Gov. Joe Manchin wants a team of state officials and economic developers to study ways West Virginia can better use former mountaintop removal mine sites.
Gov. Joe Manchin wants a team of state officials and economic developers to study ways West Virginia can better use former mountaintop removal mine sites.
Manchin issued an executive order Wednesday to form a post-mine land use redevelopment group. The move follows up on comments the governor made two weeks ago in his State of the State address.
"The governor wants to do what we can to really get these lands developed," said Carte Goodwin, the governor's general counsel.
The 10-member panel will be headed by Commerce Secretary Kelly Goes and will include Environmental Protection Secretary Stephanie Timmermeyer, Transportation Secretary Paul Mattox and Joe Hatfield, executive director of the West Virginia Housing Development Fund.
The group will also include one member each representing the coal industry, state landowners, housing developers, economic development groups, and coal miners. The group must also include one person with experience in environmental advocacy.
Manchin also may appoint additional members at his discretion, according to the executive order.
Preliminary recommendations are due to the governor by July 1, 2008, with a complete report by July 1, 2009.
Current law already requires coal companies to submit post-mining development plans in order to obtain strip mining permits unless they plan to return mined land to its approximate original contour, or AOC.
But for years the AOC rule was generally ignored, in large part because it was never clearly defined by the state or the federal Office of Surface Mining.
As a result, mining operators leveled thousands of acres of Southern West Virginia, for the most part without submitting development plans or following through with post-mining construction of factories, schools, strip malls, public parks or other community projects.
Ten years ago, a series of Gazette articles revealed dozens of illegal permits with post-mining land uses such as "fish and wildlife habitat" and "grasslands."
Gov. Joe Manchin wants a team of state officials and economic developers to study ways West Virginia can better use former mountaintop removal mine sites.
Manchin issued an executive order Wednesday to form a post-mine land use redevelopment group. The move follows up on comments the governor made two weeks ago in his State of the State address.
"The governor wants to do what we can to really get these lands developed," said Carte Goodwin, the governor's general counsel.
The 10-member panel will be headed by Commerce Secretary Kelly Goes and will include Environmental Protection Secretary Stephanie Timmermeyer, Transportation Secretary Paul Mattox and Joe Hatfield, executive director of the West Virginia Housing Development Fund.
The group will also include one member each representing the coal industry, state landowners, housing developers, economic development groups, and coal miners. The group must also include one person with experience in environmental advocacy.
Manchin also may appoint additional members at his discretion, according to the executive order.
Preliminary recommendations are due to the governor by July 1, 2008, with a complete report by July 1, 2009.
Current law already requires coal companies to submit post-mining development plans in order to obtain strip mining permits unless they plan to return mined land to its approximate original contour, or AOC.
But for years the AOC rule was generally ignored, in large part because it was never clearly defined by the state or the federal Office of Surface Mining.
As a result, mining operators leveled thousands of acres of Southern West Virginia, for the most part without submitting development plans or following through with post-mining construction of factories, schools, strip malls, public parks or other community projects.
Ten years ago, a series of Gazette articles revealed dozens of illegal permits with post-mining land uses such as "fish and wildlife habitat" and "grasslands."
An OSM study later confirmed those findings, as did a broader federal government examination of mountaintop removal.
Various lawsuits have tried to reform the system. In 1999, a new Office of Coalfield Community Development was formed to try to address the issue. That agency was created after work by a similar task force set up by then-Gov. Cecil Underwood.
In his State of the State address, Manchin said mined lands could be used for "renewable energy projects such as biomass, solar and wind."
The governor said he was "committed to examining the legal barriers that restrict" such developments.
Manchin staffers were unable to explain what those legal barriers are, and later, Department of Environmental Protection mining director Randy Huffman said the problem isn't so much "legal barriers," but a failure by coal companies to come up with valid post-mining developments.
In his executive order, Manchin noted a "lack of coordination among key stakeholders has resulted in multiple reclaimed surface mine sites that do not materially contribute to the economic base of the local and state economies."
The governor asked his new study group to develop a "more concrete framework" to re-evaluate currently undeveloped mine sites and plan the use of future mine sites.
But Joe Lovett, executive director of the Appalachian Center for the Economy and the Environment, said the real problem is a lack of DEP enforcement of reclamation and post-mining development rules.
"The DEP for years has not required coal companies to restore the land as the law requires, and now they've got all of this useless land and they've got to find something to do with it," Lovett said. "And this problem isn't just a problem of the past. The real problem is that DEP continues to issue permits that degrade the land and turn very productive forestland into scrub land."
To contact staff writer Ken Ward Jr., use e-mail or call 348-1702.
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