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This news story originally provided by The Herald-Dispatch
July 27, 2005
W.Va. regulators cancel coal silo permit near Raleigh school
By ERIK SCHELZIG
CHARLESTON, W.Va. (AP) -- State regulators on Tuesday canceled a Massey Energy Co. permit for a new coal silo near a Raleigh County school and ordered the company to demolish work already done on the structure's foundation.
The permit was suspended earlier this month after questions arose about conflicting maps for the facility near Marsh Fork Elementary school near Sundial.
Newer maps had extended the previously approved boundary lines for Massey subsidiary Goals Coal Co.'s operations by about 75 feet - just enough to encompass the site of the new 168-foot-high storage silo.
State law bars new surface mine operations within 300 feet of a school. The state Department of Environmental Protection approved the new silo because the two maps submitted by Goals Coal earlier this year showed it would be on land where coal operations were permitted before the 1977 law took effect.
"The maps were inaccurate, the company did not have an appropriate response, so now the permit has been rescinded," DEP spokeswoman Jessica Greathouse said.
The agency determined the new permit was based on faulty maps after a surveyor found the original permit boundary maker that had been placed in the ground in 1984, placing the silo outside the permitted area.
Marsh Fork has become a focal point of protests by Coal River Mountain Watch and Mountain Justice Summer. They say dust from a coal preparation plant - where rock is removed from mined coal - enters the school, causing asthma and respiratory problems.
The groups want to shut down the preparation plant, a 1,849-acre mountaintop removal mine site and a 2.8 billion-gallon coal sludge dam about 400 yards from the school.
Katharine Kenny, a spokeswoman for Richmond, Va.-based Massey, did not immediately return a phone call seeking comment Tuesday evening. She had earlier said the company was working to reconcile the different versions of the map and that she was confident "nothing improper was done by Massey."
An existing silo next to the school is unaffected by Tuesday's DEP ruling.
Goals Coal had already laid the foundation for the new silo before the permit was issued, as is industry practice. The DEP ruling means that the construction must now be razed and the disturbed land reclaimed.
Massey, the state's largest coal producer, has launched a television advertising campaign to challenge the claims of protesters speaking out against the company's coal mining operations.
In the ads, Massey emphasizes its commitment to what it calls the "total environment" in West Virginia - including jobs, health care and schools - and alleges that coal protesters forget about "needs of the people."
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On the Net:
Massey Energy: http://www.masseyenergyco.com
Coal River Mountain Watch: http://webpages.charter.net/crmw
Mountain Justice Summer: http://www.mountainjusticesummer.org
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