Published: March 12, 2008 12:15 am            

Stream saver bill falls two votes short in committee

A bill which would prohibit mining operators from dumping refuse into nearby mountain valleys and streams fell two votes short of passage in a House committee Tuesday, cheering mining interests but spurring supporters to say they'll continue to fight.

Frankfort — It got a full hearing – although not in the legislative committee to which it was assigned.

But House Bill 164, better known as the “stream saver bill,” fell two votes short in the House Appropriations and Revenue Committee on Tuesday and won’t make it to the House floor this year.

The bill, sponsored by Rep. Don Pasley, D-Winchester, would prohibit mining companies from dumping refuse from mountaintop removal sites into adjacent valleys and streams. It is fiercely opposed by mining interests and just as stoutly supported by environmentalists and the Kentuckians for the Commonwealth.

Pasley first introduced the bill two sessions ago because of sediment from mining operations was polluting drinking water in the Kentucky River. Opponents, such as Kentucky Coal Association Executive Director Bill Caylor, say mining is not the primary cause of pollution and the bill is really aimed at destroying the mining industry.

Each time Pasley introduced the bill it died in the Natural Resource and Environment Committee chaired by Rep. Jim Gooch, D-Providence, whose family operates a heavy equipment company which supplies coal mining companies.

But in December several members of the House Appropriations and Revenue Committee, including Chairman Harry Moberly, D-Richmond, toured a mountaintop removal site near Vicco in Perry County and listened to residents of eastern Kentucky tell of damage to their property, lives and the environment by mountaintop removal operations.

Two weeks ago, Moberly amended a bill in the A&R Committee by substituting the language of Pasley’s stream saver and took testimony from supporters and critics of the bill. He called it for a vote Tuesday. But the substitute garnered only 13 votes, two short of the required 15.

Voting no were John Arnold, Larry Clark, Jamie Comer, Keith Hall, Rick Nelson, Fred Nesler, Marie Rader, John Will Stacy, Tommy Turner, John Vincent and Robin Webb. Voting yes were Royce Adams, Dwight Butler, Jesse Crenshaw, Derrick Graham, Jimmy Higdon, Jimmie Lee, Moberly, Lonnie Napier, Pasley, Rick Rand, Charlie Siler, Arnold Simpson and Jim Wayne. Scott Brinkman, Bob DeWeese and Danny Ford passed. Mike Denham was absent.

Moberly promised if Gooch’s committee continued to refuse to hear the bill, his A&R Committee would conduct hearings on the measure again in the future.

Before the meeting began, Caylor and several miners delivered several boxes which they said contained over 10,000 letters opposing the measure. The letters were pre-printed, but individually signed, according to Caylor. That didn’t impress Moberly.

“I don’t usually pay too much attention to pre-printed letters,” he said.

Truman Hurt of Vicco, a pastor and former coal miner who supports the bill, said “it’s a very sorrowful day for eastern Kentucky and for the rest of the state because the water comes on down here. Eastern Kentucky is going to be no more, it’s going to be a flat desert.”

But Teri Blanton of KFTC said the bill got a fair hearing in Moberly’s committee, and that represents progress.

“The voices of the people have been heard,” Blanton said. “This is about protecting Kentucky’s headwater streams and Kentucky’s most valuable resource and that’s water.”

Caylor and Haven King, the Perry County Clerk who said he worked 30 years as a miner, said critics don’t realize the benefits of the flat land created by mountaintop removal sites. King said the airport in Hazard, the hospital and several major employers are located on flat land created by mountaintop removal.

He conceded mining is ugly business.

“If you go into the doctor’s office and have surgery, you’ll see blood and guts, and it’ll probably make you sick,” King said. “But when you get done, you’ve probably got a little scar.”

Caylor and Gooch said mining is not the leading cause of water pollution in Kentucky, noting that agricultural runoff and runoff from construction and roads produces more water pollution. And Gooch pointed out that Pasley is a farmer.

Caylor said that is one of the problems with the bill – that it singles out coal mining and doesn’t address other forms of water pollution.

But he conceded that Gooch’s failure to hear Palsey’s bill might create an impression that the mining industry was afraid of a public discussion. He called on Gooch to give the bill “a public and fair hearing.” Gooch said later he might, perhaps in this session, although he said there is no support for the bill on his committee. Pasley scoffed at the idea Gooch might give his bill a fair hearing. So did Hurt.

“We put certain people on certain committees for certain reasons in Frankfort,” Hurt said, speaking of legislative leaders who appoint committee members.

But one of those leaders, House Speaker Pro Tem Larry Clark, D-Louisville, who voted no Tuesday, said he’d learned from the hearings in Moberly’s committee and the issue deserves further debate in the interim between legislative sessions.

Caylor said he wasn’t concerned that the hearings sent a message that lawmakers’ attitudes might be changing.

“No, I don’t think it sent a message,” Caylor said. “I think we brought a message down here with those 10,000 letters.”

Blanton of KFTC vowed to continue the fight.

“We’ll be back,” she said.



RONNIE ELLIS writes for CNHI News Service and is based in Frankfort. Reach him at rellis@cnhi.com.

        

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