This news story originally provided by The Charleston Gazette

February 25, 2005

Rush Creek mine hearing attracts 150

Residents, miners debate proposed mine

By Ken Ward Jr.
Staff writer

Residents of the Mount Alpha Road area and local coal miners turned out Thursday night to debate an increasingly controversial permit to expand strip mining along Rush Creek, south of Charleston.

About 150 people packed a meeting room at the West Virginia Department of Environmental Protection’s new offices in Kanawha City for the agency’s “informal conference” on the proposal.

Mount Alpha Road resident Barney Frazier, a Charleston lawyer, gave a polite but emotional speech on behalf of himself and neighbors who oppose the Keystone Industries mine.

Frazier said he and others are worried about blasting, noise and dust from the mine.

“If you’re here in this room and you don’t mind the dust, I’m not going to fuss at you,” he said. “But I don’t want to live near the dust.”

Most of all, Frazier said, he is upset that the mine will ruin what he called the “awesome view” from the large deck he and his wife included in their home.

“There is nothing that Keystone could do when they are done mining that is going to put my view and God’s mountains back the way they are now,” Frazier said.

But another hearing speaker, Keystone employee Mike Yeager, said the operation would actually improve the view for Mount Alpha Road residents.

“Right now, all they’re looking at is trees,” Yeager said. “When we’re done, they can look over and see grass and see animals running. That’s a whole lot prettier than trees.”

Yeager said he wants the DEP to approve the Keystone permit so that he can keep his job.

“It’s the way I support my family,” he said. “I don’t know any other way to support my family.”

Fort Myers, Fla.-based Keystone Industries is seeking permits for a 375-acre mountaintop removal operation along the right fork of Rush Creek. The company already operates a mine along the left fork of Rush Creek, farther from the community.

If it obtains those permits, Keystone would mine about 1.9 million tons of coal over five years.

The company hopes to start mining in June, DEP records show. A consultant said the entire mining and reclamation process would take about eight years.

Keystone would use explosives, huge shovels and dozers to uncover coal seams. The leftover rock and dirt — more than 18 million cubic yards of it — would be shoved into nearby valleys, burying about a half-mile of streams.

Keystone would open its Rush Creek No. 2 Surface Mine near an adjacent operation on land now owned by Tom L. Scholl.

At Thursday night’s hearing, consultants for Keystone answered residents’ questions about the permit application.

DEP employees displayed large maps and aerial photographs of the site, but mostly did not address concerns about possible flaws in the application.

Lewisburg lawyer Joe Lovett, who has won three federal court orders to limit mountaintop removal mining, is representing Frazier and his wife in their fight against the Rush Creek permit.

Lovett told DEP officials that there are several critical problems with the application, including its failure to comply with the state’s new approximate original-contour reclamation regulations.

He was the only leader of the state’s environmental community to appear at the hearing.

Coal industry officials, meanwhile, turned out in force to support dozens of Keystone workers who attended wearing company baseball hats.

Three lobbyists for the West Virginia Coal Association appeared, as did the group’s chairman. So did Steve Walker, president of mining equipment company Walker Machinery.

Also attending, but not speaking, were Bill Bissett, a Charles Ryan Associates publicist for the group Friends of Coal, and Kasey Russell, executive director of the West Virginia Land and Mineral Owners Association.

To contact staff writer Ken Ward Jr., use e-mail or call 348-1702.