. Gene Kitts (center) chats with Rotarians Jack Bailey (left) and Mike Herron.

March 2, 2010

The coal mining industry is under attack, Gene Kitts told Putnam Rotarians today.

"We're on evrybody's web site as the source of environmental devastation that's being 'wreaked' on this country and the 'poor defenseless Appalachian folks.'" he said.

Speaking for FACES of Coal (the Federation for American Coal, Energy and Security), Kitts is a senior vice-president of International Coal Group -- traded on NYSE since 2005 and headquartered in Putnam's Teays Valley.

"When I started my career," said Kitts, "when we applied for a mining permit for development of any sort, we had maybe five concerned citizens.

"Now we battle the Ohio Valley Environmental Coalition -- the group that opposed the proposed pulp mill at Apple Grove. Now they're opposing any kind of coal mining, especially surface mining. [There's the] Coal River Mountain Watch, and Appalachian Voices, down in Boone, North Carolina.

"Then we have the national groups: The Sierra Club. We battle the National Resources Defense Council.

"Then we have our friends in Philadelphia [Region 3, Environmental Protection Agency]. This administration has been the least friendly to energy production in Appalachia than any has ever been.

"You've heard, I'm sure, and read about the inability of the industry to get mining permits. The EPA steps in and says, 'We're going to do a more thorough review than has ever been done.'

"Why is EPA getting involved when they really aren't supposed to be regulating coal mining, other than making sure that water quality meets the required standards?

"When Congress enacted the Clean Water Act, they knew that some characteristics of water were going to be changed, and they let each state determine how much change and how much impact was allowed.

"We had limits like, you can't discharge water less than a pH of 6 or over 9. You can't discharge acid water. You can't discharge muddy water with suspended solids above a certain level.

"Since 1972 when the Clean Water Act was passed, you can't 'kill' a stream. You can't destroy its ability to support life.

"OK! We're good with that. This EPA is saying that certain aquatic insects, very sensitive Appalachian mayflies, do not want to live in a stream where the dissolved solids are elevated. They say that shift of population is a violation of American water safety standards. . . . That is their basis for their rejection of mining permits."

According to Kitts, the attacks on mining picked up momentum with publication in July of a study that said "population shift of mayflies was illegal."

A modern highway through Mingo and McDowell Counties has been opposed. "They say the cumulative effects of the mining, the road construction, and future development along that road, were unacceptable, and they were opposed to the issuance of that permit. Somebody is saying that Mingo County doesn't deserve a modern four-lane highway because of the impact on mayflies.

"Refuse impoundments look menacing," said Kitts. "But [they] have to pass the most rigid standards that the engineering profession can come up with.

"Shortly before Christmas 2008 there was the Kingston ash impoundment failure down in Tennessee that grabbed the headlines. It was a terrible disaster. Fact is, if TVA, a quasi-federal agency, had to follow the same standards that we and the industry do, and designed that impoundment to the same standards for refuse, it would never have happened.

"[Our impoundments] are probably some of the safest structures around," he said.

"We have to be able to pass what's called a 'maximum possible storm.' Can you imagine twenty-seven inches of rainfall in six hours? That's what we have to design for if we want to do one of these refuse dams."

Politicians outside Appalachia have jumped on the environmentalist bandwagon, says ICG's vice-president for surface mining.

"[Congressman] Frank Pallone of New Jersey is sponsoring a bill that would in effect shut down all surface mining [HR 1310, amending 33 USC 1362, precluding "any pollutant . . . which changes the bottom elevation of a water body for any purpose."]

Sens. Lamar Alexander (Tennessee) and Ben Cardin (Maryland) are sponsoring a Senate version [S 696], said Kitts. "The Frank Pallone bill in the House of Representatives has 163 sponsors the last time I checked. Ten senators are backing the Alexander/Cardin bill."

"Coal mining in west Virginia is safer, better, more responsible than ever before," said Kitts.

Opponents of surface mining "focus on the disturbed area.

"We ignore the fact that there is undisturbed forest land around it, and everybody implies that this is the finished project."

Kitts presented aerial photos of reclaimed mine lands.

"Here is an area ready to be restored with grasses and trees to be planted. And in the background here is a more mature restored land. This is our Birch River operation in Webster County. And we've been mining up there continuously for over twenty years. We've created a lot of these replant lands that are ready for productive use."

In a press conference last June, a Gazette reporter asked EPA's Bob Sussman, "Is EPA putting mayflies ahead of jobs?"

The response, according to Kitts: "Well, I wouldn't use that exact terminology. But this is all about water quality."

"And the followup to this," reported Kitts, "was from Nancy Sutley of the Council on Environmental Quality, and she said something about the transition in Appalachia from mining to green jobs.

"Have we ever seen a green job that is not government funded -- yet?" Kitts asked the group.

[