MASSEY TOLD TO CLEAN UP ACT - Strip Mines Still Not Reclaimed

(11/05/2003)

Federal Judge Mary Stanley has told a Massey Energy subsidiary to clean up its act. She says Independence Coal Company in Boone County needs to improve its terrible environmental record. Stanley ordered the company to give a one-day bonus to the first employee who reports future black-water spills, because residents downstream have reported the last three spills. Because of Massey's negative record, the judge had already ordered the company to undergo annual environmental audits. Meanwhile, West Virginia coal operators continue to strip mine more acres than they reclaim, according to a federal Office of Surface Mining issued this week. OSM said that 296,300 acres — an area nearly the size of Boone County — is currently disturbed by mining. A 32-page report said that coal companies last year received new permits for nearly six times the area that they completely reclaimed during the same period. The amount of acreage abandoned by coal operators skyrocketed during this year's nine-month study period, according to OSM. Last year, OSM reported 146 acres of mining operators abandoned. This year, the agency found 950 acres abandoned. DEP officials are trying to erase a multi-million-dollar deficit in the state's program to reclaim newly abandoned mines. But financial data released last week showed their efforts will still end up in the red by 2006. Tens of thousands of acres of strip mines have been a abandoned and not reclaimed since the practice began in the 60s.There is little funding to deal will old mining problems.

Hur Herald ®from Sunny Cal The information on these pages, to the extent the law allows, remains the exclusive property of Bob Weaver and Dianne Weaver The Hur Herald. All information may be freely used but must not be sold or used in any type of commercial endeavor, or used on any web site without the express permission of the owners ©Bob and Dianne Weaver, The Hur Herald, 1999, 2000, 2001