My name is Jeff Chapman-Crane from Eolia in Letcher County, and I’ve been a member of Kentuckians For The Commonwealth for 25 years.  We live about a half mile from a huge surface mine being operated by Cumberland River Coal Company on Black Mountain, the highest mountain in Kentucky.

In Martin County in 2000 a huge sludge pond broke and contaminated water supplies throughout the area.  In a meeting with community residents the Environmental Protection Agency, choosing to protect neither the environment nor community people but the coal company responsible for the spill, assured citizens that they had no reason for concern, that there was nothing in the sludge that was not on the periodic table of elements.

The water in the bottles before you was collected in Eolia, just above where Rocky Branch empties into Frank’s Creek.  I want to direct your attention to the photographs.  The first picture is of Rocky Branch and the second is where that stream feeds in to Frank’s Creek.  Rocky Branch is uncontaminated by surface mine runoff, while Frank’s Creek flows down through a valley fill.  The difference is obvious.

Frank’s Creek is currently “protected” by the stream buffer zone.  We are being told by the government and the mining industry that surface mining does no damage to our streams, and that eliminating the stream buffer zone will not have a negative effect on our water.

I’d like to offer you the opportunity to put your trust in that statement and have a drink of water from Frank’s Creek.  After all, as the EPA would say, there’s nothing in here that’s not on the periodic table.  Of course, arsenic, mercury and selenium are all on the periodic table, and have been found in water contaminated from mining wastes.  In addition the main components used in the Oklahoma City bombing, diesel fuel and fertilizer are used to set off the explosions in surface mining.  These materials don’t just disappear after they’re exploded.  The residue ultimately finds its way into our water.

So, if you’re confidant that there’s nothing harmful in this water and that the steam buffer zone should be eliminated, then drink up!  That’s what we’re being asked to do.

It’s absurd that we are even having this conversation.  The only discussion about the stream buffer zone ought to be about expanding it.  It is insane to even consider doing away with it altogether.  Our water is our most precious resource, and we need to be doing everything in our power to protect it.

I want to conclude my remarks by asking a simple question.  Do you believe that everyone has the right to clean water?  If the answer is yes then this rule change must not be implemented and the current laws enforced.

Thank you.