|
Opinion And Comment: Bob Weaver
Massey Energy is still "storming heaven," running ads designed to
polish the company's tarnished image, a problem that seems to get worse by the month.
Two of its holdings
admitted to criminal pollution violations this week
and agreed to pay $400,000 in fines, the maximum allowed by
law.
The company's list of violations would fill an entire newspaper, not considering coverage that has been given to some of the
largest spills ever recorded.
Massey
might consider taking the money it's paying to air the PR ads
and cleaning up its environmental record.
Massey CEO Don Blankenship continues to receive
huge bonuses on top of his $881,000 base salary, and his outlandish stands taken against West Virginia,
including threatening to leave the state.
The company's profit-loss statement does not look good.
The more current Massey record as a corporate neighbor is almost as atrocious as the historical record coal
story of the 20th century that bears witness to the misuse of power over miners and the state's most valuable resource.
In a Boone County court this week, it was revealed during the last five years, about 215,000
truckloads of coal had been hauled in and out of Massey
Energy's coal processing plant at Sylvester.
Only 185 of those trucks complied with state road weight limits.
The statement was from testimony given by an expert witness for Sylvester
residents, the tiny town suing Massey and its subsidiary, Elk Run Coal
Co., over coal dust pollution from the plant.
More than 150 residents allege that dust from the operation rains
down on their community, covering their homes and cars.
Testimony said that the plant operates under a Department of
Environmental Protection permit that actually assumes coal trucks
will be overweight.
Jurors began hearing testimony in the case this past week. Boone
Circuit Judge E. Lee Schlaegel is presiding over the trial,
expected to last about two months.
Elk Run has denied doing anything wrong, and said it has tried to
work with residents to fix any alleged dust problems. .
Massey moved their operation from 1,400 feet away from town to within
630 feet of the community.
A witness said
"No prudent person should put a plant this size adjacent to a
town," but Massey does as Massey wants, they said, and then blames "tree huggers" for complaining.
The state Supreme Court refused to let residents
of Sylvester use the state's records
of Massey Energy subsidiary's environmental
violations during a coal dust pollution trial.
Justice Warren McGraw wanted to let the Sylvester residents use the
citations in their lawsuit, which claims the coal company
violated state laws by allowing coal dust to fall onto
their town.
He said the environmental laws are created to protect the state's citizens,
and refusing to let them use notices of violations in trial "would place an
onerous, undue and expensive burden" on those trying to defend
themselves.
Judge Schlaegel refused to let the residents use the citations as evidence
because he considered them similar to traffic tickets, "and I don't think
paying fines are an admission."
| 
