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To read the update online, scroll down to articles (or click on index
links below). If you want to see an exact copy of the printed
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version.
February, 1 2002 Update
1. Under the Dome
2. No Campaign Finance Reform: No
Sustainable Development
3. WVEC Annual E-Day! Just around the
Corner
4. Legislative
Contact Information
5. Lobby
Team says Thanks!
6. Feature Lobby Team Member
7. Be Our Valentine!
8. Monster Trucks: Justifying Illegal
Loads
9. A Solution Waiting to Happen
10. Eco-Justice Resource now available
11. DEP Denies Permit to Mine Under Grant
Trout Stream
12. No More Overweight Coal Trucks!
13. Bills Introduced this week
Under
the Dome
By
Donald S. Garvin, Jr.
WVEC
Legislative Coordinator
Week
4 – Strange week down here in Charleston (nothing new about that, I
guess), with temperatures in the high 60’s to high 70’s the whole last
week of January. Not to worry though, ‘cause our friends in the electric
utility biz tell us there’s no such thing as global climate change.
Remember
all those “rules” bills I told you about last week? Well, this week we
finally got copies of these rules from the Secretary of State’s Office.
We got them in a kind of indirect way, another example of the principal of
“it’s who you know that counts” being the name of the game in
politics. You see, normally we as common ordinary citizens would have had
to pay the Secretary of State fifty-cents a page for these copies. One of
these rules was 220 pages long. You do the math! There really ought to be
a law . . .
The
lobby team spent the week looking at each of these proposed rules. Many of
them contain no significant policy changes, but are simply updating the
state code to comply with various minor changes in other federal and state
laws. However, some of these rules do contain major changes to state
environmental regulations concerning air and water pollution. We are doing
our best to get a handle on just what is significant in these rules and
what is not, and to get some kind of sense of when they will come up in
the various committees.
Chasing
these rules bills is the “defensive” part of our lobby work. The team
is also beginning to be more comfortable with the “offensive” aspect
of representing the environmental community. We are now talking with
legislators about OUR vision and OUR agenda. Most of this interaction
comes from “schmoozing” with delegates and senators in the halls and
at committee meetings and, of course, from actual sit-down meetings in
their offices.
For
example, Conni Lewis and I are working the timber reform issue on several
fronts. Conni is the lobbyist for the Coalition for Responsible Logging,
and largely through her efforts at least two legislators are in the
process of drafting and introducing new legislation to reform the Logging
and Sediment Control Act, legislation that would increase enforcement
efforts and actually make some of the voluntary best management practices
mandatory.
Senator
Mitchell actually re-introduced our two bills on this issue from last year
at the beginning of the session. They are S.B. 87 and S.B. 88 and they
would make best management practices mandatory and take enforcement
authority out of the hands of the Division of Forestry and vest it in the
hands of DEP and DNR (the industry REALLY hates this idea!!). While we
don’t expect these two bills to have enough support ultimately to make
it to the governor’s desk this session, there may be as many as half a
dozen smaller bills that would favorably “tweak” the existing Logging
and Sediment Control Act into becoming a better law.
So, while we can’t give you specific bill numbers to use as talking
points (other than S.B. 87 and 88), if you want to help improve the
current timber law, you can TAKE THIS ACTION: call your delegates
and senators and tell them you are tired of putting up with all the
flooding and all the mud in our streams and rivers that is the direct
result of irresponsible logging practices. Tell them you want them to
reform the Logging and Sediment Control Act so that the regulations are
MANDATORY and there is real ENFORCEMENT.
Monday,
February 4, is WV Forestry Association Day at the capitol. We’re going
to put our timber reform fact sheet on every legislator’s desk that
morning. This thought will actually help me look forward to being back
here on Monday!
Time
to stir things up. The FUN continues!
Return to Index
No Campaign Finance Reform ~
No Sustainable
Development
by
John Taylor
The
Governor’s "West Virginia - A Vision Shared! Economic Development
Strategy" asserts several answers to the question: "Why Is West
Virginia Where It Is?"
One
answer is: There is no discernable structure for public involvement.
The
document goes on to explain: "While West Virginians reported many
problems, they also wanted to know how to become involved. A wide
stretching, inclusive approach to change has not been used in West
Virginia in the past. The old way of doing things—including a lack of
public involvement—clearly has not worked well for the State."
But
Sustainable Development requires: * A political system securing citizen
participation in decision making. This is exactly what we don’t
have, according to the Governor’s “Vision Shared” statement.
Big money closes the gate on “ordinary” citizens’ participation as
candidates for office. The current Enron scandal clearly shows the
corrupting effect of big money on elections and public trust in elected
officials.
* Source: from "Rio+5" a 1997 conference on
economic & environmental development. You can see this at: http://www.ecouncil.ac.cr/rio/susdevelopment.htm
Return to Index
WVEC
Annual E-Day! Just around the Corner
Have
you marked you calendar for Friday, February 22nd? If not, do so now! You
don't want to miss this years E-Day! at the Capitol. Lots of WVEC
organizations (and folks) will be on hand with their latest information,
ecowares, issue papers and more. Meet the Lobby team, lobby your
representatives, and help us honor those special enviros who have worked
magic this last year for great causes (2002 recipients to be announced in
Update soon.)
While
you are in town, stick around for our Fundraiser at the Empty Glass from
5:00 till 9:00 p.m. The band formerly known as "The Porch Band"
will get you up off your feet in a hurry. Support WVEC with a $5 (or
whatever you can afford) donation at the door!
Return to Index
Legislative
Contact Information:
Governor
Wise: governor@wvgov.org
Toll-free
access: 1-888-438-2731, or (304) 558-2000
Legislators:
www.legis.state.wv.us
(put Senator or Delegate's name in subject line), or write to: The
Honorable ______________ Member, WV Senate (or House of Delegates) Bldg.
1, State Capitol Complex,
Charleston
WV 25305 Toll-free access: 1-877-56-LEGIS (1-877-565-3447)
DEP
Director Callaghan:
mcallaghan@mail.dep.state.wv.us
- or call: (304) 759-0570
Return to Index
Lobby
Team says Thanks!
This past Wednesday, the WVEC lobby team was treated to
a very inspirational 'Lobbying our Legislators' Training Session by the
one and only Rick Eades. Thank you Rick , for sharing your time,
expertise, insights and energy with us..... Come back Rick, come back!!!
Return to Index
Feature
Lobby Team Member:
John
Taylor
Journey
To Activism
Long
ago, but not so far away, when I was down in the primary grades at
Arthurdale Elementary School in Preston County I spent a lot of time
running around alone on the hills and fields near our home.
My
special place was the headwaters of Decker’s Creek. The creek was clean
then, clean enough to swim in, clean enough to support a population of
chubs, bluegills, sunfish, bullhead catfish, the usual minnows, the
occasional bass, and even, once in a while, we’d seine in some darters.
Looking back now, and remembering, I know they were darters. Back then,
they were just strange looking minnows to us, fellow inhabitants of the
beautiful and clean ecology we children were so lucky to be living in. I
hope the creek is still clean. Truthfully, I’m a little afraid to go
back and see for fear another precious part of my life’s journey won’t
be there anymore. Are the darters still there? I doubt it, but I really
don’t want to know.
Ya’ll
know Deckers Creek, don’t you? It’s the beautiful stream that runs
north along Route 7 between Masontown, Preston County and the Mon River at
Morgantown. It’s the stream that runs gray and ugly after it passes the
Greer Family’s and John Raese’s limestone mill at Cascade, just below
Masontown, on Route 7 as you travel down Dellslow Mountain to Morgantown.
A
long, long time ago my Grandad Taylor bossed the construction of that
mill, making a living for his large family. They lived on Bull Run near
where Big Sandy Creek joins the Cheat River. My Great Grandad worked in a
saw mill there, part of the timbering industry at a time when that whole
area, not far from Cooper’s Rocks, was clear cut. That’s the same
Cheat River nearly destroyed by acid mine drainage, the river where my
older relatives fished for, and caught trout.
I
myself caught many catfish from the Cheat when I was ten, twelve, thirteen
years old right there under the Jenkinsburg bridge, not far from the mouth
of the Big Sandy. And thirty, forty years ago I camped a lot, by myself,
on Big Sandy Creek, nurturing, sustaining times that I can still remember
in almost every detail. I often drank directly from the creek then, and
the water was so cold it would hurt your body if you were in it, even in
the height of the summer’s heat I’ve been back to the old camp sites.
I wouldn’t dare drink the water now, and its nowhere near as cold.
Advance
time’s clock to 1996. Robin Godfrey and Janet Fout (may their names be
blessed forever) organized me into the “environmental movement” on a
constellation of issues: the proposed Mason County pulp mill, Corridor H,
and the removal of a few trees from in front of the Statehouse.
It’s
strange to think of my life as part of the ecological history of this
state, but there it is. Bucolic childhood days on Decker’s Creek,
limestone mills, clear cut timbering, acid mine drainage, fragmentation
and destruction of farm land, dioxin in our streams, the whole dismal
litany that we all know too damned well.
I often think of Deckers Creek at Arthurdale, and I
often, often, often think of how much I want my grandchildren and my
great-grandchildren, and all the generations to come to enjoy the same
clean water and air I enjoyed as a child. God Dammit, sisters and
brothers, it’s worth fighting for! I know you all agree with me on this
for mostly the same reasons. It’s why I’m on this journey and I’m so
tickled and proud to be traveling this difficult road with you all.
Return to Index
Be Our
Valentine!
If you haven’t done so, why not send us a Valentine
and renew your WVEC membership? And if you’ve already renewed, why not
consider making an extra contribution for Valentine’s Day to help us pay
our lobby team costs? Remember, we need both your love and your money, and
we’re always working hard to gain your respect!!
How
about that for a shameless plea ?!?
Don
Garvin
Return to Index
Monster Trucks: Justifying
Illegal Loads
Charleston
Gazette Editorial, January 31, 2002
BILL
RANEY thinks economic concerns justify constant lawbreaking by the
industry he represents as president of the West Virginia Coal Association.
In a report in the Charleston Daily Mail, Raney went on at length about
why it’s necessary to haul coal in trucks bearing illegal loads two or
three times greater than law allows.
The
coal industry must break the law, Raney said, because loading points are
farther and farther from the mines. This is, of course, because loading
facilities are expensive. As the Daily Mail article said, “It takes a
lot of up-front capital to build a preparation plant, river terminal or
other coal-handling facility. Consequently, companies try to use their
existing ones as long as the cost of getting coal to the facility is
cheaper than building a new one.”
As
always with the coal industry, the real question is, cheaper for whom?
It’s not cheaper for the state, which has to rebuild roads and bridges
crushed by the overweight trucks. And it certainly isn’t cheaper for the
people maimed or killed in accidents with overloaded trucks.
A
Kentucky engineer who lost his son in an accident with a coal truck
recently wrote a letter to Gov. Bob Wise urging him to keep weight limits
where they are.
“I
understand that you are considering allowing 140,000-pound trucks.
Unfortunately, even if trucks at this weight have perfectly adjusted
brakes at all times, which they do not ... they cannot meet the federal
and state braking requirements,” wrote Roy Crawford. “Trucks this
heavy are a special problem on the long, steep hills they often use in
West Virginia and Kentucky.”
In
other words, Raney’s economic arguments can’t trump physics. You
can raise weight limits, but you won’t change the fact that trucks this
heavy can’t stop in safe distances. Nor can you change the fact that
roads and bridges aren’t designed for such crushing loads.
The
coal industry has gone for years completely unconcerned about weight
limits because enforcement was so ineffectual. Now that the public is
raising an outcry for better enforcement, Raney wants the limits raised in
some kind of bargain.
Only
the coal industry would be so arrogant as to assume that it can deal with
the state and “accept” enforcement only if it is given what it wants.
The Legislature should prove that arrogance unfounded,
and pass strict new enforcement measures with no increase in weight
limits. Public safety demands it.
Return to Index
A
Solution Waiting to Happen
by
Norm Steenstra, WV-CAG Exec. Director
In
a surprise move Wednesday, conservative Senator Karen Facemyer introduced
a bill to legalize hemp. SB 447, the Industrial Hemp Development Act,
provides for cannabis sativa to be grown for the "manufacture of
rope, sacks, food, oil, baby care, household uses, cloth, paper, carpet,
synthetics, fuel, and other sisal hemp products..."
For
years many GREEN readers have advocated such a bill, even going so far as
to suggest that the ECouncil introduce it. Others of us thought that if
hemp was ever to be legalized the main effort would have to come from the
right wing.
No
one is more right wing than Karen Facemyer (timber company owner) yet even
the most liberal senators refused to co-sponsor the bill. Her major reason
is to give some alternatives to the many tobacco growers in her district. We
all know that hemp makes cents. We have learned that cents, not
sense usually gets a bill passed. Canada and Maryland have
legalized hemp's cultivation and other states are considering it.
Perhaps
a year from now Gus Douglas and the Farm Bureau - and other conservative
groups, will be supporting the concept. As WVEC lobbyist Chuck 'Wyrostick'
said, "If hemp is illegal, then for the same reasons, all mushrooms
should be, too."
The legalization and promotion of hemp is one of the
greenest of issues. It is a sustainable solution waiting to happen. Wouldn't
it be ironic if its legalization came from our traditional foes?
Return to Index
Eco-Justice
Resource now available:
The
"Earth Day Sunday 2002 Resource" is now on the: Web of Creation.
The address is: http://www.webofcreation.org/ncc/earthday/2002/index.html"
It was
prepared by the Resource Development Committee. Current articles include:
"Raising Children Toxic Free" by Shantilal Bhagat and an action
alert on the School Environmental Protection Act – and much more.
Return to Index
DEP
Denies Permit to Mine
Under
Grant Trout Stream
Reprinted
from Gazette, Thursday January 31, 2002
By
Ken Ward Jr., STAFF WRITER
State
regulators have blocked a Maryland company’s proposal to mine underneath
a trout stream that feeds the North Branch of the Potomac River in Grant
County.
Mettiki
Coal sought a permit to mine under the stream as part of a larger proposal
to extend a longwall mine
under the river and into West Virginia.
Department
of Environmental Protection officials concluded that the mining would
cause “material damage” to the trout stream.
“In
light of the irreparable harm the proposed mining will cause to a native
trout stream - a very valuable natural resource - the agency has no choice
but to deny the permit,” said Matt Crum, director of the DEP Division of
Mining and Reclamation.
Mettiki
spokesman David Thomas said the company would appeal the permit denial to
the state Surface Mine Board. The permit denial won DEP officials rare
praise from West Virginia environmental groups.
“I’m
speechless,” said Cindy Rank, mining chairwoman for the West Virginia
Highlands Conservancy. “I’m amazed and delighted. I think that the
implications of this mining proposal were quite frightening.”
In
western Maryland, Mettiki produces about 3 million tons of a coal a year
and employs 235 miners at its D Mine south of Oakland, Md.
In
1995, non-union Mettiki won a contract to supply coal to Virginia Electric
Power’s Mount Storm Power Station in Grant County. Mettiki beat out
unionized CONSOL Energy. Mettiki trucks its coal over local roads, while
CONSOL sent coal to the plant through a covered conveyor belt system.
Mettiki
operates a longwall miner, a machine that pulls a steel plow or rotating
drums across the coal face. Longwall
mining is extremely productive, digging huge amounts of coal with a
minimum number of workers.
In
March 2000, Mettiki applied for a permit to extend its current longwall
operation into West Virginia.
State
officials in Maryland approved portions of the mine in their state, and
the portions directly under the North Branch of the Potomac. But West
Virginia regulators rejected mining in their jurisdiction. They based
their decision on a report called a Cumulative Hydrologic Impact
Assessment, or CHIA.
In
the CHIA, DEP hydrologist Joann Erwin concluded that the mining would
severely damage an unnamed North Branch tributary and native trout stream
known locally as Hind Leg.
The
report said that Mettiki has already mined nearly 6,000 acres underground
in Maryland and 8,000 acres underground in West Virginia.
Under
its expansion proposal, the company would mine an additional 200 acres.
But the proposal would mine directly under at least eight of the 17
springs that feed Hind Leg, the DEP report said. Especially in dry months,
the trout stream relies on those springs for much of its flow, the report
said.
Mining
under the springs would fracture the ground around them and the streambed,
the report said. “Fracturing of the aquifers will deplete the quantity
of water available to the trout stream,” the report said. “Fracturing
of the streambed will additionally deplete the flow, perhaps to the point
of no flow.”
Under
the law, DEP is not allowed to approve mining permits that will cause
material damage to streams or groundwater supplies. In the CHIA on
Mettiki’s proposal, the agency concluded, “Material damage to the
surface water will occur due to the loss of spring flow into the native
trout stream.
“Material
damage will occur to the stream between the mine area and the North Branch
of the Potomac River since it will no longer support recreational sport
fishing, a use that it was capable of prior to mining,” the report said.
“The
Potomac River deserves this sort of protection,” said Nathan Fetty,
issues coordinator for the West Virginia Rivers Coalition. “We’re
encouraged that DEP is protecting the stream, because subsidence and
dewatering are risks the state shouldn’t take.”
Environmentalists
are also watching DEP’s review of another Mettiki application to open a
new underground mine near Gatzmer, between Mount Storm and Davis along
W.Va. 93. That proposal would mine under another trout stream, the Left
Fork of Beaver Creek.
“We’re still working on it,” said Ron Sturm,
permit supervisor at DEP’s regional office in Philippi. “We have some
serious concerns about that application.”
Return to Index
No
More Overweight Coal Trucks!
The
Petition included in this issue is for you to gather signatures of folks
against overweight coal trucks! Mail completed forms by February 11th to:
Citizens For Road Safety, P.O. Box 651, Whitesville WV 25209.
Don't forget to
attend the Rally to support HB 4014 on the State Capitol
steps (Kanawha Blvd. side). Join Coal River Mountain Watch, OVEC, WV-CAG,
Citizens Coal Council, WVEC, some legislators, United Mine Workers,
AFL-CIO, Fraternal Order of Police, State Troopers Association, and
others. (See Gazette editorial: "Monster Trucks: Justifying
Illegal Loads" on page 4).
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