Virginia lawmakers to consider 'Stream Saver' fill ban

ABINGDON, Va. – A piece of coal-related legislation proposed in Virginia this year has the potential to strangle the state’s mining industry, or protect mountain streams, depending on whose talking.

Known as the “Stream Saver” bill, Senate 564 is not likely to make it out of committee, said Sen. Phil Puckett, D-Lebanon.

But people on both sides of the issue are treating it as if it could.

Southwest Virginia supporters and opponents of mining are both planning to send a delegation to Richmond for Thursday’s 4 p.m. hearing on the bill, before the Senate Agriculture, Conservation and National Resources Committee. Protesters on both sides also are planning to arrive at 3 p.m. to hold demonstrations.

A proposed addition to Virginia’s surface mining regulations, the Stream Saver bill is just a single sentence: “No spoil, refuse, silt, slurry, tailings, or other waste material from coal surface mining and reclamation operations will be disposed of in any intermittent, perennial, or ephemeral stream.”

Puckett said the bill would effectively ban surface mining, which accounts for about 40 percent of the coal mined in Virginia.

“It would be devastating to the coal industry and devastating to our economy in Southwest Virginia if this bill should pass,” he said.

At least two Southwest Virginia county boards of supervisors have passed resolutions opposing the bill, which was introduced Jan. 13 by Sen. Patricia Ticer, D-Alexandria.

“The way that bill’s worded, it will eliminate all mining in the commonwealth of Virginia,” said J.H. Rivers, chairman of the Wise County Board of Supervisors. “The impact would be devastation to Wise County.”

Ticer plans to offer an amendment to the bill so it would not affect underground mining, said Martha Kent, a legislative aide.

“She’s been concerned about the removal of mountaintops for many years,” Kent said of Ticer. “It affects the streams, and they are the headwaters of our whole water system [in Virginia].”

In Wise County, which has the most surface mines of any county in the state, activist Kathy Selvage said she’s “very much in favor” of the bill because she believes water should be considered at least as important a resource as coal.

“What it does is push the conversation forward,” said Selvage, vice president of the Big Stone Gap-based organization, Southern Appalachian Mountain Stewards. She is among those traveling to Richmond to speak in favor of the bill.

Barbara Altizer, executive director of the Eastern Coal Council, said the bill, if passed, would cause major losses of jobs and tax revenues.

“Sen. Ticer represents Northern Virginia, and the majority of her constituents never think about where their electricity actually comes from,” Altizer said. “Coal’s good for society.”

Altizer said she is hopeful the snow predicted across the state won’t keep Southwest Virginia folks from making it to Richmond.

Tom Cormons, Virginia director of Appalachian Voices, a Boone, N.C.-based environmental group, said he wants legislators to hear how mining negatively impacts Appalachian communities; he’s expecting about 200 people from around the state.

“I think dependence on mining, and particularly on surface mining, has stifled the development of other industries,” Cormons said. “It’s time to move past destructive surface mining and move to other industries.”

Shannon Scott, county administrator for Wise County, said passage of the bill could be devastating.

“If they are even partially successful,” Scott said, “will it lead to an even more successful attempt later?”

dmccown@bristolnews.com | (276) 791-0701