"Our water is worth more than that coal!” Bennie Massey said to the Kentucky Department of Mining and Reclamation Enforcement (DMRE) at Wednesday's hearing on the proposed strip mine for Benham & Lynch, Harlan County. Bennie, Lynch's longest running city council member, joined 20 of his neighbors and friends in Middlesboro at the DMRE to speak out against the 500-acre strip mine that will threaten the community's drinking water. 

Allies from around the state supported these brave communities by answering a KFTC call to action made last week to contact KY Dept. of Natural Resources Commissioner Carl Campbell, telling him that enough is enough, respect the plans and concerns of local residents and give priority to protecting the communities' assets. Upon request from several residents at the hearing, the deadline for these comments has been extended. Click here to take action.

Along with water, residents of Benham and Lynch expressed several other fears about the proposed mine. “Mountains can't be destroyed and then expected to hold back water,” one woman explained after reading aloud an article about Pike County residents of Harless Creek suing a coal company for extreme flooding damage. “I have flood insurance right now and I live up on a mountain.”

 Stanley Sturgill (below) added, "I don't wanna be blasted out of bed every morning by those machines."

Portal 31

Residents of Benham and Lynch in Harlan County are creating a new future of their communities. They are asking for support to help stop another proposal to strip away the communities' assets and their hopes for the future.

“Our little communities of Benham and Lynch have a lot of potential. The Portal 31 Exhibition Coal Mine, Lynch Depot, Benham Theater, the Schoolhouse Inn, and the Kentucky Coal Mining Museum are all part of our history and heritage. We are planning to rehab the Old Restaurant and Old Fire Station, near Portal 31. We can continue to build tourism if we protect these facilities and the beauty of our mountains” – Stanley Sturgill

This area also boasts the highest peak in the state (Black Mountain), great quality drinking water, and local development plans that can be a showcase for the rest of the state.

That is, if they can keep coal companies from destroying everything.

Residents are now challenging the fifth pending coal mining permit application that puts all their present and future plans at risk. The latest is a 500-acre strip mining proposal that would come very close to historic buildings in Lynch. The company, Nally & Hamilton, has caused KFTC members numerous problems over the years. The strip mining on the other side of the mountain from Benham and Lynch destroyed Elmer Lloyd’s pond three years ago and contributed to additional problems last week. Check out his story here.

Harlan chapter members recently filed, with the help of Kentucky Resources Council, that an area including these 500 acres be declared Unsuitable for Mining. But Benham and Lynch residents must also fight for this individual permit to be denied while the larger petition proceeds for the viewshed and watershed be declared unsuitable for mining.

Their future and their children and grandchildren’s future depend on the right decisions.

Click the "act now" button below to send an email to the Kentucky Department of Natural Resources Commissioner Carl Campbell, telling him that enough is enough. Respect the plans and concerns of local residents and give priority to protecting the communities' assets.

You are encouraged to submit comments by 4 p.m. on Thursday, September 2 (this is an extension from the original deadline).

Thanks for helping and making a difference.

Nearly three years ago, Elmer Lloyd began a journey for justice on his property in Cumberland, KY after the Nalley & Hamilton owned strip mine above his home completely devastated his family's fish pond. Excessive drainage of toxins, sediment, and mud killed hundreds of fish and nearly filled in the entire pond, as shown by video footage here. Years of lawyers, inspectors, court battles, and coal company lies, ended in Elmer having to settle with the company.

“I fully believed there were enough laws to protect my property. Boy was I wrong.” Elmer, disabled underground coal miner, says of the tragedy. This past November Elmer received his small settlement and began a new journey to restore his pond. Since then he has spent nearly three thousand dollars on the restoration.

Late last week, the site above Elmer's home, now considered “reclaimed”, released another slide of silt and mud into his pond. “We had some rain, but the stream coming off Pine Mountain [onto my property] was crystal clear. The stream running off that strip job was thick mud running right into my pond.”

Inspectors came out but were resistant to give Elmer any information. They told Elmer they would be in touch about the water samples they took, and they couldn't write a violation if the company was in compliance.

“They probably won't give them an off permit violation because of all the mess I made about it the last time. They know I won't shut up about it and I'll stay right on 'em.”

Elmer is hopeful that this incident isn't as detrimental, although still very damaging. He is yet to find any dead fish, but it will take some work to fix it. If his pond takes a couple similar hits to this one, it will be right back to the destroyed state it was three years ago. 

A lot of people around here have serious damage to their homes and property, but are scared to talk about it because them or their families work in the mines. I'm just a drop in the bucket, but I don't care to tell about it.

Yesterday, Saturday, May 15 was a pretty unremarkable day in most respects.  For us, collectively as Kentuckians For The Commonwealth, there wasn't anything singularly huge on the calendar, but we decided to try to compile quick stories about a lot of little things that happened throughout the day and present them as this - A Day in the Life of KFTC. 

At 7 a.m. KFTC members in northern Kentucky came together outside of Ockerman Middle School in Florence to start setting up tables for the big Relay for Life yard sale.  Alex Searles organized the KFTC table, but eight members participated in all, selling items that they donated to the  cause and passing out information about KFTC.  They also invited those interested to the big NKY KFTC Chapter Formation meeting on Tuesday.  By the end of the event at 4 p.m., they brought in $150 and made a lot of key contacts with new people.  Members also left with KFTC Voter Guides to hand out over the next few days.

At 10 a.m. the KFTC booth at the Butchertown Art Fair in Louisville got rolling.  Many of the candidates for mayor were there and most of them dropped by the KFTC table to say hello.  The event was in a neighborhood where KFTC does a lot of work, so many people at the festival  recognized us, and cheered for KFTC.  It gave a lot of our members who don't volunteer with us every month a chance to drop by and plug into our work.  A few people said they'd been meaning to join KFTC and took membership envelopes or joined on the spot.  Others asked about voting locations and we made lists of people to call back on Monday with that information.   Nine hours later, at 7 p.m., we packed up and headed home. 

At 10:30 a.m. a workshop started at the Pine Mountain Sustainability Symposium on "Steps Towards Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy" the workshop was facilitated by KFTC leaders Carl Shoupe and Roy Silver, among others.  This was just one of many events our members participated in throughout the powerful three-day conference designed to bring together specialists, practitioners, educators, and organizers to share their experiences and learn about model projects throughout southeastern Kentucky.  The symposium included hands-on trainings, workshops, woodland hikes, and garden tours with local and regional experts working on food, energy, and forest issues.

At noon, Tyler Birdwhistell and Bethany Baxter met in downtown Georgetown to go door-to-door in the Scroggin Park Housing Authority neighborhood - passing out KFTC Voter Guides and letting people know where their voting location is.   After about two hours, they had covered half of the neighborhood, which was enough for a couple of us to come back the next day and finish it up in an hour and a half. 

"I ran into one woman who is a former felon - so she'd had her right to vote taken away from her when she was much younger.  She told me the she worked for years to get her right to vote back and that she almost gave up a few times.  But she got them back during the Patton administration and has voted ever since." - Tyler Birdwhistell

At 3 p.m. a small group of KFTC folks visited the Peace and Global Citizenship Fair at Bluegrass Community Technical College in Lexington.  It was a great event organized by BCTC’s Students for Peace and Earth Justice.  For our part, we canvassed the crowd with a big stack of KFTC Voter Guides, asking people to cast an informed vote on Tuesday.  Kudos to BCTC’s Students for Peace and Earth Justice for putting together a great event that is getting a bit bigger every year. 

At 4 p.m. the Madison County KFTC members kicked off their Spring Friendraiser, with more than 70 people enjoying a potluck, cornhole and games, a great silent auction, live music by Mudpi, a short program about the awesome work of KFTC, and apparently a game that involved more than a little rolling around in the mud.  Members brought in $700 in donations and had a lot of fun before winds picked up and a hailstorm heralded an early end to the event.  We'll likely have a separate blog entry on this exciting event in the next few days, so stay tuned.  

In addition to all of that, members ran voter mobilization phone banks throughout the day in Bowling Green, Louisville, and in at-large (non-chapter) areas of the state, to name a few places, and members passed out KFTC Voter Guides or handbills about the election at events and in their neighborhoods throughout the commonwealth.  

No doubt, our 6,000+ members across the state accomplished an awful lot in the name of social justice on Saturday that will never make it to this blog - conversations with neighbors, writing letters to elected officials, etc.

It's a lot of little things, but this was just one day.  And day after day in community after community, it adds up.  So keep at it folks. 

What can we do tomorrow?

By Roy Silver, Harlan County chapter member

"The biggest thing is our water resource.  Our water is really good now. What’s more important the water or the coal?  This is the best place in the world to live. You're not just taking out the coal, you're destroying generations of people who could live here and raise their families here.”  Bennie Massey, Lynch City Council

Harlan Development/A & G wants to strip mine Black Mountain above Lynch.  It would drain into Looney Creek, which feeds the Lynch Reservoir.

The discharge is a violation of the Kentucky Five-Mile Policy.  It “prohibits discharges into a stream within five miles upstream from any public water supply intake. Looney Creek feeds the head waters of the Cumberland River.  The strip mine could also impact downstream communities. 

This strip mine would place 18 new sediment ponds above the community, set off blasts near homes and historic buildings.

It will encroach on the upper elevations of Black Mountain.  Harlan Counties. The Kentucky Resources Council, KFTC and many others protected in 1999.

  To strip mine this area, the company must get a permit from the US Army Corps of Engineers US EPA.  It will mine through and create a sediment pond at the headwaters of Long Rock Branch, (Magazine Hollow).  This feeds the Lynch Reservoir.  This strip mine could damage four other headwater streams.  

A&G’s Ison Rock Ridge strip mine in Wise County, Va. has been suspended.   It had history of federal violations.  Owners of Harlan Development Corporation owed over $1.5 million in mine safety violations.  Lynch residents are asking that this permit be denied.  They are also asking for a public hearing from the US Army Corps of Engineers. 

Send an email to the US Army Corps of Engineers and EPA asking officials to respect the concerns of Lynch residents, protect their water and community resources.

Submit comments by 4pm on Monday, February 1st.
Click here to go to the KFTC Action Page to send your letter.

Comments will be accepted after the deadline. For more information, contact colleen@kftc.org.

You can also send a letter by fax to:
Nashville District Corps of Engineers, Regulatory Branch
(Attention: Marty Tyree)
3701 Bell Road, Nashville, TN 37214
Fax 615-369-7501

All across the Commonwealth, KFTC members participated in events today celebrating the life of Martin Luther King Jr.

We also took some time to raise awareness of our Voting Rights campaign to challenge archaic laws in Kentucky that still disenfranchise 1 in 4 African Americans.

In Lexington, ten KFTC Members marched in the powerful MLK Freedom March with our banner starting at 10am, passing out voting rights handbills throughout the route. 

This is an important event for us to be at every year,” said Jerry Moody, A dedicated Central Kentucky KFTC leader who made the long march despite suffering a stroke just over a month ago.  “Building solidarity with community groups, particularly people of color groups, is key – and this is a good way to do that.”

 In Louisville, KFTC member Tayna Fogle was part of a motorcade with Wayside Christian Mission, inviting people to sign postcards to legislators about voting rights. 
In Perry County, members participated in a breakfast with a keynote speaker, followed by a march from Consolidated Baptist Church.  They took the opportunity to re-connect with the local NAACP chapter about our big voting rights lobby day in Frankfort on March 4th. 

Harlan County KFTC members participated in similar community events several days ago. 

In Scott County, KFTC members participated in a march and community event at Gano Baptist Church for the first time, with ten members participating over all.  At the community tabling event late in the evening, we connected with lots of new people in the community, including Scott County NAACP allies and three dozen people signed postcards about voting rights. 

Homer White remarked that it was one of the best community tabling events we’ve had in Scott County and many other members agreed that we should be involved every year. 

Elmer Lloyd video

Residents of Closplint and other communities above Evarts on Hwy 38 have started to organize around issues of coal dust, diesel smoke and overweight trucks in their community.  People are concerned about the impact on their health and the damage to their homes.

"I worked in the mines for 29 and half years.  My problem was when one day I went up the road, and my porch was covered up with mud," Wayne Dean, a resident reflected.

At the most recent meeting, coal company representatives and workers came out and had a positive dialogue about possible solutions to the coal dust problem.  Rex Coal Company is one of the companies affecting the community, and they are in the process of paving the entrances.  They also just recently purchased a truck washing system. 

"All we want is a healthy environment.  I think this meeting was an important first step.  We look forward to working with this company and the others to address this problem," Chuck Taylor another resident shared.

Harlan Daily story about recent meeting.

       

It was 28 years ago that KFTC became "official."  According to the book Making History: The First Ten Years of KFTC,

"Twenty-six people from 12 counties formally organized and named the Kentucky Fair Tax Coalition on August 17, 1981. They also agreed on a statement of purpose:

The Kentucky Fair Tax Coalition is a group of community based organizations and individuals promoting more effective and efficient community services through a fair and equitable taxation system throughout the state of Kentucky, with a particular interest in coal counties.

Also at that meeting, members "passed the hat for the first time. They netted KFTC's first funds, $38.

This Hazard meeting was not the first meeting of this group of people who were coming together from across eastern Kentucky. The group had met on several prior occasions to explore the possibilities of working together on common issues. Shared concerns included the quality of (or lack of) community services and public education in coal counties (which suffered from gross inequalities in the tax system) and the rights of landowners.

Many of the people involved were organizing in their respective home counties around these and related issues. The decision to launch a new organization was based on the understanding that the issues were all related and shared a common underlying roots cause: "the inequality of life with a single dominant industry – coal – that was not contributing its fair share."

"People, especially in eastern Kentucky, were getting to know each other. All around the region there was a loose network of people who had worked together with each other in various ways over the past 15 years or so. What we didn't have in those days was a structured connection between us. There was a no interlocking of these community-level efforts, until KFTC" — Herb E. Smith

Thanks to everyone who is helping KFTC continue to make history! If you're not a member click the here or Join button at the top of the page and become a part of the next 28 years!

About 200 people attended the dedication of the Miners' Memorial in Cumberland.  Stella Morris spearheaded this effort following the death of her husband.  The ceremony included music and various speakers including Rep. Charlie Siler, Rep. Rick Nelson, and Co. Judge Grieshop.  Cecil Roberts, President of the United Mine Workers, gave a rousing speech about the history of the labor movement and the need for more support for mine safety for all miners.

Check out the news coverage about the event:

Lexington Herald-Leader news story

WYMT TV

Knoxville TV

Harlan Daily

To view more photos, click here.