Surface Mine Board Rules to Allow Inaccurate Permit in Mingo County

In mid-July, more than 40 people – residents of Mingo County and their supporters – gathered at the DEP office in Charleston to attend an appeal hearing before the state Surface Mine Board.

"We are here today because this permit that the DEP issued is unlawful," Lenore resident Donna Branham said in a press conference before the hearing. "The reports on which this permit was based are incomplete, wrong, and inaccurate. This is what we will show to the Surface Mine Board in hopes that they will rescind the permit.

"The original decision to grant this permit said that no one uses this water, but this water is our life. We don’t want city water and I can’t run my farm on city water," Branham added.

Branham and other residents who live on the right fork of Laurel Creek are most concerned about how this permit will affect their water. Two valley fills and two run-off sediment ponds will be placed at the head of the hollow.

"I am seriously concerned about how these ponds will affect the creek and our hollow," said Rita Vance, also of Lenore. "We hear about all these disasters happening with black water spills, or about streams drying up in the coalfields and I want to make sure that doesn’t happen to us."

The DEP scientists who testified at the hearing could not prove whether the stream water would be cut off post mining.

After a full day of hearing the case, the Surface Mine Board unanimously ruled in favor of the DEP to accept the permit and continue with the operation.

"I don’t understand how the board can admit that the DEP messed up on this permit, and still not send it back to the DEP to revise the permit with the facts before the operation starts," said Kelli Branham of Lenore.

"Although yesterday we weren’t able to rescind the permit, we showed that at times the DEP is inaccurate in their assessment and findings, and that it is up to us as citizens to speak out and make sure everything that is important to us is being considered," Branham said. "We will continue to work toward discovering a balance between protection of our water and livelihood and the mining of coal. I encourage everyone to get involved."