Ison Rock Ridge mining opponents haven't given up the fight

BIG STONE GAP, Va. – Though the permit for surface mining on Ison Rock Ridge was approved in May, the activists opposing it haven’t given up the fight.

Seventeen people, some carrying signs or playing musical instruments, picketed Tuesday outside the office of the Virginia Department of Mines, Minerals and Energy in Big Stone Gap.

“We need people to see that they can stand up, that they can fight,” said Judy Needham, a resident of Andover, a community of a few dozen homes in the shadow of the mountain.

“We must fight and let DMME know that we are dissatisfied with the approval of [mining] Ison Rock Ridge because of the way it’s going to affect our communities and our way of life.”

DMME, the state agency that regulates mining, announced in May that it had approved the permit after a three-year review process, one of the longest taken for such a permit in Virginia.

The 1,230-acre Ison Rock Ridge permit has been at the center of the controversy in Virginia over mountaintop mining, or the practice of blasting away mountains to get at the coal. Activists often refer to modern surface mining practices collectively as “mountaintop removal,” though the Ison Rock Ridge mine technically lacks that designation under state and federal regulations.

Mike Abbott, a spokesman for DMME, said the practices are essentially the same; the difference is that a true mountaintop-removal operation is exempted from a regulation requiring the land to be returned to “approximate original contour” once mining is complete.

Abbott said A&G Coal has paid its fees and bond – a total of $102,000 -- to begin mining on Ison Rock Ridge. He said Tuesday the permit was being reviewed for issuance.

Even when the permit is issued, Abbott said, mining will be limited to about one-fourth of the permit area until the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers decides the status of a fill permit for disposing of the overburden, or dirt and rock left over from mining.

The Corps issued a permit in 2007 to allow for the material to be dumped into streams on the site but then suspended that permit a year ago, citing environmental concerns and the length of time that had passed without a mining permit issued.

Abbott said the only community to be directly affected by mining without the fill permit is Inman, the same tiny community where 3-year-old Jeremy Davidson was accidentally killed in 2004 by a boulder loosed by equipment operating on a surface mine above his home. The boulder crashed through his family’s home while he slept.

A&G Coal, the company that was mining when the tragedy occurred, would now be mining on the other side of the road. At A&G, no one was available to comment Tuesday.

Abbott said extra precautions, such as careful mapping and boundary marking, have been added as requirements since the incident, making it safer for residents. He said companies also are required to notify nearby residents when blasting is scheduled.

Jane Branham, vice president of Big Stone Gap-based Southern Appalachian Mountain Stewards, said the measures aren’t enough.

“Not one more child, not one more mountain, not one more stream, not one more community destroyed for profit,” Branham declared at Tuesday’s protest, condemning the “coal-huggers” she said have too little regard for people and the environment.

Advocates of mountaintop mining herald its benefits, not only in terms of jobs and profit, but for economic development in rural communities restricted in growth by the lack of flat land.

Bill Bledsoe, executive director of the Virginia Mining Association, said much of the building and development that has happened in Virginia’s coalfield counties, particularly Wise County, could not have happened if not for mining practices that create flat land.

From his perspective, he said, federal agencies – he points the finger more at the Environmental Protection Agency than the Corps – need to stop holding up mining by keeping fill permits in limbo.

“Those 190 permits represent two years of coal output for the nation and about 17,000 to 18,000 jobs, not to mention all the small business and other employment associated with those [who are] mining,” Bledsoe said. “The Ison Rock Ridge Mine is just one example of the unemployment and the lost production that we can expect if those permits are not issued.”

He said state regulatory agencies already are satisfied that companies like A&G will meet their environmental requirements on permits like this one.

“I would really like to see the EPA recognize the work that the state agencies do and back off and let the states do their job and let these permits be issued,” Bledsoe said.

Virginia’s coalfield counties derive significant revenue and economic impact from mining. But in the small, localized areas most affected by surface mining, feelings are mixed. Some residents wonder why they must trade mountains for jobs and economic development.

In Derby, another community that will be affected by the Ison Rock Ridge mine if the fill permit is granted, 17-year-old Shelby Wade said protesters against the project came down the hollow Tuesday morning honking their horns.

She and her 21-year-old sister, Nancy Marion, got out of bed and followed them to Big Stone Gap.

Marion said the dust is so thick from the coal trucks and equipment that their green beans won’t grow – and it’s hard to sit out on the porch anymore.

“We’ve just grown up here our whole lives, and it’s sad to see the coal trucks and all the equipment going up the hollow all the time,” she said. “It’s just ruining the mountains.”

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