In Northern Kentucky on February 12^th, thanks to the work of over 20 different artists, a benefit concert will take place for Kentuckians for the Commonwealth and our ally organization Ohio Citizen Action at the historic Southgate House in Newport, Kentucky. Thanks to the work of Mark Utley, of Magnolia Mountain, this project is being entirely funded by grassroots donations at the website kickstarter! (Also, thank you to the members of Kentuckians for the Commonwealth and Ohio Citizens Action who have donated to the event!)

This event, which will also feature the release of a cd featuring 21 tracks never before recorded or performed by the artists, will raise awareness about the destructive practice of mountain top removal, and will serve as a great way to raise awareness right before I Love Mountains Day 2011! Doors will open at 7, music begins at 8 pm.  The full track listing and performance schedule can be found here, and the Northern Kentucky chapter hopes you can join us in Newport for a good time and a great cause!

Also, if you would like to donate to help provide extra funds for the event, you have until the end of today (December 23rd) to do so! If you cannot give today, we hope you're with us on February 12th!

Citizens were heard Tuesday afternoon when they asked Franklin Circuit Court to allow them to intervene in a case between the Energy and Environment Cabinet and two coal companies operating in eastern Kentucky.

Judge Phillip Shepherd accepted and agreed to hear arguments on a Motion to Intervene filed on behalf of Appalachian Voices, Kentucky Riverkeeper, the Waterkeeper alliance and KFTC. The groups want to challenge a proposed Consent Judgment between the cabinet and Frasure Creek Mining and ICG. Shepherd gave those parties until January 7 to file briefs opposing citizen intervention. A hearing for oral arguments is likely in mid-January.

The case involves serious, numerous and repeated violations of the Clean Water Act by the two companies, including what appeared to be fraudulent reporting. These violations first came to light in October when the four groups filed 60-day Notices of Intent to Sue against Frasure Creek, ICG Knott and ICG Hazard with the allegations.

The Kentucky Energy and Environment Cabinet investigated the claims, found them to be true and found additional violations.  The cabinet then negotiated with the coal companies and filed in Franklin Circuit Court a proposed consent judgment that imposed fines and called for some remedial actions.

Although technically the cabinet sued the coal companies in this case, those parties were in agreement that they wanted the court to approve immediately the Consent Judgment they had negotiated.

But the four citizens groups oppose that settlement.

In a press conference before the court hearing, Ted Withrow pointed out that the penalties in the agreement “are so low in comparison to the number and severity of violations assessed that the Consent Judgment appears to incentivize future false reporting and non-reporting by these Defendants.”

He also said the cabinet treated the apparently fraudulent reporting as nothing more than "clerical errors.”

Mary Cromer of the Appalachian Citizens Law Center told Judge Shepherd that the agreement impairs her clients interest in “protecting the cleanliness and health of watersheds” because the fines are insufficient to compensate for damage, punish bad behavior and prevent further violations.

Even though the coal companies agreed to pay more than $300,000 in fines each, that amount is less than $250 per violation, and probably less than the cost of compliance.

This case is also significant because it has put the Cabinet under scrutiny for its culture of non-enforcement. These thousands of violations had gone unnoticed by the state agencies responsible for monitoring and enforcing water protection laws.

Shepherd said that it is his inclination to give the public the right to comment on matters that affect their well-being, citing previous cases concerning the Clean Water Act.  A cabinet attorney said they were ready to argue for approval of the Consent Judgment but did not object to a public notice and comment period.  Attorneys for Frasure Creek and ICG argued that they are under deadlines for compliance and would prefer that the Consent Judgment be approved.

The cabinet and companies “were trying to cram the agreement through,” observed Withrow. “It didn’t work.”

Shepherd said he would enter an order for the cabinet to post the proposed Consent Judgment on its website with a public notice and 30-day comment period, with submitted comments made part of the court record. A January hearing on approval of Consent Judgment also is likely, once the intervention motion is decided.

Pat Banks with Kentucky Riverkeeper said it was a fair hearing. “He took us seriously.”

“He was considerate of the citizens’ viewpoint,” added Withrow.

As you may know, our first White House Forum on Environmental Justice will take place on Wednesday, December 15 from 10 a.m. until 4:30 p.m. Due to overwhelming interest in the event and to provide access to those unable to attend the Forum, we will be streaming the event live on the White House website. The live video stream will be available at www.whitehouse.gov/live.

In addition, we will be hosting a live chat from 12:50 p.m. to 1:35 p.m. with Nancy Sutley, Chair of the Council on Environmental Quality and EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson.

Sutley will take questions from students and young environmental justice advocates from Occidental College and around Southern California, as well as from the public via Facebook.

Questions can be submitted on the White House Facebook page on December 15.

You can still sign the on-line petition in support of the Lands Unsuitable for Mining petition at www.kftc.org/teges.

The Division of Water in Neon, KY has declared a state of emergency for citizens in McRoberts, Fleming-Neon and Jackhorn after these communities lost all of their water supply. Several McRoberts citizens had been complaining last week that their water was barely running and that it was discolored, and soon Neon began experiencing water shortages as well. The word came Friday morning, December 10th, that the cities had no water, the wells were empty. Trying to conserve water the Neon Water Department shut the systems off from 8 pm on the 10th to 6 am on the 11th.

The Neon fire department is giving 3 gallons of water to each household every day, and the community has heard that the National Guard has been called in to deliver tankers of water to try to refill the wells. When the water is running, people have been collecting it to use. The Letcher County Chapter of KFTC has been working in the community of McRoberts over the past several months about the recent increase in Natural Gas Drilling and have heard several concerns about the effect of the several wells that have been drilled very close to the water plant in the community. As of right now, it is being told that the reason why we’re experiencing this extreme shortage is because the well that usually collects water in the summer experienced a drought and there’s not enough water in the other well to supply all three towns. For right now, when water is being used it is under a boil water advisory. The city of Whitesburg is also under boil water advisory because of what the officials are saying was complications from the recent weather.

    

 

Join us on Tuesday, January 4 for the first day of the 2011 Kentucky General Assembly and KFTC's first citizen lobby day. We will gather at 10 a.m. in Room 111 of the Capitol Annex building in Frankfort for a short citizen lobby training and overview of KFTC's 2011 legislative agenda,followed by meetings with state lawmakers, lunch, and a tour of the Capitol building. The day will wrap up by 3 p.m. If you have never lobbied before, this day is a great day to learn the ropes from experienced KFTC leaders who have lobbied in the past. To sign up, please RSVP to Lisa Abbott at lisa@kftc.org or calling 859-986-1277.

University of Kentucky and Bluegrass Community and Technical college students were joined by KFTC members to deliver petitions and letters to the Euclid Ave Kroger store in Lexington asking them to support worker's rights in Florida.

This action is one of many across the country being coordinated by the Florida based Coalition of Immokalee Workers (CIW).

The CIW is a community-based organization of mainly Latino, Mayan Indian and Haitian immigrants working in low-wage jobs throughout the state of Florida. They fight for, among other things: a fair wage for the work they do, more respect on the part of their bosses and the industries where they work, better and cheaper housing, stronger laws and stronger enforcement against those who would violate workers' rights, the right to organize on their jobs without fear of retaliation, and an end to involuntary servitude in the fields.

Students on both campuses have spent the last month getting these petitions signed. There is also an online version that you can sign here. 

The letters ask Kroger to support worker's rights by doing the following:

The central Kentucky chapter's newly formed economic justice work team met last week for the first time and discussed ways to reach out to low income and immigrant communities in Lexington. "In order to know what people are struggling with we have to get out and talk to them!" commented Janet Tucker, a long time KFTC member and member of the work team.

The work team decided to create a survey that they could take to several Lexington precincts and talk with folks door to door. Some of the questions that will be included on the survey are:

What are the main problems you see in your neighborhood/ In Lexington?
Are your or anyone in your family unemployed?
What kinds of jobs would you like to see come to Lexington?
Are you or anyone in your family without health insurance? 
Do you know anyone who has been evicted, lost their home to foreclosure, or is homeless?
What kinds of things would you like to see our city government take up?

Their plan is to survey 150 people between January and March of 2011. After the initial round of conversations the team will strategize how to get these folks talking to each other, and to develop a set of recommendation for the new city council.

If you'd like to be a part of the CKY chapter's economic justice work team, then please contact the local organizer at 859-368-4438 or ondine@kftc.org

Their next meeting will be held on Thursday December 8th, at 279 Malabu Dr Lexington KY at 7pm.

In November the Madison County KFTC Chapter met with one of their newly elected State Representatives. Chapter members gave an overview of KFTCs legislative agenda to State Representative-elect Rita Smart, who represents Richmond and parts of Berea. A small group of chapter members met with Ms. Smart, and her opponent, over the summer to provide a candidate issue briefing.  The chapter was excited to have a larger group of members met with Ms. Smart and begin developing a working relationship with their state representative. During the meeting, Ms. Smart said that KFTC has been the only group to provide her with information so far and that she “got pretty excited” listening to our legislative agenda. She agreed to go on a mountain-witness tour out in Eastern Kentucky with KFTC and to also meet with KFTC anytime we are in Frankfort.  Chapter members are looking forward to meeting with her again during the state legislative session.                                                         

Two coal companies operating in eastern Kentucky have agreed to pay more than $300,000 each in fines for major violations of the Clean Water Act that they had previously categorically denied.

Energy and Environment Cabinet Secretary Len Peters announced the fines and other remedial action Friday after the agency conducted an investigation and confirmed the allegations that Appalachian Voices, Kentucky Riverkeeper, the Waterkeeper Alliance and KFTC documented two months ago.

The allegations include numerous and repeated violations of pollution discharge monitoring requirements, as well as exceeding limits on pollution levels, over a two-year period by Frasure Creek Mining and ICG. There were thousands of violations at just a few of these companies' mining operations.

But the proposed judgments against the coal companies (they have to be approved yet by a Franklin Circuit Court judge) are weak and do not address the culture of non-enforcement of the Clean Water Act that permeates the Kentucky Energy Cabinet.

"This settlement appears to have been written by the coal companies and does not address the criminal fraud that we alleged," pointed out Ted Withrow, a member of KFTC's litigation team. "The fines are so minimal for much major violations of the Clean Water Act, especially compared to the tens of millions of dollars they could have been. The remedial actions are what is required by law anyway."

The groups had sent the coal companies 60-day Notices of Intent to Sue in October. The 60 days would have been up on Monday. The state's action is seen as an attempt to pre-empt the filing of lawsuits. But the companies can be sued anyway if the settlements do not adequately remedy the problems cited.

Peters' action also fell short in other significant ways:

1) He did not address the allegations of criminal fraud in these violations. Some of the monitoring reports did not change from one reporting period to the next. For example, at one Frasure Creek operation all monitoring data from the second quarter 2008 are repeated identically on the third quarter report, and both reports are dated 7/15/2008 – weeks before the end of the third quarter monitoring period. This pattern was seen over and over. In some instances, dates were just scratched out and written over.

2) He also did not address the cabinet's own complicity in the violations, evidenced by their complete failure to even look at the monitoring reports when the companies did turn them in. Stacks of reports going back three years, some literally with dust on them, were found on secretaries' desks, having never been reviewed or processed.

In a separate statement released by his office, Gov. Beshear took absolutely no responsibility for the state's failures. Instead, he blamed the laboratories with whom the coal companies contract for the testing, and called for the legislature to pass a law to certify the labs.

"Blaming the laboratories is just an effort to deflect responsibility and muddy the waters from the real issue of apparent willful fraudulent reporting," said Withrow. "The Energy and Environment Cabinet totally ignores its own complicity by its complete failure to even look at the monitoring reports."

KFTC and the other organizations are represented by lawyers with the Appalachian Citizens' Law Center, the Capua Law Firm, the Pace Environmental Litigation Clinic and the Waterworth Law Office.

Resources

• Frasure Creek Mining Notice of Intent
  
• ICG Knott Notice of Intent
  
• ICG Hazard Notice of Intent
• Frasure Creek Complaint and Consent Judgment
• ICG Complaint and Consent Judgment
• Energy Cabinet's press release Dec. 3, 2010
• List of Remedial Actions required
• Gov. Beshear's press release