Sometimes I hear banter from the coal industry and the politicians that makes me want to spit! The one that's wearing me out these days is "we need flat land - reclaimed mountaintop removal sites provide that."
Give me a break! Every time I drive these Appalachian roads I see flat land all over the place. Odd - there's not a thing built on it. Seems to me you'd need flat land if you didn't have any available.
Over in Boone County, West Virginia, they want to build a new hospital - cost would be $2 million. The county owns a piece of land next to the existing hospital. And where do you think the County Commission considered putting that hospital? Right! On a reclaimed mountaintop removal site.
They would have needed to build a four-lane bridge to get to it at the cost of $10 million. I'll repeat that. The bridge alone would cost TEN MILLION DOLLARS! Tax-payer money. No coal company money. I hate to see how much it would cost for water, sewer, electric and other infrastructure. Pretty lofty idea for a county whose property assessments are hitting rock bottom because of the dastardly coal companies.
It's a sad state of affairs when the county government gets in bed with the barons. Even worse when the taxpayers to pay for the coal industry's "public relations." Time to start spitting!
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
6 comments:
This is true and it isn't.
I wrote about this in the Coal Valley News back in January I think when I still worked there. This was a plan that came forward during a meeting of the Boone County Commission back then and was laid out by BMH administrator Tommy Mullins.
The details are pretty much what you said though.
Tommy said the offices of Senators Byrd and Rockefeller and Gov. Manchin told him they were behind it, but when I called them,they said they didn't know a thing about it.
Lawrence Keeney
County News Editor
The Boone Standard
www.boonestandard.com
LawrenceKeeney@boonestandard.com
Maybe the hospital property is in the 100 year floodplain. I think reclaimed surface mine property would make excellent home developments. Some of the infrastructure could be left in place when the mines pull out. If we built up out of the floodplain OUR tax dollars would not be spent on Federal backed flood insurance.
Don't know if it's in the floodplain or not. Ive lived here since 1970 man and boy and I can't remember it getting anywhere near BMH.
But I could be wrong. I was once.
By the way, I was looking at my records, and I wrote the original Boone Memorial story on this subject back in late May. You might be able to find it on the www.coalvalleynews.com site.
The coal industry desperately wants to have trophies that they can claim legitimate mountaintop removal. "A hospital providing health care for the community, built on a reclaimed mountaintop mining site. How wonderful we are, so please applaud while we level more mountains."
Land prices in the eastern part of West Virginia, where the mountains are intact, are skyrocketing as people are building retirement homes and second homes. Tell me is there a land rush in Boone County to build expensive homes on "reclaimed" mountaintop mining land?
--Allen Johnson
Dunmore, WV
What better place to build a new hospital than on a nice level piece of land!
After all, the mountain isn't going to magically come back into existence because a hospital isn't built.
From where did the figure of $10 million for the new bridge come?
It always amazes me when people still show this amount of trust in coal companies and elected officials, who seem to pander to coal interests.
I would be a bit suspicous of building anything on reclaimed land. Honestly, I am not convinced reclaimed flatlands are structurally sound given King Coal's record.
Research Buffalo Creek or Inez, Kentucky. Tell me you still believe the coal industry has your best interests in mind.
Post a Comment