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For release April 21, 2003
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Contact:
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SOCM office
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Charles Blankenship
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(865) 426-9455
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(423) 784-9723
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Elk Valley Residents Get Bird’s Eye View of Proposed Mountain Top Removals
Living in an area that was once heavily mined, Elk Valley residents are very familiar with the hazards of living next to a strip mine. They know that blasting from the mine can crack their foundations and sink their wells, that stray flyrock can come off the mountain and that coal trucks round the corners of the mountain roads too fast.
Now, residents also have to worry about “Cross Ridge Mining,” a procedure that is new to Tennessee. According to the Office of Surface Mining (OSM), “Cross Ridge Mining” is when a coal mining operation strips through the mountain to remove a whole seam of coal, like mountain top removal. But instead of leaving the mountain flat, they propose to remove the mountain and then rebuild it afterward.
Elk Valley residents gathered at the Campbell County Airport to get an aerial view of the proposed strip mine near their homes. Charles Blankenship, member of Save Our Cumberland Mountains (SOCM), was onboard to see his home from the air, said “I want to see how close my home and property is to the peaks that they plan to take off.”
Since the passage of the federal surface mining reclamation act in 1977, mountain top removal has been a controversial extraction method, making national news and going as far as rulings in the federal courts.
“As far as I'm concerned, if they are taking the top off the mountain, that’s mountain top removal no matter what they call it,” said Blankenship.
While an early version of the mine permit application included a “Head of Hollow Fill,” the company says they won’t be using any fills. This detail raises some questions with resident Bobby Ellard, “Where are they going to put all of that spoil if not in a fill, where do you think all that dirt is going to go when it rains?”
The proposed 2100 acre strip mine for Zeb Mountain is currently being reviewed by the Office of Strip Mining in Knoxville and by the Tennessee Department of Environment and Conservation’s (TDEC) Water Pollution Control Office. The proposed permit plans to “Cross Ridge Mine” the 3 peaks on Zeb Mountain. With over 100 homes in a half- mile radius of the proposed mine, this project has generated much concern for the safety of the neighboring residents, as well as the safety of their children at Elk Valley Elementary School nearby.
In early April, the Campbell County School Board went on record about their concern for the school by passing a resolution to ask the coal company to include the elementary school in the pre-blast survey.
Homes and structures that are within a 1/2 mile of the permit boundary are included on a pre-blast survey list which entitles home owners to request that the coal company come inspect their home and document the current condition of it. Since Elk Valley Elementary School is just 700 feet past the 1/2 mile boundary, Elk Valley parents and grandparents asked the school board to pass the resolution.
Sara Gagen, a SOCM member with a grandson at the school, had spoken at the board meeting and pointed out that if the “coal company were to include the school in the pre-blast survey, then any potential damage to the school building would be covered by the coal company, not Campbell County taxpayers.”
Four miles away from Zeb Mountain, is another proposed “Cross Ridge Mining” operation on Braden Mountain. The permit for the 665 acre area in Royal Blue has already been approved by OSM.
However, in 2000, Gatliff Coal Company, the company which holds the permit to mine on Braden Mountain, indicated that they were not planning to begin mining in the near future and requested that they not have to post a performance bond. By going into “Bond Deffered Status,” the company avoids having to reapply for a permit when they decide to open the mine.
TVA recently announced that it is preparing to take new bids from coal operators to mine the coal under Braden Mountain. TVA indicated in a draft document about the proposed lease that “recent developments in the coal market have made the formerly proposed mining operation more economically attractive, and TVA now proposes to enter into a new lease agreement.”
“Where has ‘Cross Ridge Mining’ ever been done before? TDEC and OSM claim that the mountains will be more stable after this, but how can they prove that those mountains are going to stay where the coal company puts them,” asked Ralph Veach who lives between the two proposed mines.
Knowing the devastation that mountain top removal has caused to West Virginia and Kentucky, these Tennesseans are skeptical about it’s introduction to their state. “If OSM allows these coal companies to take the tops off these mountains in Campbell County, will we be begin to see the tops come off mountains throughout Tennessee’s coal fields,” commented Blankenship.
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