New subject: Your letter to editor

3 Dec 2009


      Wendy, sorry to be so long getting back to you.  I have been out of town 
for a while.  I do believe the WV Chapter Sierra Club and Ohio Valley 
Environmental Coalition would be interested in knowing about this.  You 
mention you've been in touch with OVEC and so I will forward this to 
Chapter Sierra Club members on the Energy Committee.  Maybe we could 
arrange for you to make a presentation to them at an ExCom meeting.
Regina Hendrix
304-724-0223
Irongate12@aol.com wrote:
...
Hi Regina,
Read your letter recently in The Journal. Way to go! Agreed whole 
heartedly with you.
Here in the Eastern Panhandle we have been fighting something similar. 
Although our project is not as monumentally devastating as mountaintop 
removal, it will  ultimately be just as bad, and will impact a much 
larger population right off the bat.
I am talking about the expansive strip mining operation currently 
being proposed for North Mountain in Gerrardstown- 12 miles from 
Charles Town. Please take a minute to visit our website     
www.northmountain.org http://www.northmountain.org .
We could really use some help from knowledgeable environmentalists 
like yourself. We have put the company off for almost 2 years, but now 
it appears to us,  the WV DEP has tinkered around with the permit and 
it will be brought for public comment.  I have heard of the Ohio 
Valley Environmental Coalition. Would your group be willing to lend us 
a hand?  I think we could have a precedent setting victory here and 
break down the door for others to follow on mining in West VA.
On Monday Nov. 9, 2009 a helicopter with 3 DEP reps landed at the 
Continental Brick/North Mountain Shale LLC property. This location is 
scenic & historic and highly visible to one of the fastest 
growing residential areas in the county. It has been untouched by 
mining due to its  environmentally sensitive location. My husband 
Steve accompanied the officials as they viewed the terrain and he 
showed them healthy springs on the mountain, plus damage occurring to 
one of our ponds from massive erosion, silt & sediment & unknown 
contaminants from their land disturbance activities. They had excuses 
for everything or were silent on what they could not possibly defend. 
It seems that the reps surmised that “damage” would most likely occur 
to the water from the mining operation. Their suggestion was that we 
could sue the company – after damage has occurred- and if we could 
prove it, we would get new wells (although we would be dealing with a 
LLC).
The above is what the community has been dealing with. There have been 
no studies or tests performed that reasonably prove to local residents 
here that mining at this sensitive location, on the side of a mountain 
will not effect our water. All rational people know full well that the 
safety and quantity of our water will be adversely effected. Our 
local  county commissioners unanimously signed a resolution in 
opposition to the location. We have a petition signed by over 3000 
citizens.
We are in the Chesapeake Bay Watershed and still WV thinks it is okay 
to allow this project with the resultant stormwater drainage & runoff. 
There is so much wild life on the mountain that will be displaced. An 
expansive quarry on the side of a mountain does not make sense. Since 
we are located 1 hour from Washington DC, I was hoping we could get 
someone who could see that this location is inappropriate and intervene.
It is a sad commentary that WV residents must endure damages to their 
property and then try to sue an out-of-state LLC. One cannot put a 
monetary value on a destroyed water system. The entire community is 
concerned. At least a dozen families, in the immediate vicinity have 
put their homes up for sale hoping to get  buyers before the permit is 
issued.  I have included a link to a recent Letter to the Editor of 
our local paper that eloquently relates what many citizens are 
thinking in Berkeley County in regard to this matter.
http://www.journal-news.net/page/content.detail/id/527169.html?nav=5061 
http://www.journal-news.net/page/content.detail/id/527169.html?nav=5061
Thanks for listening and hope to hear back from you.
Sincerely,
Wendy Hudock
http://www.berkeleywater.org/emergencyInfo.php

Re: [EC] Your letter to editor