Tuesday, May 6th, 2014

From the Friends of Blair Mountain (Website | Facebook ):

WVDEP has issued an order to Aracoma Coal that will prohibit any surface mining within 1,000 ft. of the Blair Battlefield until 2018 when the permit comes up for renewal.

More importantly, OSMRE, a federal agency, has confirmed and established the legal steps to take so that Governor Tomblin can issue an executive order giving WVDEP the power to enforce section 106 of the National Historic Preservation Act on a 1,000 ft. boundary around the entire Blair Battlefield.

The 1921 Battle of Blair Mountain was fought along a number of fronts, the Battle for Blair Mountain has been no different. A pivotal front in the ongoing Battle for Blair Mountain is the Camp Branch Permit. Encompassing part of the southern area of the battlefield, the land on Camp Branch was where Sheriff Don Chafin kept his supply lines running and where defensive positions were stationed on the ridgeline at Blair. In the Battle for Blair Mountain, the Camp Branch Permit has been the most heated front. Just a few months after the 2011 protest march to save Blair Mountain there were rumors of activity around Camp Branch. A few months later, our board members withstood violent threats at the Camp Branch Permit hearing from hundreds of miners who had been told the approval of the permit would create coal jobs. On September 10, 2013, FOBM board members were physically threatened and intimidated with armed force when our organization attempted to conduct a citizen’s site inspection accompanied by the West Virginia Department of Environmental Protection.

Friends of Blair Mountain requested a site inspection because our organization found evidence that portions of the Blair Battlefield were being illegally destroyed on the Camp Branch Permit. Our first site inspection was forced to an early close and we were unable to document our findings. We appealed to the West Virginia Surface Mine Board and, on December 9, 2013 won a hearing which granted us the right to conduct a second site visit and film it. On March 11, 2014 we conducted this site visit and filmed areas where significant areas of the battlefield on the Camp Branch Permit were destroyed through logging and construction methods.

The late Larry Gibson (right) and others during the 2011 March on Blair Mountain

Upon taking our evidence to the appropriate regulatory agencies and conducting a number of meetings, FOBM finally gathered all the relevant regulatory agencies, the Office of Surface Mining Reclamation and Enforcement, the Army Corps of Engineers, and WVDEP together to discuss protecting the Camp Branch Permit and the Blair Battlefield on May 2, 2014.

We have stopped them at Camp Branch. Now Governor Tomblin must be convinced to issue an executive order to save the Blair Battlefield from all corporations. The legal apparatus is in place, all it takes is his action.

Furthermore, all of the regulatory agencies confirmed in our May 2, 2014 meeting that the destruction we have found and documented on the battlefield is not mining related nor can it be classified as pre-mining activity. In other words, parts of the battlefield have been destroyed and yet not one lump of coal has been extracted, not one coal mining job was created, and no mining is planned where the disturbances took place. This is all verified by inspections conducted by WVDEP and ACOE on April 16 and 29, 2014.

If Governor Tomblin will act, then what remains of the Blair Battlefield can be preserved. We can still preserve this ground, build a place where the public can celebrate and learn from this great history, and help diversify the local economy.

The Battle for Blair Mountain has many fronts. We have beat them back at Camp Branch. Now it is time to win the rest before they can launch another assault on our history.

Friends of Blair Mountain will be working for an URGENT CALL to ACTION to GOVERNOR TOMBLIN.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, May 6th, 2014 at 10:27 am and is filed under ALL, News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.