Published: February 24, 2008 01:35 am            

Stream saver bill stuck in Gooch's committee - again

Doug Doerffeld, of Elliottville in Rowan County, who is president of the Kentuckians for the Commonwealth which organized the I Love Mountains rally, thinks “it’s an absolute outrage that Gooch has not given this bill a hearing for three straight times.”

Frankfort — Even a third trip to the House Natural Resources and Environment Committee doesn’t appear to be the charm for a bill to protect the head waters of the Kentucky River from mining pollution.

The chairman of the committee, Rep. Jim Gooch, D-Providence, said this week he is unlikely to call House Bill 164, the “stream saver bill,” for a hearing. The bill, sponsored by Rep. Don Pasley, D-Winchester, would prevent coal companies from dumping refuse – the over burden – from mountaintop strip mining operations into adjacent valleys and streams.

Pasley, whose district lies in central Kentucky and whose constituents draw their drinking water from the Kentucky River, became interested in mountaintop removal when he learned sediment from the valley fills was polluting the river and forcing higher rates for water customers to pay for cleaning the water of the sediment.

He has introduced the bill three times – it languished in Gooch’s committee without a hearing the previous two times. It has 21 co-sponsors this time, but that doesn’t seem to have helped.

Gooch, according to the company’s web site, is Vice President of West Kentucky Steel which manufactures and rebuilds heavy mining equipment. Previously, Gooch drew criticism for inviting non-scientist testimony before his committee that global warming isn’t a threat.

Gooch said Thursday his committee won’t hear the bill this year either.

“I really don’t think the sponsors of that bill want to hear it,” Gooch said. “What we’ve found is the number one polluter of our streams is agricultural runoff, and the sponsor of that bill is a farmer. I don’t think he wants us to hear it.”

He said coal mining sediment ranks behind erosion and runoff from agricultural products, roads and housing construction in the amount of water sediment in Kentucky streams.

Pasley scoffed.

“I haven’t asked him for a hearing because he won’t give it a fair hearing,” he said.

Among the 21 co-sponsors of Pasley’s bill is Rep. Harry Moberly, D-Richmond, who chairs the House Appropriations and Revenue Committee through which all spending bills and the budget go. Pasley is also a member of the committee. That gives Moberly and his committee considerable influence in the House, and Moberly said earlier this session that support for Pasley’s bill has grown and it might draw a surprising number of votes – if it can get to the House floor.

Moberly helped organize a visit by several House members in December to a mountaintop removal site in Perry County where they also heard from area residents about the impact of the mining practice on their lives. The trip helped Pasley land several of the co-sponsors for his bill. And on Feb. 14, nearly 1,000 people attended an “I Love Mountains” rally at the state capitol, calling for passage of Pasley’s bill.

Doug Doerffeld, of Elliottville in Rowan County, who is president of the Kentuckians for the Commonwealth which organized the I Love Mountains rally, thinks “it’s an absolute outrage that Gooch has not given this bill a hearing for three straight times.”

Gooch’s committee, Doerffeld said, is the Natural Resources Committee, “not the Kentucky coal profits protection committee.”

“He owes it to the people of Kentucky to give (Pasley’s bill) a fair hearing and get testimony,” Doerffeld said.

Still, the bill sits in Gooch’s committee.

“If we take up any type of legislation, we would look at all sources of pollution,” Gooch said. “We’re not going after just one and one that’s just 15 percent of the problem.”

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

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