7/1/2003

Coal Hauling System To Be Introduced

Staff
State Capitol

HEAR COMMENTS WITH MARION COUNTY DELEGATE MIKE CAPUTO BY CLICKING "LIVE AUDIO" ICON ABOVE.

State Transportation Secretary Fred VanKirk is scheduled to announce a coal haul system for 15 southern West Virginia counties at a news conference this afternoon.

The system is part of the new overweight coal truck bill, which was approved by state lawmakers earlier this year. The law calls for VanKirk to determine which roads can handle coal trucks carrying roads up to 120,000 pounds.

VanKirk is ready to announce a system, but admits there are very few bridges on those roads, which can handle the extra weight. Coal companies will apparently be asked to help pay for bridge improvements.

Marion County Delegate Mike Caputo says the problem VanKirk is having with bridges doesn't surprise him. Caputo says the condition of bridges is one of the main arguments he made against heavier coal trucks during the two-year legislative battle.

Caputo says he wouldn't trust coal companies to help fix the bridges. He says they may do a few, but not all. He says the track record of coal companies isn't very good on other issues. Caputo says to believe the companies will pay for the bridges is "almost laughable."

The coal haul system is temporary, a comment period will last six months. The permanent system is scheduled to go into effect next January.

Delegate Caputo is urging coalfield residents to write the DOH and tell Secretary VanKirk what damage heavier trucks will do on the roads and bridges in their communities.

The coal haul system will be announced during a 3pm news conference in Charleston.

This news story originally provided by AP through The  Charleston Daily Mail

7/2/2003

DEP considers causes of problems at abandoned mines

MINDEN, W.Va. (AP) -- State environmental officials said Wednesday that they might never determine what caused water to gush out of an abandoned mine in Fayette County and force about 200 residents from their homes.

The Department of Environmental Protection was draining the mine in a rural section of the county as part of a reclamation project when workers noticed water flowing from the mine at an increased rate.

Workers diverted water from residences Tuesday night, but three houses were damaged, DEP spokeswoman Jessica Greathouse said.

By Wednesday morning, DEP workers had gained control of the water flow, and all displaced residents had returned to their homes.

"We'll probably never know exactly what happened ... but if we had not been dewatering that mine, the damage could have been a whole lot worse,'' Greathouse said Wednesday.

Officials believe that either a rapid exodus of water from the mine caused the roof to collapse, or a contractor's temporary mine seal became saturated and burst during Tuesday's heavy rains, Greathouse said.

The evacuation was ordered after water flowing from the mine increased suddenly. The mine is near the Lower Rock Lick area of Minden.

Heavy rains moved through the region Tuesday afternoon, dumping between 2 and 21/2 inches of rain over a two-hour period, the National Weather Service said. Additional rain was expected as the remnant of Tropical Storm Bill was to move into West Virginia early Wednesday but no other problems were reported.

Heavy rains in the Witcher Creek area of Kanawha County also caused a blowout at another abandoned underground mine. No problems were associated with that blowout, Greathouse said.

This news story originally provided by WV Metro News

7/2/2003

Candidate Roads Named For Coal Haul System

Staff
Charleston

State Transportation Secretary Fred VanKirk and DOH engineers have released their first list of coal haul roads in southern West Virginia. VanKirk calls the roads, "candidate roads” for the interim coal haul system to be announced Oct. 1.

The roads are located in 15 southern counties. VanKirk says his staff hopes to collect more information about the roads and bridges during the next 90 days so he can make educated decisions about which roads should ultimately be in the system.

VanKirk says at least 17 percent of the bridges on the candidate roads cannot handle the increased weight limit of 120,000 pounds. He says there may be some cases where a road is made a coal hauling road, but individual bridges may be posted for much less than 120,000 pounds.

The interim coal haul system will go into effect Oct. 1, followed by a comment period until Jan. 1, when the permanent system is scheduled to go into effect.

This news story originally provided by WV Metro News

7/7/2003

Delegate Remains Skeptical on Coal Hauling

Staff
Charleston

He was one of the staunchest opponents of the new Coal Truck Weight Limit Bill, now Marion County Delegate Mike Caputo predicts the state has gotten in over its head.

The legal weight limit for coal trucks went from 80-thousand to 120-thousand pounds on certain roadways. The bill also calls for increased fines for speeding trucks, a coal haul logbook to record how heavy a load each truck is carrying, and a new coal haul road system.

Only those roads deemed safe to carry 120-thousand pounds will make it on the list. Caputo says hundreds of bridges in southern West Virginia where most of the coal haul roads will be, can't handle the new weight limit without serious upgrades. The expensive upgrades cannot be afforded by the state.

Caputo says some bridges that are safe to carry 120-thousand pounds now -- may not be so in 6 months after hundreds of coal trucks cross them every day.

The industry has volunteered to shore up several bridges to make them meet the new standards. Caputo says that's a one-time offer. He says the bridges will need to be repaired and he's confident the coal companies won't be volunteering any money for those projects.

Caputo says he may have lost the war when it comes to coal truck weight limits but he says he intends to make sure coal haulers obey every single law down to the last letter.

This news story originally provided by WV Metro News

7/7/2003

PSC Vows Stiff Enforcement

Staff
Charleston

The chairman of the West Virginia Public Service Commission promises his inspectors will keep coal truck drivers on the straight and narrow once the new coal haul road system is put into place.

James Williams heads up the PSC. He says there's still a lot of work left to do before then can put the coal hauling road system into place. The DOT has to inspect hundreds of bridges in southern WV to see if they can stand the 120-thousand pound weight limit passed by the legislature during the regular session.

Williams says his officers will make sure coal truck drivers are obeying speed signs, hauling within the legal limit and driving safely.

He's convinced weight isn't the big issue -- it's truck safety. That's why he wants anyone who sees a truck breaking the law to call the PCS and report the problem.

But Williams says his office deals with more than coal trucks. He says the public has to realize they have other duties than just chasing down coal haulers. They have to make sure big rigs all the way down to dump trucks are obey the laws as well.

This news story originally provided by AP through The  Charleston Daily Mail

7/9/2003

New device could help track underground water flows

By MARTHA BRYSON HODEL
Associated Press Writer

CHARLESTON, W.Va. (AP) -- Hold your fire.

That odd, torpedo-like device hanging a hundred feet or so below the belly of a low-flying helicopter is no armament, but a new technology that scientists hope will aid in the tracking of underground water flows.

From Tuesday through the weekend, crews involved in joint project of the federal Mine Safety and Health Administration and the National Technology Transfer Center at Wheeling Jesuit University will be testing the device over 13 coal waste impoundments in seven southern West Virginia counties.

Terry Ackman, clean water team leader for the National Energy Technology Lab, was spreading the word Tuesday to state news media in the hope of heading off residents' potential alarm over the low-flying device.

"Given all the concern about homeland security lately, we thought we should warn people,'' Ackman said. "We don't want people shooting at this darn thing.''

The sensor uses electromagnetic waves, much like radio waves, to track the flow of water underground. It has been tested over parts of Pennsylvania, southwestern Virginia, central California and the Powder River Basin in Wyoming.

"This is something we couldn't have done five years ago,'' Ackman said.

He said the National Technology Transfer Center is currently developing standard methods for using the device so that other groups will be able to operate it too.

When the electromagnetic waves emitted by the device hit something conductive, such as underground water, they are reflected back and mapped by the computer. Although the device is designed to track underground flows as deep as 300 feet below the surface, in practice it has only tracked flows about 150 feet down.

The 13 impoundments that are the subject of research are located in Boone, Kanawha, Logan, McDowell, Mercer, Mingo and Wyoming counties.

"Some of these impoundments we're looking at have old underground workings either directly underneath or nearby,'' Ackman said. "This would help us know if the impoundment is leaking.''

The device also could help prevent episodes such as the mine flood that took place in 2002 in southwestern Pennsylvania, when nine coal miners were trapped underground after they accidentally broke into an abandoned, flooded mine they believed was still at least 300 feet away.

The device has already helped find the source of contamination to Clear Lake, Calif., the largest natural lake in that state. Investigators could not locate the source of pollution to the lake, which was separated from an old mercury mine of the 1880s by a dam made of refuse from the old mine.

"They had made Swiss cheese of this place drilling monitoring wells, but they couldn't actually find the plume that would justify saying this old mine was contaminating the lake,'' Ackman said. "But with this device we could see a red plume, and coordinated it with surveys on the ground.

"As a result, we could see the flow path meandering through this dam, and when we plotted their wells on the map we found they just missed it.''

This news story originally provided by AP through The  Charleston Daily Mail

7/10/2003

Feds OK state rules aimed at reducing flooding from mine runoff

CHARLESTON, W.Va. (AP) -- Federal regulators have approved changes in West Virginia's mining rules that state officials say will minimize flood damage during heavy rainstorms.

The revised rules are the result of more than a year of study by a committee appointed by Gov. Bob Wise to determine whether mining and logging contributed to the flooding that hit southern West Virginia in 2001 and 2002. The committee concluded that industrial activity did have some role in the severity of the floods.

Valley fills, essentially large piles of dirt used as disposal sites for the rock and dirt left over from strip mining, were identified as contributors to severe flooding downstream.

Among the changes approved this week by the federal Office of Surface Mining is the elimination of a method of building valley fills known as "end dumping,'' in which dirt is dumped by truck over a hillside into the valley with little compaction taking place between loads.

The new rules, which were developed by the state Department of Environmental Protection, require coal operators to build "bottom up'' valley fills, starting at the bottom of valleys and compacting rock and dirt one layer at a time with drainage built in.

Mining engineers had complained that "bottom up'' fills would be expensive and impractical in some very steep terrain. So, the new rules include an alternative that requires construction of a so-called "erosion protection zone'' at the bottom of the fill, a substantial flat area that the DEP said should limit any erosion from the face of the fill.

Another revision requires coal operators to show that mining activity will not increase stormwater runoff before they can begin mining.

"These changes approved by the OSM provide us with the tools we need to safety oversee coal mining and protect human health and the environment,'' DEP Secretary Stephanie R. Timmermeyer said Thursday.

This news story originally provided by AP through The  Charleston Daily Mail

7/15/2003

Blankenship pitches coal gas, swipes at Legislature

By LAWRENCE MESSINA
Associated Press Writer

PARKERSBURG, W.Va. (AP) -- Unsatisfied with the state's new law legalizing heavier coal trucks, the CEO of Massey Energy Co. asked legislators Tuesday to get out of the way of economic development in West Virginia.

"The coal truck bill will not save any jobs or save any lives, in my opinion,'' Don Blankenship told the interim Joint Commission on Economic Development.

For years, Massey lobbied the Legislature for higher truck weight limits. The bill passed during the regular session creates a haul road system that will allow 120,000 pound trucks. The legal limit had been 80,000 pounds for four-lane roads and 65,000 for two-lane roads.

But Blankenship said "common law'' -- an apparent reference to widespread flouting of that limit -- permitted trucks far heavier than the new limit. In effect, the new law decreases the weight of trucks that actually travel West Virginia roads, he said.

"You should have passed a 140,000-pound law,'' he said.

Blankenship contrasted traffic deaths blamed on overweight coal trucks with the millions of miles the trucks travel each year. If concerned about safety, the Legislature should have required helmets or safety training for children who ride all-terrain vehicles, Blankenship said.

An ATV safety bill died during the regular session.

Blankenship cited the coal truck legislation as an example of "bills and regulatory hurdles'' erected by lawmakers that hurt the state's economy.

"The unfair treatment of business in West Virginia has made jobs an endangered species,'' Blankenship said. "People don't view West Virginia clearly as being business-friendly.''

Blankenship took his swipe after asking the legislators to support Massey's vision of replacing the country's reliance on oil with natural gas and synthetic vehicle fuels derived from coal.

Blankenship said he has met with former Secretary of State Henry Kissinger, among others, to promote Massey's coal gasification plan.

"Gasification is the future of coal,'' he said.

Blankenship blamed the war in Iraq and increased military spending on the need to import oil.

"We would be keeping people like Jessica Lynch instead of sending them to the Middle East,'' he said, referring to the Army private and rescued prisoner of war from Wirt County.

This news story originally provided by AP through The  Charleston Daily Mail

7/18/2003

Coal shippers, receivers beholden to PSC under proposed rules

By LAWRENCE MESSINA 
Associated Press Writer

CHARLESTON, W.Va. (AP) -- Companies that load and unload coal trucks would be regulated alongside the drivers and truck owners under rules proposed Thursday by the Public Service Commission.

The draft rules would require shippers and receivers to report the weight of every coal shipment, in a format that would allow the PSC to track coal hauling in the state with a computer database.

Shippers and receivers would face a $100-per-load penalty for failing to file a report. Shippers must also supply drivers with a copy before they start their runs. Homes, schools and hospitals that receive coal don't have to file reports.

Published on the PSC's Web site, the proposed rules would govern the agency's new duties under a law passed this year allowing 120,000-pound coal trucks on certain West Virginia roads.

The legal limit had been 80,000 pounds for four-lane roads and 65,000 for two-laners. The new law will create a 15-county Coal Resource Transportation System where trucks with special permits can haul the heavier weight.

The proposed rules outline the permit process and include an annual fee of $100 to $500, depending on the truck's size. They would require all permit holders to submit to PSC weight or safety checks. Previously, drivers could avoid weight inspections by pulling off a road.

Under the proposal, drivers also could be required to undergo random drug and alcohol tests.

The draft rules include penalties for drivers and owners caught violating the new weight limits without a permit, with a permit and with a suspended permit. In general, the penalties suspend a driver's license or the permit for as little as three days to up to two years, depending on the violation and whether it is a first, second or third offense.

Perhaps the most severe proposed penalty would revoke the special permit and all others issued by the state if a truck is caught hauling overweight for the third time after its special permit had already been suspended.

Trucks could be impounded under the proposed rules, but only by law enforcement. A ticket for violating the new weight limits or a "altered, forged or counterfeited'' hauling permit could trigger a truck's seizure. The process for impounding a truck would include finding a facility "capable and willing to store the commercial motor vehicle and its load.''

The PSC will explain the draft rules Aug. 12 at Chief Logan State Park and Aug. 14 at the Raleigh County National Guard Armory. The agency hopes to have rules in place by October.

7/23/2003

Roberts-Blankenship Face Off On Talkline

Staff
MetroNews Talkline

Live Audio (mp3)  HEAR “TALKLINE” COMMENTS FROM MASSEY PRESIDENT DON BLANKENSHIP AND UMWA PRESIDENT CECIL ROBERTS 

Massey Energy CEO Don Blankenship says he believes most of his workers are happy, but UMWA President Cecil Roberts maintain they are intimidated and underpaid.

Blankenship and Roberts disagreed on union organization and many other issues during a joint appearance on MetroNews’ “Talkline” Wednesday.

Ninety-five percent of Massey's mines in West Virginia are non-union. The UMWA has tried to organize many of them. Roberts says workers are told if they join a union they will be fired. He says that makes it easy for them to make a decision. Blankenship says no one has ever proven the workers are threatened.

The two also spent significant time addressing the overweight coal truck issue. Blankenship says 120,000 pounds won't be enough, and there will be job losses in southern West Virginia. Roberts says companies like Massey always threaten to cut jobs to get their way. Blankenship says several mines may close because heavier loads won't be allowed on nearby bridges. Roberts says the company should pay for new bridges.

Blankenship says his biggest beef with the UMWA is it no longer represents its members. He called it nothing more than a "spoiled child." Blankenship says leaders care more about the union itself than the rank and file.

President Roberts says the only spoiled child is Massey and other large coal companies, which always get their way. Roberts says, "When we say ‘King Coal,’ we ain't kidding here in West Virginia."

This news story originally provided by WV Metro News

07/24/2003 

Mountain Top Mining Debate Continues

Staff
Charleston

The subject of Mountaintop Removal mining remains very emotional in West Virginia and that was very evident a public hearing Thursday in Charleston.

The forum was hosted by five different governmental agencies including the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. Corps spokesman Chuck Minsker says the agencies are just trying to get a feel from the public on the status of mountaintop removal.

West Virginia Coal Association President Bill Rainey says environmentalists are more interested in protesting than they are mining. Rainey those against the mining technique will be the same people trying to prevent something else next week.

Rainey says they are taking a shallow approach by condemning mountaintop removal by not looking at the big picture and the economic impact it has on all of West Virginia.

Project Manager for the Ohio Valley Environmental Coalition, Vivian Stockman, says that Mt. top removal destroys the environment. Stockman says that it is not fair to compromise the environment years down he road for the all-important dollar now, and that safer energy sources such as hydrogen should be used with job created in the midwest.

Victims of recent floods claimed by residents to be direct results of Mt. top removal, are quick to tell there stories and their dislike for the practice.

But Walker Machinery VP Wayne Coalman says that the coal companies are vindicated in the Environmental Impact Statement. Walker says it shows that even with the most strenuous regulations ever to Mt. top removal in place today they have been in complete compliance.