Shear Madness
In pursuit of the nation's highest-grade coal, vast mining operations are taking the tops right off of West Virginia's mountains. Mining companies say this is good for the state, but people who live near the mines have a different view.
Hardly any mining firm's reclamation projects abide by regulations requiring that the land be returned to its premining use, usually hardwood forests on steep hillsides. The law says waivers to that rule should be granted only if there are exceptional circumstances that make it hard to restore the original mountain contour. But waivers that allow mining companies to change the use of the land to "wildlife habitat" and forgo rebuilding the mountainside are routinely granted. Coal lobbyist Greene acknowledges that growing hardwood forests is very difficult, since seedlings have trouble taking root in the reconstructed land.
Coal-field residents look to state and federal agencies to protect them from environmental ravages. In fact, West Virginia's Division of Environmental Protection has increased the number of mine inspectors it employs from 48 in 1988 to 100 now. However, critics argue that chronic abuses by mining firms persist because the DEP's regulations are outdated, its enforcement muscle is puny, and it is constantly reacting to problems rather than heading them off.
Low fines. Perhaps the most striking example of these problems is the DEP's performance in fining the mining firms that violate federal and state laws. An examination of violation and complaint files for all West Virginia mines shows most fines to be low, even for seemingly serious violations. The average fine is about $800. While the maximum can be $5,000 per incident, nearly 80 percent of fines recommended by inspectors are reduced by DEP assessment officers after mines protest. One mine, Arch Coal Inc.'s Apogee Mine, was initially assessed a $4,054 penalty after a blast loosened a boulder, which rolled into a house near Buffalo Creek and caused it to burn to the ground. After the firm appealed, the fine was reduced to $1,013. The mining company paid for the residents' belongings; it owned the house.
The 1977 law that set up the federal Office of Surface Mining Reclamation and Enforcement [OSM] was drafted in a way that was supposed to shore up lax enforcement of environmental laws by states. But OSM has been hampered by cuts that trimmed its operating budget by 30 percent and prompted the West Virginia office to cut its staff of inspectors from 11 to eight. Records show inspections dropped from 700 in 1994 to 314 in 1996.
It is a fact that coal companies have been a political power in West Virginia for generations. They gave nearly $500,000 to Gov. Cecil Underwood's campaign last year. A study by West Virginia Citizen Action Group found that all 17 state senators elected last year got some campaign money from mining firms. Fifteen got a substantial amount, including Senate president Earl Ray Tomblin, who received 16 percent of his campaign funds from coal interests. This support often translates into favorable legislation, environmental lobbyists say, such as this year's cut in the tax on sales from thin seams of coal. And what coal interests don't get in the legislature, they can sometimes get administratively. On the last night of this year's legislative session, for example, the Senate didn't have time to schedule a vote that would reduce from $200,000 to $100,000 an acre the payments coal companies had to make for covering streams with a valley fill. But Greene is lobbying the DEP director hard to make this change administratively.
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