Wendy, sorry to be so long getting back to you. I have been out of town for a while. I do believe the WV Chapter Sierra Club and Ohio Valley Environmental Coalition would be interested in knowing about this. You mention you've been in touch with OVEC and so I will forward this to Chapter Sierra Club members on the Energy Committee. Maybe we could arrange for you to make a presentation to them at an ExCom meeting.
Regina Hendrix 304-724-0223
Irongate12@aol.com wrote:
Hi Regina,
Read your letter recently in The Journal. Way to go! Agreed whole heartedly with you.
Here in the Eastern Panhandle we have been fighting something similar. Although our project is not as monumentally devastating as mountaintop removal, it will ultimately be just as bad, and will impact a much larger population right off the bat.
I am talking about the expansive strip mining operation currently being proposed for North Mountain in Gerrardstown- 12 miles from Charles Town. Please take a minute to visit our website www.northmountain.org http://www.northmountain.org .
We could really use some help from knowledgeable environmentalists like yourself. We have put the company off for almost 2 years, but now it appears to us, the WV DEP has tinkered around with the permit and it will be brought for public comment. I have heard of the Ohio Valley Environmental Coalition. Would your group be willing to lend us a hand? I think we could have a precedent setting victory here and break down the door for others to follow on mining in West VA.
On Monday Nov. 9, 2009 a helicopter with 3 DEP reps landed at the Continental Brick/North Mountain Shale LLC property. This location is scenic & historic and highly visible to one of the fastest growing residential areas in the county. It has been untouched by mining due to its environmentally sensitive location. My husband Steve accompanied the officials as they viewed the terrain and he showed them healthy springs on the mountain, plus damage occurring to one of our ponds from massive erosion, silt & sediment & unknown contaminants from their land disturbance activities. They had excuses for everything or were silent on what they could not possibly defend. It seems that the reps surmised that “damage” would most likely occur to the water from the mining operation. Their suggestion was that we could sue the company – after damage has occurred- and if we could prove it, we would get new wells (although we would be dealing with a LLC).
The above is what the community has been dealing with. There have been no studies or tests performed that reasonably prove to local residents here that mining at this sensitive location, on the side of a mountain will not effect our water. All rational people know full well that the safety and quantity of our water will be adversely effected. Our local county commissioners unanimously signed a resolution in opposition to the location. We have a petition signed by over 3000 citizens.
We are in the Chesapeake Bay Watershed and still WV thinks it is okay to allow this project with the resultant stormwater drainage & runoff. There is so much wild life on the mountain that will be displaced. An expansive quarry on the side of a mountain does not make sense. Since we are located 1 hour from Washington DC, I was hoping we could get someone who could see that this location is inappropriate and intervene.
It is a sad commentary that WV residents must endure damages to their property and then try to sue an out-of-state LLC. One cannot put a monetary value on a destroyed water system. The entire community is concerned. At least a dozen families, in the immediate vicinity have put their homes up for sale hoping to get buyers before the permit is issued. I have included a link to a recent Letter to the Editor of our local paper that eloquently relates what many citizens are thinking in Berkeley County in regard to this matter.
http://www.journal-news.net/page/content.detail/id/527169.html?nav=5061 http://www.journal-news.net/page/content.detail/id/527169.html?nav=5061
Thanks for listening and hope to hear back from you.
Sincerely,
Wendy Hudock http://www.berkeleywater.org/emergencyInfo.php