Flat Land, or Flat Out Lie?

One of the coal industrys favorite myths is that West Virginia needs more flat land for "economic development." Never mind the 300,000 acres of blasted-flat ex-mountains we already have. Some zany developers are bound to pop up any day now to build the infrastructure needed for the shopping malls, prisons and golf courses that the coal industry touts as the future economic savior of the southern coalfields. We better not let them read an Oct. 17 Ashland Daily Independent article, "Costly Prison: Construction project prime case for not building on strip mines."

Built on a donated mountaintop removal site, the Big Sandy federal prison, nicknamed Sink-Sink, is the most expensive federal prison ever built, with a price tag at $60 million over the original bid. The article says:

"It is not the prison itself but its location that has made the Big Sandy prison so costly, and thats unfortunate. What was originally hoped to be a positive example of how land leveled by surface mining can be used to promote economic development in Eastern Kentucky has done just the opposite. Other would-be developers will look at the problems encountered ... and think long and hard before ever opting to build on old strip-mine sites."