Mountaintop Removal (MTR) mining was considered as one of the highest priorities for the 74th Legislature. Forty days into the 60 day session, the leadership bill (SB681) finally appeared. It rolled through the Legislature like a runaway coal truck. West Virginia schools could teach a lesson in the democratic process using this landmark legislation. Here’s some of what happened, as our elected officials scurried to get out of the way.

1. The law was taken up in three committees and on the House and Senate floor (twice each).

2. The speed-reading Senate Energy, Industry, and Mining Committee passed the bill in 45 minutes. Forty-five pages of brand new law was unseen prior to the start of the meeting. No amendments were offered.

3. The Senate Finance Committee scheduled two public hearings, and canceled both.

4. The Senate Finance Committee passed the bill in 15 minutes, though substantive revisions had been made behind closed doors (one of which deleted requirements to meet state and federal water laws). No amendments were offered.

5. As soon as the bill arrived from the Finance Committee, the full Senate suspended constitutional rules, waiving the requirement that the bill be read three times on three separate days. They passed the bill in five minutes, by a vote of 34-0, with no amendments offered.

6. The House Judiciary Committee announced a public hearing as the last order of business on the 55th day of the session, giving 16 hours notice.

7. On the 56th day, the public for the first time during the session had a chance to offer changes to the new law, in a closed door meeting where 1 of 112 citizen amendments was reluctantly accepted (to reinstate the requirement of meeting state and federal water laws).

8. The House Judiciary heard the public comments and took up the bill shortly thereafter. Lawmakers discussed some laughable weaknesses in the bill, then passed the bill anyway, with no amendments offered.

9. The full House took up the bill and allowed for amendments on the 58th day. After pleading with over 30 Delegates to offer an amendment, only one took up the torch. Del. McGraw offered one amendment, was promptly voted down, and not even ten delegates could stand up and support his request to have their names and votes recorded by a roll call. One amendment offered, one voted down.

10. No one was surprised that 133 of 134 legislators so feared retribution from the "leadership" that they could not publicly offer one amendment.

On March 31, Governor Cecil Underwood signed SB681 into law. Standing on the Logan County Airport and former MTR site, he said, "Economic development projects must not be an afterthought. They must be part of the process." Twenty-two years after the federal law said so, and after Judge Haden was left with no other choice than to say West Virginia’s coal operators and environmental protection agency were breaking this law, Governor Underwood awakes and screams "Eureka!"

This bill does offer some very good news for coal. The newly created Office of Coalfield Community Development (within the West Virginia Development Office) won’t slow MTR permitting. The office’s approval of a specific post mining land use is not required as a condition of the permit. Is this what they mean by "toothless" in West Virginia? The newly created Office of Explosives and Blasting will reside in the West Virginia Department of Environmental Protection, which testified on coal’s behalf in federal court and has done nothing to address citizen complaints of damage from blasting so far. No wonder the highly paid coal lobbyists were all smiles as the bill passed and was signed into law.

A person can understand a lot about a new law by watching who celebrates its passage. A person can also learn a lot about the lawmaking arena by witnessing how a law gets passed. Without a doubt, the new MTR law is a classic lesson in how our democratic process is controlled by special interests with deep pockets.

The Plateau Action Network (PAN) is moving ahead with a recently won $375K to protect and restore Wolf Creek, a Fayette County tributary of the New River. The stream has suffered the acid-producing impacts of a 72-acre coal waste (gob) pile for over 20 years. Randy Boyd (PAN official) recently chaired a meeting with numerous State and Federal agencies to ensure the money is protected and not commingled with Abandoned Mine Lands funds, and that all existing background data be reviewed and synthesized.

The West Virginia Organizing Project is addressing a citizen issue in the Whitesville area. Resident Freda Williams has been voicing concerns about a coal slurry impoundment on Brushy Fork, a tributary to Marsh Fork and the Little Coal River. Marfork Coal, a Massey subsidiary, is trucking huge volumes of coal waste to the site, and has applied to expand the impoundment. The expansion would result in a total vertical profile of 920 feet in elevation; higher than the New River Gorge at Fayetteville. DEP mining and reclamation officials have said that the fill will likely take ten years to reach its maximum height and another ten years to fill in the behind the impoundment before it is considered "abandoned."

The DEP has developed draft guidance for returning MTR sites to approximate original contour (AOC). Upon first review, some serious concerns exist with the guidance. First, after ten to twenty seams and splits are mined (to get to the lowermost coal seam) there is very little material left. Most of the overburden and interburden would have been "securely" placed in valleys anyway, to keep the bench open for mining the lowermost seam. Second, no compaction standards are offered, even though the models include rebuilding mountains with 250 - 800 feet of fill - vertically! That’s right, no compaction. Just heap it up there and be glad you won’t be around in 100 years to watch the outcome. Possibly (call me a cynic), the real reason for the guidance is to develop a defensible argument to calculate "excess spoil" and justify filling valleys.