COAL REPORT March 18,2008

Dixie Wollum of Mingo County has died, reports the Williamson Daily News. The 88-year old resident of Cinderella became an icon in the struggle for benefits for miners and their widows. She was a member of the Pensioners’ Leadership Committee in the Mineworkers Union, fighting in West Virginia and in Washington DC. Her face was seen across West Virginia as part of the UMW’s “Keep the Promise” campaign, which ended when miners and widows benefits were made permanent in the Coal Act of 2006.

The Kentucky “stream saver" bill is on hold for another year, evidently. The bill that would prohibit dumping mine spoil in streams—which would effectively shut down mountaintop removal mining—fell two votes short in a House committee. The “stream saver” bill was before the House Appropriations and Revenue Committee, whose chairman Harry Moberly of Richmond is a supporter. In previous years the bill had gone to the Natural Resources committee. The chair of that panel, Representative Jim Gooch, had always killed it. Gooch said that if he gets to hold hearings on it, “It will be dead once and for all.” Moberly had a different take: “We’ll have future discussions about this bill and anything else about the environment that is not properly addressed.” One of the “stream saver” advocates echoed this. Said Truman Hurt of Perry County, “We’ll holler bigger and louder.”

Recently Massey Energy paid a $20 million fine to the federal government to settle thousands of clean water violations. That got the attention of other coal companies, according to the Charleston Gazette. In West Virginia, companies have been talking to the state Department of Environmental Protection, hoping that settling violations with the state could avoid both federal violations and citizen lawsuits. Last week the West Virginia DEP proposed a $750,000 settlement with Alpha Natural Resources. If accepted, the deal would cover 300 clean water violations at Alpha strip and deep mines and prep plants. Bill Raney of the West Virginia Coal Association said he wouldn’t be surprised to see more such settlements. The DEP has said that it five years behind on reviewing companies’ water pollution reports, and is trying to get back on track.

The Wall Street Journal reports that federal investigators from the FBI and the US Attorney’s office in Charleston have interviewed employees of the state Supreme Court about a case involving Massey Energy. The case centers on the relationship between the state’s chief justice Elliot Maynard and Massey Energy chief Don Blankenship. When the question arose whether Maynard should remove himself from cases involving Massey, he initially denied that he and Blankenship had socialized. In January, however, photographs appeared showing the men together on a vacation on the French Riviera in 2006. The court is considering whether to overturn a $50 million judgment against Massey.

A maintenance worker died last week at a preparation plant in Fayette County, West Virginia’s first mining death of 2008. John Workman was pinned under a metal plate he was trying to remove from a bulldozer at Appalachian Fuels Alloy Prep Plant No. 1 near Boomer. Government records reported in the Charleston Gazette show that the Mine Safety and Health Administration missed required inspections at the prep plant in each of the last three years. MSHA is required to inspect prep plants twice a year but had inspected the Alloy plant only once each year. Budget cuts at MSHA have left the agency way behind on its required safety inspections, especially in southern West Virginia. The new head of the agency, Richard Stickler, has vowed to do better, and West Virginia Senator Robert Byrd recently got more money for MSHA.