Now Hear This: Colonel Peterson of the Army Corps Denies Your Constitutional Right to Free Speech

"You knew what you were getting into," a Charleston police officer said to an agitated man, in order to justify denying the mans request for help.

What this man knew he was getting into was supposed to have been an Oct. 13 public hearing conducted by the US Army Corps of Engineers.

However, in reality thats what the man and several other mountaintop removal opponents were trying to get out of. They had asked the officer for help in leaving the hearing venue, the Charleston Civic Center, because hundreds of extremely angry miners were blocking the exit, shouting insults and even death threats, and, in some cases, even pushing around people who werent sporting Friends of Coal stickers or T-shirts.

The hearing was one of six held in Appalachian states to address the Army Corps of Engineers proposal to suspend and modify Nationwide Permit 21 (NWP 21) under Section 404(e) of the Clean Water Act. Mountaintop removal opponents attended the hearing to support the Corps proposal.

Though the Army Corps has for decades issued NWP 21 permits for valley fills at mountaintop removal operation, these types of permits should only be issued when the effects, including those to human health, aquatic life and other water-dependent wildlife and aquatic ecosystem diversity and stability, are minimal.

Thanks to lawsuits filed on behalf of OVEC, Coal River Mountain Watch and the Natural Resources Defense Council, attorneys Joe Lovett, Jim Hecker and others had forced the Corps to stop issuing NWP 21 permits in West Virginia.

With the proposed rule change, the Corps was finally admitting that valley fills really do have more than minimal impact and was moving to stop using NWP 21 at mountaintop removal operations in other Appalachian states.

Well, coal CEOs and industry lobbyists didnt like this at all. They pulled out all the stops to get miners out to the hearings. Weve heard rumors about miners being given the day off to attend the hearings and notices in paychecks about treehuggers and the EPA trying to take peoples jobs.

Note that the EPA was not the agency conducting this hearing and note that the NWP 21 wasnt being used in West Virginia and the miners were still at work.

Apparently whipped up with provocative and incorrect information, miners did turn out en masse for the hearing in Charleston. The Charleston police failed to maintain safe passage into the building; they allowed the mob to crowd in front of the doors. Some who came to give comments at the hearing couldnt even get inside. Those mountaintop removal opponents who did manage to run the gantlet of threatening behavior and make it inside were not granted their right to comment in public.

Inside, with the first comment, the Army Corps lost control of the "hearing." Senator Truman Chafin turned the microphone away from the panel and toward the audience, and then proceeded to kick off what was instantly turned into a pro-coal rally. The Army Corps moderators failed to request that the audience refrain from cheers and standing ovations.

Comment after comment followed, with little regard to the matter at hand. OVEC staffer Maria Gunnoe, the first speaker to try to give comments in favor of the Corps proposal, was shouted down.

Supposedly officiating at the "hearing" was Colonel Robert D. Peterson. He not only denied a request to remove the hecklers during the hearing, he also stated that he would not remove them because their heckling had not interfered with the process essentially reducing this federal public "hearing" to a sham.

As an officer of the US Army, he flagrantly ignored his duty. He allowed those with counter opinions to boo, threaten, taunt, shout down and intimidate those who support the elimination of the NWP 21.

We have learned from our allies in other states that presiding officers in the hearings held in those states made it clear, at the beginning of the hearings, who was in charge and that everyone would be heard.

In Charleston, though, it was clear our side would not be heard. People began leaving in small groups, again facing the mob and enduring taunts, threats and physical acts of intimidation. We wonder, had our side exhibited the same behavior, would we have been carted off to jail for assault and battery? But no one was arrested that night.

Of course, many groups and individuals submitted written comments to the Corps before the comment period ended. Nonetheless, what went on in Charleston the night of Oct. 13 is inexcusable. The member groups of the Alliance for Appalachia have asked for official investigations and follow-up actions. Stay tuned.