John Wathen Speaks About Dirty Coal in Rosa
August 11th, 2009
Hurricane Creekkeeper John Wathen speaks to a crowd of people from Blount County at the Rosa Town Hall Tuesday night about the problems they face with a proposed coal mine slated for their community on the Locust Fork of the Black Warrior River.
Citizens are organizing for a fight even though they missed the deadline to challenge the water discharge permit from the Alabama Department of Environmental Management.
According to the new group’s Website at RosaMine.Org, the Alabama Surface Mining Commission has indicated it will reschedule a public hearing announced for August 19 at 10 a.m. due to a technical difficulty with the permit. Forty acres included in the original map was apparently not actually included in the permit application.
After the previous meeting on July 27, covered here, the people organized a letter writing campaign and the Mcoal Company out of Vancouver, Canada, withdrew its application for a blasting permit to try and ease residents’ concerns.
Wathen warned people in the impacted area to document everything from the condition of their houses to any activity from the mine, including noise, air and water pollution. He said it’s possible, but not likely, that the coal mine will be done properly and cause no problems, but he warned the people not to count on it or trust the company or government agencies to protect them.
“It will be up to you,” he said. “There’s no such thing as clean coal. It’s a dirty lie.”
