Blounty County Citizens Oppose Coal Mine
September 15th, 2009
by Glynn Wilson
ONEONTA, Ala. — More than 102 people packed the Frank Green Building auditorium Tuesday night to protest a proposed coal mine by a Canadian company near the banks of the Locust Fork of the Black Warrior River.
Dr. Randall C. Johnson, the director of the Surface Mining Commission and a wildlife biologist with a Ph.D. from Auburn University, would not say whether the overwhelming opposition might sway the commission to deny the permit. But he said the commission did deny one recently in Lamar County.
Nelson Brooke, executive director of the Black Warrior Riverkeeper, said the Alabama Department of Environmental Management illegally granted the water discharge pollution permit and broke the law when passing the ultimate responsibility for the coal mine approval to the Surface Mining Commission, an agency that is not equipped to perform environmental impact assessments under the Clean Water Act and the National Environmental Policy Act.
“They broke the law,” he said.
Sam Howell, president of the Friends of the Locust Fork River, urged the commission to consider the “cumulative” impacts of the mine on the ecosystem, the watershed and the community.
One by one, residents of the area went to the microphone to urge the commission to deny the permit.
