Elk story generates negative comments....

[Multidigits]

http://www.courier-journal.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20050822/OPINION02/508220325&SearchID=73218178984315


Return of elk doesn't justify mountaintop removal


I read the July 31 story on the "Animals and mountaintop-mining debate." While I appreciate The Courier-Journal's effort to bring this story to us, I feel that the cover photo and caption were very misleading.

It is true that elk have recently been re-introduced to Eastern Kentucky with great results. However, the argument that now it's OK to strip-mine mountaintops is absurd. Coal companies have forever buried more than 1,200 miles of biologically crucial mountain headwaters. . . .

Thanks for the pretty picture of the elk, but next time don't make the massive profits of out-of-state coal companies at the expense of a once majestic mountaintop seem so pleasant.

KEVIN BRAUN

Louisville 40206

'Destruction' of land
I believe the July 31 front-page article on elk and mountaintop removal was rather biased. I am an avid hunter and would love to go elk hunting, but to imply that the elk population in Kentucky is thriving because of mountaintop removal in Eastern Kentucky is crazy. Elk roamed in Kentucky 200 years ago, long before the mountains were razed in Eastern Kentucky. Elk will thrive in Kentucky without mountaintop removal. They disappeared because of extreme hunting, not lack of flat ground. Please be honest in your stories.

If Bill Caylor, who represents the coal industry, was allowed to say that the economic benefit of elk is one reason to support mountaintop removal, why weren't the people who have had their foundations cracked, who have had rocks roll through their homes, or who have had their wells go dry . . . interviewed? The plain, hard truth is that our politicians and the coal companies know that many of the people are poor and disposable. This type of land destruction would never take place in Louisville or Lexington. . . .

Tourism in Eastern Kentucky will never succeed if the mountains continue to be razed for short-term gains by out-of-state companies. Don't take my word for it, though. . . . Drive to Highway 80 in Knott County or Highway 15 in Breathitt County. If you think that destruction is OK, fine. But I do not believe many people will believe their eyes.

. . . Coal must continue to be mined. But it should be mined safely and without the damage it is causing to the environment. More coal is now being mined with less manpower, leaving the coal counties poor after the rich natural resources leave.

I'm thrilled the elk are back in Kentucky, but please be fair and balanced in future stories regarding this serious issue in our commonwealth.

GREGG WAGNER

Louisville 40205

Elk and mining
Elk are primarily forest dwellers that feed by grazing in natural open grassy areas. Their presence in the Appalachian Mountains of Kentucky and other Eastern states preceded Bill Caylor and his earth-moving equipment by many thousands of years, so there is no requirement for mountaintop removal mining to create elk habitat. In fact, mountaintop removal destroys forever this uniquely diverse ecosystem. . . .

Allowing the Kentucky Department of Fish and Wildlife Resources to manage mined areas for wildlife habitat merely serves the interest of the mining companies to fulfill the requirement of the Strip Mine Reclamation Act, which is to restore a mined area to some original function.

Usually, cattle-grazing or wildlife habitat is the least costly to a mining company. Without the reclamation act, the mining companies would do nothing, and there are innumerable unreclaimed strip mines throughout the Appalachian coal region. Mining companies are never a friend to the outdoor enthusiast.

SAM WELLHAUSEN

Louisville 40242

Slurry spill ignored
I am offended that an entire story was written about mountaintop mining in Martin County, Ky., without mention of the biggest environmental disaster in the southeast United States -- a 300-million-gallon waste slurry spill in 2000. This spill was the result of Massey Coal Co.'s negligence in containing the waste product from its mining operation. It was 30 times more liquid than the Exxon Valdez spilled, and it was right here in our own state. Hundreds of people lost their homes, and thousands had their property damaged. Massey called the spill an act of God and refused to claim any responsibility for it.

Coal companies like to flaunt the few successful reclaimed mine sites because they help justify the practice. However, fewer than 10 percent of mountaintop removal sites are ever reclaimed, while the rest remain a desert moonscape. The reality is that reclamation is a public relations maneuver; it is coal company sleight-of-hand. It leaves people singing the praises of elk, while hundreds of other species are being obliterated, and congratulating the owner of a small airport, while people are still dealing with the aftermath of a 300-million-gallon toxic spill in the same county.

I would appreciate it if The Courier-Journal published an article that really examines mountaintop removal and its effects, instead of oversimplifying the issue with cute elk photographs.

JULIE BIN

[trust me]

Funny how all the concerned folks are from LOUISVILLE. Let'em sell their homes and quit their jobs and move down here for a few years. They can try to scratch out a living the best way they can, just like we do. In a few years, they'll be praying for a big coal mine to open so they can make a decent wage.

As far as loss of land in Fayette not being allowed...my father went to UK way back in the 50's and he would point at the strip malls that line Nicholasville Road inside Circle 4 and tell me about all the quail hunting that was available there back then. Now, all you can hunt is a parking spot. Land is being lost at a far greater rate in Lexington than it is in Knott or Breathitt...paving it over and building a Cheddar's causes it to be forever lost, just like dumping it out of a rock truck does.

Maybe all of us hillbillies need to go petition the Louisville City Council to stop the rape of their landscape, what with all those quarter-million dollar executive-style homes going up every day.

I hate hypocrits.

[CSS archer]

Good point Trust Me, at least those strip mines will grow back in trees, even fescue cant grow on blacktop.

Louisville doesn't use electricity either....

[WBBP]

Everbody wants cheap electricity deliverd to their house so that they can operate in make believe world where the following exists:

1) Coal is mined w/o the disturbance of the soil/rock/water and no humans or wildlife is affected. In actuality there is no way to mine coal where it does not have a negative impact on the environment. The people complaining are asking for something that doesn't exist, so that makes them ignorant IMO.

2) Coal is hauled on roads in big trucks that are not dangerous and do not harm the pavement. Again, transporting coal is dangerous and is harmful to our highways, but their are no other options.

3) Coal is burned in big beautiful steam generation plants and the only byproduct is electricity and the smell of lilac. The primary emissions from the burning of coal are SOx, NOx, CO2, CO, and particulates. There is absolutely no way to avoid these emissions, but some of them can be reduced and they are, but at a huge cost. Most people don't understand that when you burn something that is full of carbon and a host of other contaminants, you end up with an emission that is not desirable. This is a fact of life.

4) Coal ash is biodegradable and does not have to be disposed of. The ash in coal is mostly silica based and normally ranges from 3%-15% depending on what seam that it is mined from. Some of this can be washed out before burning, but some can't, so you end up with ash left over because it simply won't burn. It has to be disposed of somehow. This is just a fact.

What most people in the US want is to use the final product of our natural resources (electricity in this case) but not have nay negative impacts on their lives. I say that most are gettting what they ar asking for since the impact is to the people that mine, own land where mining is near, haul coal, and live near the power generation sources. There is a cost to everything in life, but most of the electrical users really don't know who is making the sacrifice so they can have chheap dependable electricity.

Like trust me said, the are the biggest hypocrites I have ever seen.

K

[Multidigits]

My guess is that most of these comments are from tree huggers, so who cares what they think???

[AteUp]

Good points all.

[Feedman]

Interesting article. Should be lots of article's once this year's elk hunt is complete.

[kyddm]

These people act like there was never a tree cut or a stream filled in to build the city they live in. I live in eastern KY and just about anything we have here is built upon reclaimed lands. Reclaimed lands are the only flat land we have. I am a mine manager and I know the company I work for cares a lot about the enviroment. I wonder if these people understand the amount of coal severance tax money they get for roads and things that we here in eastern KY generate for them.

[Bowcrazy]

I support the elk program as does the majority of members of the League of Kentucky Sportsmen.

[TEC]

Put it to you simple. I am from Martin Co Ky I live on cold water creek road were the majority of the sludge spilled. Yes my front yard was covered with about 2 feet of sludge and the stream in front of my house witch was my prime location for caching fishing bait was destroyed! I also am a coal miner a strip miner I work and earn my fishing and hunting trip money from working at a mine. I think the Elk program I great and I think the elk habitat is great (Mountain top removal) I am in no means saying that I am in favor of mountain top removal but I do just like you love to turn my lights on when I am home. And Why is it about elk I have hunted Deer turkey and rabbit on reclaimed mine property for the past 10 years. There are also many industrial sites that provide jobs for the community that would not be there if not for these properties. yes I make a living moving mountains cant say that I like it but can t say that I dislike it!

[trust me]

TEC, we need you to sit down with those pinhead reporters and give them the real story. Drive them up to your place and your minesite, and give them the perspective of a man with real life experience. I never worked a mine job, but I sure do appreciate what coal does for me.

I too have hunted and fished for years on mine sites, and it isn't the wasteland the flatlanders want it to be. Thanks for posting.

[goldenboy]

Here is my deal on strip mining (mountain top removal). I am in favor of stripping mining land and leaving it for the better afterwards. But, notice I say but I am not in favor of the coal companies reclaiming the land with nutritionally insignificant cover crop for these game species to survive on. Yes these quail and rabbits will feed on the genectically modified grasses that will yield very high outputs, but the food produced has multiple problems like the lack of vital nutrition. One study found that quail was found dead in a specific coal mine area without signs of what killedthem.But after careful experimentation of tissue collected the report showed that the birds died of malnutrition. Yet when collected the sack on the birds neck was filled with these GM grass seeds. "Be it as it may" the farmer and the state WMA programs own some of the most productive lands in the state. I know this may be ridiculous and some may disagree with my theory of Mountain Top stripping Solution but here it is. I think the state should increase the minimum limit on the frequency of native grasses found in coal companies reclaimation crops, give the company a tax break if they satisfy a certain frequency of native acreage, and even allow the state or some other state agency whether highway sysytem or fish & Wildlife to reclaim that land for them in exchange of the total control of all conservative efforts to be carried out on that land. In return locking a large portion of kentucky into a position where the Coal company owns the land but pretty much is leasing it to either F&W or a foundation like NWTF;RMEF;SCI which would increase our public hunting lands to soaring amounts. Of course no plan is perfect and others are more than welcome to commet on the fact.

[WBBP]

You are right about the lack food value.

[wprebeck]

While not in eastern KY, the 80 acres I recently purchased is a reclaimed strip mine. They were nice enough to leave me two large ponds, along with some good hardwood and even a wetlands area. They only thing I don't have, that I'd like, is some open field. I'm probably going to fix that over the next few years, as there's quite a bit of younger pines/cedars I may get rid of, and plant grasses (trying to get some good quail habitat).