| A 'FAIR AND BALANCED' REPORT ON MASSEY COAL
By Bob Weaver
WV's Massey Coal is facing more potential fines by federal regulators, this time for 4,600 alleged violations of the Clean Water Act.
Federal prosecutors in Charleston have filed a lawsuit against Massey and several of its subsidiaries.
The suit contends that Massey's coal operations illegally poured pollutants into waterways in both West Virginia and Kentucky more than 4,600 times between 2000 and 2006.
Prosecutors say there were nearly 7,000 days worth of Clean Water Act violations.
They suit is asking that a judge fine seven Massey subsidiaries between $27,000 and $32,000 thousand dollars per day of violation.
The lawsuit says Massey operations have "an extensive history of violating the Clean Water Act."
Massey has been responsible for some of the most monumental spills, in addition to building a processing plant within a few feet of a public school.
Prosecutors say these violations have continued despite prior criminal charges, civil actions by state regulators and lawsuits by private citizens.
Charleston Daily Mail columnist Dave Peyton says Massey's CEO Don Blankenship not only disagrees, but he disagrees vehemently with the thousands of environmental actions taken against his outfits, including the hammering he takes in the press.
Blankenship had an e-mail exhange with the columnist last week.
He accused the "leftist press."
"We could put up pictures of Stalin, Lenin and Marx and play Russian and German music. We could distribute Pravda so that everyone could read a little more truth than is in the Charleston papers."
"As a fella from southern West Virginia who has been lied about now for 23 years by the WV media, I feel very good about myself," Blankenship said.
"The government sends the children of our coal miners to Iraq to fight for energy while denying mining permits for their mothers' and fathers' jobs here."
"Always remember: A person's environment includes food, clothing and shelter."
"Coal is about all that we have in southern West Virginia to pay the bills. We mine it as best we can."
Blankenship contends mountaintop removal damage to the environment is overblown.
"Urban development is far worse for the environment than surface mining."
"Wildlife is flourishing in West Virginia but human life is not."
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