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Hobet Mining, Inc.

SMA S-5005-03, Adkins Fork Surface Mine Informal Conference

March 16, '2004, 6 P. M.

Logan DEP Offices, 525 Tiller Street, Logan, WV

Speaker Susan Pierce:

My name is Susan Pierce. I am the Deputy State Historic Preservation Officer for West Virginia. Our office is located as a section of the Division of Culture and History. With me this evening is Alan Rowe, he is our National Registrar and Survey Coordinator, and Jeff Davis, who works with the Section 106 review program area, specifically working with DEP activities, surface mining permits and reclamation projects. We are here to listen to hear the concerns of the public. Our role is based upon state code and federal law, the National Historic Preservation Act. Both the state and federal law have a review process in which one takes into account the possible impact to cultural resources and our office serves as a consulting party, a consulting agency to the lead agency, who is issuing the permit or is sponsoring the activity or undertaking. That process is a step-by-step process, the first step being identification of historic resources and that essentially has been initiated officially, I guess, by the delivery last Friday of a first Phase I survey report completed by consultants. So we are just now embarking upon that review process. There are further steps in the process that we would be happy to explain at an appropriate point in time. Each step of the process involves the public, so we are here to hear what the public has to say and to evaluate that information as we conduct our part of the review process. Thanks .

. Speaker:

Donna Price:

In the middle part of the nineteenth century, a civil war was fought in this country. That war and the battles that decided its outcome are struggles that will never be forgotten in America because it is such a large part of what designs our history, our heritage and who we are. We may not always be extremely proud of, or comfortable with that heritage and that history, but nevertheless it is our heritage and we preserve the records and the artifacts and the battlefields of that epic struggle, because these things are part of our history and part of who we are. I don't know if there are any civil war buffs here, but if there are, you know about (continued)

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the battle at Harpers Ferry and you know about the significance of places like Droop Mountain and Carfax Ferry in West Virginia. These are places where great struggles occurred during the civil war, during the time when West Virginia actually became a state in this union and, you know, we tend to want to protect and to preserve these places that we consider such a large part of our collective history, both as a state and as a nation. Now, I would like you to consider that this war, the great civil war that ended shortly after West Virginia became a state, was not the only civil war that was ever fought in this country. There's another great struggle that's taking place here and even though it hasn't been called a war, it is a civil strife and it has involved just as much passion and has been just as important a battle for justice for the working men and women in this country. I'm talking about the struggle for workers' rights, a struggle that began during the industrial revolution and has never ended. It's been a struggle for basic workers rights to decent wages and reasonable hours, workplace safety, things we consider basic rights today and things people had to fight for and I would remind you that one of the most significant battles ever to take place in this war occurred right here in Logan County, right here in the area where this mining permit is proposed on Blair Mountain. In August of 1921 several thousand union coal miners marched to Blair Mountain to do battle for their rights. They came prepared to fight against the greed of corporate interests that had oppressed mine workers in this region for years. These were interests that had no respect for the rights and decency of workers. They were interested only in the great wealth they could take from this state until a great battle was fought here and this battle ground exists today as a part of the history and heritage of the people of Logan County and the people of West Virginia, but now let's take a look at what's happening more than eighty years later. A corporation proposes to mine this historic area regardless of its history, not considering its value to the people of the area or the rest of the state or even the nation. They're interested in one thing only, the great wealth of the coal they can take from the state. Does that sound familiar? The permit application they filed with the DEP no doubt will indicate that nothing of any historical or archeological significance or value exists in or around the proposed permit area and I'm here to tell you that that statement is false, because artifacts have been collected from the area. Kenny King, for several years has mapped and explored this area and he can tell you, he can show you artifacts that have been collected from the area and there are numerous written accounts of the history of Blair Mountain. This site is historically and culturally significant, perhaps not the company that proposes to bury it under tons of rock and earth, but definitely to the people of this region in West Virginia and I am here to ask the Department of Environmental Protection

to consider carefully the consequences of granting this permit because these artifacts and the recognizable areas where these events took place will be lost forever if this permit is granted. Therefore, I ask the DEP to deny this permit so that this very important part of our history may be preserved. Please don't allow this significant part of our history to be destroyed for short-term profit that won't benefit the people of this state. Thank you.

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Speaker Kenneth King:

I'm concerned about the affects that this permit will have on the historical sites associated with the 1921 battle of Blair Mountain. This was the largest armed insurrection in America since the civil war. Many of these sites will either be completely destroyed or damaged beyond recognition. These sites are significant and unique. They are the only sites left on the battlefield where the progress of the union miners can be traced by trenches and artifacts that they left behind. The remaining sites there within the Sumbo One, Bumbo Two and Wolfpen permits in the left fork area have already or very soon will be destroyed. For the last thirteen years I have been locating and documenting artifacts in sites throughout the entire battlefield. I have not been able to search any more than maybe five percent of the battlefield, but I've located thousands of artifacts and photographed hundreds of them. Some the artifacts that I've retrieved and photographed that will be impacted by the permit are, these are just representatives of what I've found in the permit area:

A 30.06 spent case, a 30 army spent case, site number one.

Another 30.06 spent case and some trenches along White's Trace Branch. Also found there was a Johnson 38 revolver with about thirty-eight rounds scattered underneath it or around it.

A model 1873 Winchester rifle, fully loaded with 44 caliber bullets in it.

And there's also spent bullets, you know, scattered all throughout the area there, like this looks like a 45.70 and there's a 45 Colt and a 22 high-power, 250 highpower live, 38 Smith & Wesson and a 25.20.

I think it's a 32 Smith & Wesson long case and on the back of that, 25.20 spent case. I think this is a 30 Army and just various different types of 25 Remingtons, 30 Remingtons, 35 Remingtons, 30.06's, just about any bullet available at the time. Here's the site where the sediment pond and the valley fill will be, which that will be completely wiped out along with segments of the old original dirt road that goes across the mountain. All of that will be destroyed, which that's a Logan County landmark, you know. Like I say, these are all representative samples of what I found in the White's Trace Branch and along the ridge top that separates Adkins Fork and White's Trace Branch. In 1991, the Institute of Industrial Archeology, WVU, and members of the UMWA located the trees and photographed items along White's Trace Branch when they were doing a Phase I Archeological Study. There was a very short time frame in which to search and were searching at the wrong time of the year. They were searching during the summer months when there was only limited visibility because of the thick forest cover and so they failed to locate many important sites, -but they did manage to find a few spent cartridges, a stripper clip and a loaded Smith & Wesson 35 caliber semi-automatic pistol, which was found using a metal detector that I let them borrow .

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Just recently, within the last six or eight months, I've also found, the photographs of some of these are there, a live 35 high power or a live 250 high power cartridge, three spent 38 cases, one spent 30 army case, a 1906 Barbour half dollar, a spent 30.06 bullet, a broken saw wedge used in logging, four brass check tags stamped with the number forty-nine on them, two spent 35 Colt cases, one spent 32 Smith & Wesson special case, one large spent bullet, probably a 45.70 and one spent 25.20 case and a piece of a metal jacket from a, probably a 30.06. The area that this permit covers deserves to be put on the National Registry of Historic Places and be included in the National Coal Heritage Area. These sites should be preserved so that both sides of the conflict can fairly and equally be represented. Preserving the eight and a half acres on the north crest comes nowhere close to doing this, since it only acknowledges or represents one side of the battle of Blair Mountain. Economical development through tourism would be a much better use of the permit area than just providing, you know, a few jobs that will only last a short time, because the permit only last what, three years, four years? Tourism can provide long-term jobs for more people and can help revive the community of Blair, which has been steadily declining due to de-population. The Bureau of Employment Programs reports that West Virginia has a hundred and five thousand tourism related jobs, comparing to only twenty-one thousand five hundred coal related ones and seventy-four thousand mining jobs. It says tourists spent 3.1 billion dollars in West Virginia in 2001, generating a hundred and eighty-seven million in state taxes. Counting salaries of the tourism workers, the total economic impact was estimated at 4.86 billion dollars. The Bureau also stated that the state's investment in the Division of Tourism produces a seven to one return investment, which twenty-seven million for tourism equals a hundred and eighty-seven million in taxes.

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Speaker

Regina Hendricks:

My name is Regina Hendricks and I live in the city of Charleston within sight of the capitol and you might ask why I am here. It probably surprises you that I would feel so strongly about this land, but I was born in southern West Virginia and left for a forty-five year economic exile and Kenny has laid out all the hard facts, so I'll layout some of the facts that come from your heart. When I was living up in the D.C., Maryland and Virginia area, I fell in love with those mountains up there and was always waiting to come back here to southern West Virginia because of the population is so small and I thought that I would find better places to walk, better places to be and when I got here my brother took me out in his four-wheel drive and started showing me places. He took me all over

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southern West Virginia and finally I said to him, "Why are you taking me to all these places with broken down, with collapsing longwalls and all the damage to the land. Where do I go to walk in a place like the Appalachian Trail?" So I took a flight over southern West Virginia and saw what was happening and believe me, I was crying that the state had been destroyed in forty-five years that I was gone and then I learned of the de-population and I ask you, please, please, please don't throwaway our history and don't make these people in southern West Virginia any more miserable than they are.

(Ms. Hendricks called on 3-17-04 and asked that it be documented that she was associated with and represented Friends of the Mountains, which includes the Sierra Club, Ohio Valley Environmental Coalition, Citizens Coal Council, West Virginia Highlands Conservancy and Coal River Mountain WatCh.)

Speaker Anna Sale:

My name is Anna Sale. I'm an organizer with the Sierra Club. My office is in Charleston and I'm here today, this evening, to present comments from Frank Unger. He wanted to be here tonight but he fell ill. He has a Masters in Historic Preservation. We've been working with him as a consultant on Blair Mountain. Historic sites such as battlefields are areas that contain concentrations of artifact deposits. The actual physical material of cultural resources can only answer certain important research questions about human history. There is ample reason at this time to believe that the research of the property associated with this mining permit has been insignificant. Moreover, the original land contours are still intact at all points of major skirmishes. Past Respects, which is Mr. Unger's company, believes that the permitting of this surface mining operation will forever imperil the future educational value as well as the associative historical value of the site known as the Battle of Blair Mountain.

Speaker Charles Bella: #1

Unlike most of you people that are here at this meeting, you don't live in the Blair area. It's fine and I believe it is a great historical site because I had a papaw that was shot in that war and I feel it definitely needs to be preserved, but there's other reasons, too. This mountaintop mining creates several problems, flooding problems. I feel that more land in this area to be disturbed will only make (continued)

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flooding matters worse. I've noticed here in recent years how our stream beds have filled up with debris from these mountaintop strip mines and when the stream beds fill up, the water has no place to go but out. It spreads out, it makes the rivers larger and, therefore, that increases the flood lands, you know, and the· drains in the Spruce Laurel Fork is the head of the Coal River and I feel it's just filling the stream up tremendously and the dust from these mountaintop mines, they create problems in the community. They interfere with the way you live. For instance, you can't go out and sit on your porches because of the dust and a lot

of people, you know, in the summertime, they'll even open their windows to keep from running the air conditioner or something and I've experienced these kind of problems here in Blair where you can't do these sort of things, even hang your clothes up on the clothesline, because, you know, the laws have not been enforced where the dust was so bad. Something else that most of you people here haven't experienced is sleepless nights due to heavy equipment running, back-up horns, back-up alarms, you know, and the sounds of these draglines, buckets, shovel buckets a clanging against the ground. All these factors

together, I'm telling you, can just run a person insane and the people of Blair

have experience this stuff for better than eight and a half years and believe me, this is something that nobody wants to have to experience and as I said, I don't feel like I want to go through this again because I'm sure that the law is not being forced to control this dust and also the blasting. That creates another big

problem. Peoples' homes shaking, shattered, foundations broken, whatnots and things knocked off the mantles and broken. There needs to be tests run right

now, the air quality and the water quality, what its like right now before this operation does go in, if the permit is issued and as I said before, I feel that

there's just already too much land disturbed in the headwaters of this coal river and I feel that no more should be disturbed. That's basically all I've got to say.

#2

He said this 3100 acres here, you sent me a letter on it saying that it was permit 5013-97, that it was permitted. So how many more channels does that have to go through before it could be worked on?

Speaker James Weekly: #1

I want to apologize to you people for being late here today. I'm James Weekly, I'm president of the Blair Mountain Historical Association. I've got some laws here, different things on this mountaintop removal, which several of you people in here probably don't know the laws. Mr. Boytek, I'm going to ask you this (continued)

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evening, instead of us speaking, I'm going to ask you a question. Will you read these laws out to these people in here and let them hear them? Why? I'm speaking, but I'm asking, right, but will you read them out to these people in here and let them know what these laws are? But, anyway these laws in here, they're still doing the same thing they done back in the early 90's, all the way back, rubber stamping, rubber stamping, letting them go on. This whole historical thing on Blair Mountain, there a law to protect that. You can only come within seven hundred feet of a historical law to mine. And another thing, the road that leads up to the Blair Mountain part there, it was put in by federal money, which should not be destroyed because we, the taxpayers of Logan County of the United States of America, paid to have that road put up there by the CCC. I oppose this permit, but I tell you I cannot speak too well anymore since my sickness, my illness. That's the reason I haven't been too active in the last couple of years, but I'll try to read these laws if you all want to hear them and they are federal and state laws that comes under this SMCRA law, but I've got them, but if Mr. Boytek wants to read them, I'll let him. If not, I'll read it to you all if you all want me to. Did you all want to read them, do you all want to hear them? All right, Mr. Boytek, please consider right now this letter is a notice of sixty days of intent to sue. I'm giving you sixty days notice of intent to sue. This suit comes under Section 520 of the surface mining control and reclamation act of 1977, which comes under that is 30 U.S.C. - 1270.30 C.F.R. 700.13 of the West Virginia Surface Mining Control and Reclamation Act, West Virginia codes, and 22-3-25, the individual and organizations listed below hereby give notice that you failed in your office as an officer if you issue this permit. As a director of the Division of Environmental Protection, the DEP, which it acts as the regulator, you're the actor of this regulator of this permit, for the purpose of the federal act to perform certain non-discretionary acts on this permit, duties and to take certain actions as required by the federal Surface Mining Control and Reclamation Act (the Act), the implementing regulations of the Secretary of the Interior and the federally approved West Virginia program (the West Virginia Surface Mining and Reclamation Act and regulations). Unless action is forthcoming to remedy the violation listed herein, the below named individuals and organization intend to initiate litigation after sixty days, which I am the President of the Blair Mountain Historical Organization, as I said. The below named individuals and organizations may, however, bring an action before the sixty day period has passed if the violation complained of below constitute an imminent threat to the health or safety of the undersigned or immediately affect a legal interest of the undersigned. W.Va. Code 22-3-25(b)(2); 30 U. S. C. and 1270(b) (2).

Section 503(1) through (7), this is just some of the laws, it's just one through seven here. Section 503 (t) through (7), the Surface Mining Act, 30 U.S.C. 1253 (1 )-(7) requires that a state program to be approved, must be consistent with and

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in accordance with the federal Act and regulations. You all know what that is, don't you? Federal Act and regulations, that means the laws. Before he can issue a permit, it has to be by law. Once a state program is approved, the state regulatory authority has a continuing duty, arising under federal law and enforceable in federal court, to maintain, implement and administer the approved state program in a manner consistent with the Act, the federal regulations and the approved state program. See 30 C.F.R. 733.111. The Director of the DEP must, pursuant to 30 C.F.R. 733.11 maintain, administer, and enforce the aspects of the approved State program described below in a manner consistent with the Act, federal regulations and approved State program. Because State Bill 145 attempts to alternate, they tried to alternate this. You all remember, back when we was in suit, they tried to raise this up to 400 and some acres. They tried to alternate it, but we kind of give a consent of decree if they would bring it back down to 1550 acres. Approved state program, the Director of the DEP must submit the parts of the bill that affect the State program to the Director of the Office of Surface Mining (OSM), 30 C. F. R. Now I know the actions in this office goes to Nitro main office, which from there goes to OSM, to the Corp of Engineers and all this. I've got all that in here. Pursuant to 30 C. F. R., 732.17 and the State regulatory authority must promptly notify the Director of the OSM in writing of any significant events or proposed changes to the Approved State Program. In other words, that permit right there, if it is not legal with the clean water act or the mountaintop removal is put back to approximate original contour, but it says back to the original contour, which we all know once you tear that mountain down eight hundred feet, it cannot be put back and nothing can be growed on it, we all know that, he knows that. But, as I said, a while ago at the start of this, they're still rubber-stamping. Which affect the implementation, administration or enforcement of the Approved State Program and must immediately notify OSM of any changes to the laws or rules that make up the approved State program. The proposed changes to laws or regulations shall not take effect until approved as an amendment. 30 C.F. R. Well, in other words, this 30 C. F. R. is to protect the buffer zone, our water. That's what it all leads up to, that they cannot go within one hundred feet of our waters. Now, I kind of get excited. I'm not as in good health as I was several years back. No land within one hundred feet of a perennial stream or an intermittent stream shall be disturbed by surface mining activities, unless the regulatory authority - I missed a paragraph, two paragraphs. Senate Bill 145 attempts to (1) change the provisions, scope and objectives of the State program, (2) to change the

authority of the regulatory authority to implement, administer and enforce the approved program, (3) change the State law and regulations from those contained in the State program. They can't do this, this the laws that they can't do to give this permit unless they notify. Change the laws and regulations that make up the approved State program. 30 C. F. R., 732.17(b)(1 ),(2) and (3) and (continued)

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(g). Several provisions of Senate Bill 145 named the buffer zone regulation found at 30 C.F.A., 816.57 and 38 C.S.A., 2-5.2. The Surface Mining Act and approved State program provide comprehensive protection to streams. Now this is to protect, these laws right here is to protect our streams. During mining and reclamation activities including forbidding mining activities that disturb land within 100 feet of intermittent and perennial streams. Now, don't you all forget that. These corporations can't get in an intermittent or perennial, but these people say they can. We're talking about the state law and federal law, comes under the buffer zone law. This buffer zone requirement may be waived only after the regulator authority makes a series of specific findings that allow limited incursions into buffer zones consistent with the Act, the implementing regulations and the approved program. See, there's a loophole right there. But on down in here, there's a loophole, there's a sentence, law in here that covers that loophole. There's a loophole in this bill right here that I just now said, but on down, as I said, there's a law that covers this loophole. No land within 100 feet of a perennial stream or an intermittent stream shall be disturbed by surface mining activities, unless the regulatory authority specifically authorizes surface mining activities closer to or through such a stream. The regulatory authority may authorize such activities only upon finding that surface mining activities will not cause or contribute to the violation of applicable state or federal water quality standards and will not adversely affect the water quantity and quality or other environmental resources of the stream. Now, there's where it covers the

loophole that I was talking about a while ago. Okay, 30 C.F.A., 816.57, State surface mining regulations provide: no land within one hundred feet of an intermittent or perennial stream shall be disturbed by surface mining operations including roads unless specifically authorized by the Director. The Director will authorize such operations only, now listen to this, only upon finding that the surface mining activities will not adversely affect the normal flow or gradient of

the stream. That means you can't move this stream over here or over here, because that is disturbing the stream that it's coming to right now. The law forbids that, for them to get in there and move that stream around. They can't do that. Adversely affects fish migration or related environmental values, and all of you know what fish and all the environmental values. Environmental values means us and the fish and all the other things that lives in that creek. Materially damaging the water quality or quantity of a stream and will not cause or contribute to violations of applicable State or Federal water quality standards.

The areas to be disturbed shall be designated as a buffer zone. Right there is

the law of the buffer zone, they can't do, they can't bother that stream. I can't speak too plain. As I said to you people, I'm trying to do my best since I had this illness. Affect fish migration or related environmental values, which I explained to you all just now. The areas to be disturbed shall be designated as a buffer zone and marked accordingly. 38 C.S.A., 2-5.2(a). Buffer zone means "an

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undisturbed border along or around intermittent or perennial streams." Now intermittent stream and perennial stream are two different ones. One only runs part of the year around, the other runs all year round. All right, since Senate Bill 145 attempts to authorize the violation of the buffer zone requirement for the filling of perennial and intermittent streams, it must be considered an amendment to the approved State program. The clear language of this, it's federal, the clear language of the federal stream buffer zone regulation, 30 C.F.R., 816.57 supra, prohibits the filling of streams with mining waste. Although the regulation authorizes the Director to permit, after making the required findings, limited mining activities "closer to or through" intermittent and perennial streams, he may not, according to the regulations, permit filling streams with mining waste; the regulatory language limits the Director's, that's you, the Director of the DEP, discretion (that means to cut down) to allowing mining "closer to or through" the streams. In other words, they can't even build a road through that stream by the federal law and the buffer zone. It does not give him the authority to permit mining activities in or on significant portions of perennial or intermittent stream waters. Neither does a plain reading of the State buffer zone rule, 38 C.F.R., 2- 5.2(a) authorize the Director to permit the filling of streams. Although the State regulation allows the land within 100 feet of a perennial or intermittent stream to be disturbed, see, they do it anyway, that's why I say they rubber stamp it and letting it go on. But anyway, I can go on here. I've got about the clean water act in here, the laws if you all want them and I'll let you all submit it, because as I said, my health is not the best, but as I said, I've got a copy of this to tell you about water quality and about the tier one and tier two waters, where they cannot fill in the head of these hollows if it disturbs downstream, if it disturbs

downstream to tier one, tier one and tier two. A tier one is a main water source. They can't disturb that tier two and that is exactly what this Blair Mountain is

here. That's what any mountaintop removal is going to do. It's going to tear up our mountains. But anyway, as I said, I'm president of Blair Mountain Historical Organization. I got fixed up with Kenny, I went to Charleston with Kenny. We visited the Cultural Center over there, but I'm going to tell you how I got the organization started. I don't know whether you all want to hear it or not, but I was sitting on the couch one night, same way I got started with this mountaintop removal. My wife here, she was in the lower bedroom. She came walking through the hall. I looked at her and I said, "Sibby, we've got to save Blair Mountain." I said, "That's a historical place." She said, ''What can you do about it." I said, "Let's start a organization and name it the Blair Mountain Historical Organization." I don't know whether any of you all come up route seventeen or not, but Kenny and I, we have, and several others got the sign back over there that was kind of disappeared several years ago, but we've got it on a piece of private property over there, belongs to Paul Burgess, the battle of Blair Mountain. (continued)

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I was proud of that. Tears rolled out of my eyes the day that Kenny came over and my son-in-law and I put it up. I was real proud of that. Now, here, as Kenny said a while ago, there's two or three years work, they're going to tear up this great battle site. It's the only place, the only place that our own people dropped bombs on their own people with the battle of Blair Mountain. There was a Mitchell, I don't know whether you all watched the picture on TV the other night or not, but they had a picture of the Mitchell who wrote the poem. That's the reason I'm here. Kenny spoke out a while ago. Tourism is a lifetime. Mining is a two-year thing. Mr. Boytek, your family and you yourself was raised up in there. You know what it's like. Yes, I put many a footsteps on there. But the way this is doing is changing my way of living, my lifestyle of living. It's changing all these people's lifestyles of living, this dust, knowing those ponds in the heads of these hollows that's ready to go. When they cut down these mountains until they look like a landscape where we used to look up and there was oak, hickory,

cucumber, basswood. All that was standing there at one time, but now no more, which will never be no more. Three hundred years, they had kind of surveyed, three hundred years. Again, Mr. Boytek, I'm asking you, I oppose this permit, don't let them have it, please, don't let them have this great battlefield. Logan County is one of the most historical places in the state of West Virginia. A lot of people don't think about that. You've got the battle of Blair Mountain, you've got the Aracoma Story, you've got the battle of Matewan and all that just right here in Logan County. But one great thing, Mr. Boytek, if you let this permit go by,

you're going to let it go, you're going to let them tear it down, what's in the foreseeable, it's a lifetime thing. I have seen them, I've dreamed about it, I can imagine the hiking trail, the little sheds, the little cabins that could be put up in them hollows and where the old road, back before 1921 is, could be a hiking trail. We've got miners all over the United States, all over the world that WOUld, probably their people, some of their children, dad or grandfather fought in that war, would love to come in here and just see a park there. What is it to a coal company? Tell them to give 2600 acres, that's all the Blair Mountain Historical Organization is asking for, 2600 acres to preserve some of the battle of Blair Mountain. If people realized we've got thousands that comes to Chief Logan State Park down here. You know, we could have another Cass Scenic Railroad down here. They're going to run that railroad on out and around the depot down there, to Peach Creek and take it back up. Why couldn't they run it on up Crooked Creek, the only place the miners broke through on Chafin's Branch, the only place and have a train to run through there up that hollow there in Crooked Creek around that ridge back down into Blair Mountain, into Blair. Show them

the campsite over there in the ball field where the army people sat, history,

history and if this permit is given it's going to destroy that history, it's going to destroy our future. The future, as you all know, all of you here knows, that the state says, even the United States says tourism is our next future, tourism is our (continued)

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next future. You've got to have a future out there for the next generation and we are the ones that's got to fight for the next generation and if we don't fight for them, for jobs for them to have out there, there might not be no generation. It's going to be rough on them right now. If they would just sit down and think. I belong to the Sierra Club, I bslonqto it, too; I work with people all over the United States and all over the world has been to my home and my wife here sitting beside of me, we broke up. Why? Secause I'm doing what I'm doing right now. She was gone for eleven months, just about broke my family up until I had bad health. Things happened to me that brought me down on my feet. But she come back and here she is sitting right back beside me again. Why? Because she beJieves in the future, because we've got seventeen grandchildren, three great-grandchildren and we want a future for them and that's the reason I'm asking you Mr. Boytek, since you have lived in Blair, you was raised in Blair, to not issue this permit on the historical part of this and what it's going to do to it. They're more meaning there than just two years or three years. It could be hundreds of years if it's made a National Historical Park. Thank you ladies and gentlemen.

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#2

I forgot all about it. I was reading through them laws, especially the one from Judge Haden. I forgot all about that, I didn't get to it. Mr. Boytek, is this a new permit? All right, Judge Haden did rule, did rule, I've got it in black and white, that no new permit be issued, no new permit to be issued until this 3113 acre permit was settled, which is not settled yet. It's in the United States Supreme Court. Thank you. I'm James Weekly. This is for the record.

Speaker Bill Price #1

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I knew that if I stayed around long enough my nightmare would come true and I would have to follow James Weekly. Mr. Weekly, you did very good. Thank you for your comments.

In the past couple of weeks, I've been honored and privileged to attend a couple of ceremonies by the native Americans and I've learned a few things and it got me to thinking about respect and power and all those things that we teach our children, try to teach our grandchildren. One of the things I learned was their use of tobacco in a Native American ceremony and they use tobacco not as a blessing to the land because they think that the land is already blessed. They don't need to bless it any longer, but they use the tobacco as a gift back to the land. So tonight I brought tobacco to sprinkle over the map of this permit and I brought a cigarette to represent how we take something that is good, tobacco, (continued)

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the native Americans believe it was the first herb that was given by the crea:tor, and we make something that is damaging, the cigarette that causes illness and disease to more people than it needs to and in many ways that's how we are using our land currently and how we're using the power that the state has given the DEP and the SHPO office. We are taking what is valuable, perhaps not in a strictly economic sense, but certainly in a cultural and historical sense. We're taking that 2600 acres where the battle was fought and we're trying to make something bad out of it, a moonscape. Mr. Boytek, what you've heard tonight and more eloquently than I could ever say, is that this property does have historical significance. It does have historical integrity and for the Department of Environmental Protection to allow the coal industry to come in here and destroy that is wrong. It's wrong morally, I believe as Mr. Weekly does, it's wrong legally, but put that aside, the legal issue. It's wrong because it will destroy the community of Blair, West Virginia. To deny this permit makes sense. It makes economic sense, as Kenny pointed out and as Jim pointed out, because instead of short term profit, instead of short term economic benefit, if there is any, and I would argue that there is not when you take the total cost to the community's . health and roads and just the whole economic basis of the community into effect, I would say that there's no really economic benefit, but assume for the moment that I'm wrong and if there is, it certainly is no more than a short term benefit and you wipe out the long term benefit that we can bring to tourism. I walked Blair Mountain the other day with Kenny, with Gina and with my wife Donna and a couple of other people and I was up here where there used to be a fire tower and I was looking across to the other point and I was imagining the interpretative trails and the centers and I was imagining my grandchildren coming to this site and visiting and learning some of the history of Blair Mountain and learning about Mr. Bella's grandfather who was shot and that's what I want. So it makes economical sense to deny this permit. It makes environmental sense to deny this permit. You've heard about the devastation of flooding. In addition to being, and I forgot to identify myself, I'm with the Environmental Justice Program in the Sierra Club, but in addition to that and probably more relevant to this discussion, is I have been in the coalfields of Raleigh and Boone Counties for thirty-four years. I live in Dorothy, West Virginia, which was devastated by flooding three years ago, so I've seen firsthand what mountaintop removal mining does to the community and the dust effect to the town of Sylvester and others anda year and a half ago I could sit on my front porch and I could listen to the birds. Now I can sit on my front porch and listen to the equipment and that's what coming to Blair again if this permit is granted. So it makes environmental sense, particularly if you take a holistic view of the environment. It makes environmental sense to deny this permit and finally it makes historic sense to deny this permit. We, as a society, have chosen to put aside certain lands to honor the wars of the past, from the American Revolution sites to the Civil War sites. This three hundred (continued)

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and some acres, which is part of the twenty-six hundred acres that needs to be preserved, is as significant as any civil war site in this country. I've visited Civil War sites, I've visited American Revolution sites and this site has just as much integrity today as those sites do. Kenny hasalready expressed that he's only been able to find approximately five percent, if that. I think our expert, which the Sierra Club is prepared to hire to show the significance of this site, would agree that to destroy the artifacts that are still in the ground makes absolutely no sense historically. So how much of our history are we willing to lose to the dragline? I suggest no more. So I think it makes historical sense to deny this permit. Mr. Boytek, I'm not here to beg you, but I'm here to look you in the eye and I'm here to tell you that for this community, for this land, deny this permit. Make this be the one that you deny. Thank you.

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Again, I'm sorry, this is Bill Price with the Sierra Club's Environmental Justice Program and as part of my comments I should have added, and this is for the record, we are concerned that the public did not have a chance to view the SHPO recommendation before the hearing. We think that is, for the record, a problem with the due process and we're putting it into the record in case you, for some strange reason, grant the permit. As a part of the appeal process, we would definitely as part of the appeal, that we were unable to look, that this hearing, this informal conference was held before the public had a chance to review the final SHPO recommendation.

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