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This article originally provided by
The
Charleston Gazette
Beth Baldwin and her husband had just about finished the
foundation on their new Taylor County home when they heard the news.
International Coal Group had proposed a new underground mine
nearby. ICG’s longwall mining machine would tunnel under the
Baldwin’s house near Knottsville.
Baldwin went to ICG community meetings and to a state Department
of Environmental Protection public hearing. The more she heard from
the company and the DEP, the more worried she became.
Now, Baldwin is among approximately 100 members of the group
Taylor Environmental Advocacy Membership, or TEAM, who are
challenging the DEP’s approval of the mining permit.
“They have said that [the mining] will cause substantial damage,
crack our foundation and our pond will be lost,” Baldwin told the
state Surface Mine Board during a Tuesday hearing.
“It would be a devastation to our home and our whole family if
the water and the wildlife were gone,” said Baldwin, a nurse
practitioner who commutes to Morgantown every day. “That’s the whole
reason we moved there.”
Baldwin testified Tuesday as the mine board began hearing
arguments over the permit DEP Secretary Stephanie Timmermeyer
approved for ICG’s Tygart No. 1 Mine.
Scott Depot-based ICG wants to mine about 3.5 million tons of
coal every year for more than a dozen years, according to permit
records. The operation would employ about 380 workers, a company
lawyer said.
The Tygart No. 1 Mine would cover about 6,000 acres underground
just southeast of Grafton, adjacent to Tygart Lake and the state
park there.
ICG plans to use an advanced longwall mining machine. Such
equipment removes all of the coal in long panels, leaving nothing to
hold up the ground above the mine. Longwall mining inevitably causes
the ground above the mine to shift, a process called subsidence.
Joe Lovett, a lawyer with the Appalachian Center for the Economy
and the Environment, said the ICG plan would dewater area streams,
springs and wells. The mining would also cause subsidence that would
damage homes and other buildings, Lovett said.
DEP lawyer Tom Clarke argued that a layer of rock called
Pittsburgh Redbed, located between the mining and the water
supplies, would prevent any damage to water quantity. Clarke also
argued that geology in the area was not likely to produce acid mine
drainage.
“There will not be a pollution problem,” Clarke said. “The
potential for taking water from wells is very low.”
ICG lawyer Bob McLusky agreed.
“We think it’s an exemplary permit and DEP did a fine job,”
McLusky said.
In permit documents, ICG argued “any disturbance” of water
supplies “is likely to be minimal and temporary.” DEP officials
agreed.
Clarke and McLusky also argued that subsidence of the sort the
mine would cause is perfectly legal under federal and state law.
Lovett responded that subsidence of land might be legal, but that
damage to homes and other buildings is not.
Lovett also argued that the coal seam ICG wants to mine, the
Lower Kittanning, is known to cause acid pollution. He produced
documents about one mine where the DEP predicted such pollution and
about another mine where the company is still paying $1 million to
treat acid drainage.
“The potential for perpetual treatment of the water is still
there,” Sen. Jon Blair Hunter, D-Monongalia, whose district includes
Taylor County, told the board Tuesday morning.
Chuck Norris, a hydro-geologist working for Lovett, told mine
board members that the DEP is wrong in concluding the mine will not
cause water pollution or dewater streams and springs.
Norris said that during mining, the longwall subsidence would
likely re-channel the flow of area groundwater and surface water.
Once mining stops Norris said, the mined-out area would likely
fill with that water. At the same time, the water — now laden with
toxic iron — will begin to seep out into what’s left of the area’s
streams.
“It’s going to be oozing out from all over this mine and is not
going to be capable of being treated,” Norris testified.
To contact staff writer Ken Ward Jr., use e-mail or call
348-1702.
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