He said what a native son should; Judge Haden defended W.Va.

by Dave Peyton, March 25, 2004, Charleston Daily Mail

I always thought of the late Judge Charles Haden as a friend, although I never met him.

I always held him in high esteem, but I was seriously overwhelmed by his integrity, his honesty and his plain-spoken ways when, in October 1999, he said what I would have said about mountaintop removal mining in his native state.

It’s wrong to bury valleys and streams under tons of mine waste, the judge said.

Blasting off the tops of mountains to expose coal seams may be the cheapest way of getting at the coal underneath, but it forever changes West Virginia. And no one knows yet just how damaging those changes might be.

I’m not against mining. I’m not so naive that I believe West Virginia can survive without mining.

Neither was Judge Haden.

All he said in that famous decision, as I saw it, was that there must be a better way of getting the coal than violating the federal Clean Water Act, which prohibits dumping waste within a hundred feet of our streams and valleys.

His 1999 decision sent shock waves through the state. Coal companies involved in strip mining reacted the way everyone knew they would. I’ve lost count of the times the industry has predicted the death of coal mining in the state because of some law or regulation.

But they didn’t have to threaten the state too long. The Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals in Richmond, Va., overturned Haden’s decision. But the appeals court didn’t address the real issue of whether mining wastes can be dumped within 100 feet of a stream.

As I see it, Haden reached the only decision he could reach about what was happening no matter what it might mean to the coal industry. The Bush administration apparently, meanwhile, knows the 100-foot rule could become a problem so there’s a move to change the rule to allow the burial of streams and rivulets in the pursuit of coal.

No matter what happens, nothing will cover up what Judge Haden, a native son, tried to do to save the West Virginia hills for generations to come.

For that and much more, he’ll be remembered and missed.

(Judge Charles Haden died March 20, 2004).