At least 135 people attended the October 24 public hearing in Hazard to listen or express their views about a Bush administration proposal to weaken — and in many cases do away with — the Stream Buffer Zone rule. Simultaneous hearings were held in the coal-producing states of West Virginia, Pennsylvania and Tennessee (Virginia was denied a hearing), with citizen organizations turning our big crowds in those states.

        At the Hazard hearing, 34 people spoke; 29 of those were people opposing changes to the Stream Buffer Zone and 26 of those voices of opposition came from KFTC members.  Here’s some of what they said:

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

-Jeff Chapman-Crane, Letcher County

“According to the industry, everything that lies above the coal is overburden.  That means that I’m overburden.  My neighbors are overburden.  We are not overburden.  We are citizens in this democracy.”

-Beverly May, Floyd County

“Regular enforcement of the current rule is lacking.  We all suffer from the degradation of the water.”

“The waters of the U.S. belong to its entire people and are not for the coal industry to destroy.”

“You are a public protection agency.  You need to protect us!”

“You people are working for us - we the people of the United States.  And we say we want our streams protected.”

“We identify our communities by the stream of water that run by them.  It destroys the people when you destroy the streams.  I just hope that you tell your bosses that the people in Hazard said, ‘ No! ’ ”