By Frank Young

Whitewash In The Works?

Severe, unprecedented flooding this summer in heavily surface mined regions of West Virginia have prompted demands for official inquiry into reasons these floods are so swift and so destructive. Governor Wise commissioned a "task force" to investigate the relationship between mining and timbering practices and flooding.

But even before the task force was appointed, it appeared to perhaps be a sham exercise. Why? Because both the governor and the Director of the Department of Environmental Protection (DEP), the agency heading up the task force, said that the effects of industry practices on flooding were "insignificant."

DEP Director Michael Callaghan even went on to say that mining activities may have actually lessened flood levels and destruction downstream!

It is human nature for people to want to defend their previous public statements. And both Wise and Callaghan are on record as defending the coal and timber industry against charges of having contributed to the severity of flooding. How can the "task force" they appoint and head up do other than conclude that their previous statements on flooding are anything other than correct?

The coal industry is quick to point out that it flooded because it rained – an "Act of God" the industry calls it. This simplistic explanation is about like saying that an automobile became wrecked because the vehicle "left the highway." That the vehicle may have had bad brakes, bad tires, bad steering, an unfit driver, etc, is not reflected in simply saying that it "left the highway." If we leave it at that we can call the wreck an "Act of God." The result is no accountability for those who may be responsible, no matter how tragic the wreck was.

Simply saying that it flooded because it rained says nothing about surface mines that scalp the landscape of trees and other vegetation that would absorb and slow water runoff from rainwater. It says nothing about topsoil being ripped loose, buried in valleys, and only rock and compacted barren soil surfaces that cannot absorb rainfall remaining. And it says nothing about these practices usually being performed in areas prone to fast runoff because of steep mountain slopes.

That the unchecked water simply sheets off these bare surfaces like off a duck's back, is not a part of the rainfall and water runoff cycle, in the mining industry’s public posture.

Some places, like the steep mountains of southern West Virginia, are simply not suitable for surface mining as it is practiced there.

As a practical matter, the West Virginia DEP and the state Division of Forestry are clones of and for the mining and timber industries. The evidence of this is in recent public statements by the DEP that the coal industry had "agreed to" a watered down regulatory scheme for reclamation bonding of surface mining sites. The state was obviously not going to implement any regulatory plan not totally agreeable to the mining industry.

We can expect that any "task force" report developing from these agencies will largely exonerate these industries – as the governor and the DEP agency head already have. The industry will be exonerated, but not because of the lack of culpability. It is because of the prevailing attitude of state government that the coal and timber industries can do no wrong. With that mindset, anything can be justified.