Ansted Community Fights MTR Application
By: Matt Noerpel
In late August, we received a call from some folks in Fayette County. They had a permit hearing coming up and were looking for some advice those who had been through it. Of course, we said yes. In researching the permit and talking to affected residents, I found that due to recent lawsuits outlawing the Nationwide 404 permit and taking the Army Corps of Engineers' ability to permit sediment ponds in rivers, this particular permit had been cut nearly in half.
What is still included however, are 10 pollution outlets draining into Rich Creek, a creek that, according to the permit, supports a reproducing population of native brown trout, something getting rarer by the day in Southern West Virginia. This stream was on the original list to be placed on the second highest level of water quality protection in West Virginia until the industry had their say. It is now one of many listed as an "impaired stream." Katheryne Hoffman, secretary to the Hawks Nest State Park Foundation, wrote to the DEP, "That these waters remain as unpolluted as possible is critical to the economic engine now fueling Fayette County, which is not coal, but tourism."
About 25 people showed up at the meeting and kept us there for hours. We talked about the permit, the DEP, MTR and brainstormed questions to ask at the hearing. When the hearing came the number of residents had doubled and an OVEC organizer joined CRMW in support of this community. They spoke of the water quality, the blossoming tourism industry, and the systematic depopulation of the southern coalfields by the state and coal industry. The DEP as usual sat and "listened" to the people's pleas.
At the end in an unusual turn of events, the DEP answered questions. Sort of. With their normal vague and misleading style the showed the citizens of Fayette County exactly where they stand.
On Nov. 10, Ansted area residents held a "Mountain Blessing" for divine intervention to protect their homes, community, and streams. Father Roy Crist, a Missioner of the New River Episcopal Ministries, offered the blessing. He said, "We admire and respect those who work in the mines. But mountaintop removal is a crime against man and nature and must be stopped while we still have mountains left."
The DEP has yet to make a decision on the permit, but the victory is near. OVEC has placed an organizer in Fayette. And the folks from Fayette are working with people from Raleigh and Boone who are working with people from Kentucky, Virginia, and Tennessee, and all over the nation. We are no longer isolated voices trying to defend our backyards, but a unified voice in resistance to the exploitation of the land and people of Appalachia.