and more. More info.
May 13: 9:35 p.m. EST. Sundance Channel’s series THE GREEN broadcasts Burning the Future: Coal In America, directed by David Novack. More Info.
May 22 -27: Seoul, South Korea. The documentary film Mountain Top Removal has been selected for the 5th annual Green Festival in Seoul, South Korea May 22 -27 2008.
Rise Up! West
Virginia (And People Everywhere)
Want to do something to help end mountaintop removal? Schedule a
showing of
Rise Up! West Virginia in your town. Click
here to read about the reaction of students who recently
viewed the film.
The documentary will screen tonight, March 25 at 7
p.m. at ABLE Families, Inc. on the corner of Lincoln and
Virginia Streets in Kermit, WV, and at 12:30 -3 p.m. on
March 27 at the Rupert Community Building on US Rt. 60 in
Rupert, WV. Presented by the Greenbrier Committee on aging. Both
screenings are free.
Deadline to
Register For Voting in WV and KY Primaries
To vote in West Virginia's May 13
primary election, you must be
registered by April 22. You can register to vote at
the county clerk's office or you can mail in a
registration form. April 22 is also the last day to
change your political party or file for registration if you've moved
to a new county.
Kentucky's primary election is May 20; April 21 is the last day to register to vote and May 19 is the last day to apply for absentee ballots.
CLEAN
Job Openings For Organizers
Wanted: Organizers for
CLEAN
Call to Action. Four organizers will be hired to work out of
a nonprofit organization in a coalfield state or a state clean power
campaign to organize the grassroots led CLEAN campaign and its
efforts in the region as part of a growing national collaboration.
For a complete job description, e-mail
vivian@ohvec.org. Deadline to
apply is April 15.
Sample Letter
to DEP
WVDEP/Environmental Enforcement
601 57th Street SE
Charleston, WV 25304
RE: Comments for proposed settlements
This letter is in response to the proposed Consent Orders No. M-08-001, M-08-002, M-08-003, M-08-004, M-08-005,M-08-006, M-08-007, M-08-008, M-08-009, M-08-010, M-08-011, between Brooks Run Mining Company, LLC, Cobra Natural Resources, LLC, Herndon Processing Company LLC, Keplar Processing Company, LLC, Kingwood Mining Company, LLC, Litwar Processing Company LLC, Mate Creek Energy, LLC, Premium Energy, LLC, Riverside Energy Company LLC, Twin Star Mining, Inc, White Flame Energy, Inc, and the West Virginia Department of Environmental Protection. That order is a proposed settlement by the West Virginia Department of Environmental Protection ("DEP") that would resolve multiple violations of the WV Water Pollution Control Act by these Alpha subsidiaries. The violations involve excess discharges of aluminum, solids, iron and other pollutants from strip mines, underground operations and preparation plants, according to the settlement documents.
I have acquired a copy of the proposed order, but in order to make informed comments, I need further information. For example, please provide public records evidencing the types of violations, the dates of violations, and the locations of the violations. Furthermore, please provide any and all public records evidencing how DEP determined the amount of the penalty.
I have grave concerns regarding the minimal nature of the civil penalty that is being assessed against the Alpha subsidiaries. The proposed base Penalty and the Base Penalty Adjustments total $749,840.00. However, based on the civil penalty worksheet, it appears that the minimum penalty should be $1,173,240.00, with a potential maximum penalty of $1,408,740.00.
Taking in consideration the huge loss to the State when the Federal EPA fined Massey Energy $20,000,000 that could have gone into the state coffers, why isn't the DEP assessing at least the minimum amount that is stated in the Base Penalty Calculation (pursuant to 47CSRI-6.1).
DEP should not be providing amnesty to coal operators in the state by slapping them on the wrists with modest civil penalties for multiple violations of the West Virginia Water Pollution Control Act. It is clear that polluting coal companies are coming to DEP to avoid federal enforcement actions or citizen lawsuits. It is embarrassing that DEP is seen as a refuge for polluters wishing to avoid true enforcement.
Sincerely:
(name withheld)
Mingo County
www.ohvec.org 304-522-0246 vivian@ohvec.org |
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