The Register-Herald, Beckley, West Virginia

Today's Front Page

July 28, 2010

OSM gets public input on mining

Comments sought for new federal mine regulations

By Andrea Lannom Register-Herald Reporter

The Office of Surface Mining Reclamation and Enforcement held an open house Tuesday at the Beckley Raleigh County Convention Center to gather comments from the public for use in writing a new rule to better protect streams from the effects of coal mining.

The open house consisted of a poster session which included topics from reforestation, mining activities in or near streams, financial assurances for long-term discharges of pollutants, as well as other topics. People could then fill out a comment sheet at the registration table and discuss their feelings about each topic, or orally place a comment to the court reporter.

Lois Uranowski, civil engineer and manager of the public comment open house, says the project has been under way for almost a year and so far, public participation has been high. Beckley was the sixth stop in their nine-stop plan in areas around the nation affected by coal mining.

The issue has centered on West Virginia, Virginia, Kentucky, Pennsylvania, Ohio and Tennessee. The Obama administration has set out to curb the efficient but much maligned practice of mountaintop removal coal mining.

“What we want is public opinion,” she said. “We want people to seriously consider these options and think about what is best for the proposed rule in environmental alternatives and so far, our participation has been great. We’ve received 30,000 comments within the last year and we look through each one of them for the best ideas. That’s where a lot of our posters came from is from people’s ideas.”

The reason they chose a poster session and open house, she said, is because of the complexity of the issues.

“Some of these proposed alternatives are very in-depth and we want people to take a look at these posters and think about what they are going to say before sending us a comment,” she said. “It’s just better to have a poster session than a meeting because they can read it themselves and get a better idea of what’s going on.”

 Uranowski said overall, the public has been positive about the open house. Even those employed by coal mines have been positive, she said.

“We’ve met with the coal industry, environmental groups and we’ve gotten feedback from several Appalachian states,” she said. “We’ve even had miners come in who were very inquisitive about what’s going on here and had them sit around the table and discuss some of the options.”

The goal is to publish an environmental impact statement draft in February 2011 and have a final rule by 2012. Uranowski stressed that OSM wants to protect people’s jobs, but also to find a way to work with the environment.

“We want to protect people and protect the environment,” she said. “We are concerned about keeping people’s jobs. The purpose is to improve streams and still have coal mining, but to do so in a more environmentally friendly way.”

OSM isn’t targeting the region, engineer and Pittsburgh branch chief Lois Uranowski said.

“Anywhere where there is a stream near a mine, this rule will impact,” she said. For instance, mine operators in Texas or Wyoming could see major changes if the agency sets national standards for how surface mines are reclaimed.

— - —

The next stop in West Virginia today in at Morgantown’s Mylan Park. Uranowski encourages people to send in comments by e-mail if they are not able to attend open house.

 “You have the chance to change public policy,” she said. “The highest priority is to do rule making that works and with the ideas that everyone can put forth, we can find something that works.”

Stream Protection Rule EIS Public Scoping comment period ends July 30. People can e-mail comments to sra-eis@osmre.gov or send comments by mail.

— E-mail: alannom@register-herald.com

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