PROGRESS REPORT 13

Progress Report No. 13

(June 19, 2000)

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On June 6, 2000, I met with representatives of thirteen other watershed groups, OSM, EPA, and NETL personnel in Shepherdstown, WV. The other watershed groups included Mountain Watershed Association (PA), Stoney Creek Conemaugh River Improvement Project (PA), Catawissa Creek Restoration Association (PA), Lower Paint Creek (WV), Plateau Action Network (WV), Friends of the Cheat (WV), Laurel Mountain Watershed Association (WV), Upper Kanawha Valley Forum (WV), Monday Creek Restoration Project (OH), Letcher County Water-Sewer District (KY), Patoka South Fork Watershed Steering Committee (IN), North Chickamauga Creek Conservancy (TN), and Direct Action (AL).

The meeting was part of the first Coal Region Restoration Roundtable to provide a unified voice to federal decision makers regarding the abatement of problems associated with abandoned coal mined lands. Each group presented an overview of their organization. Generally, most of the other watershed groups were formed by local residents. Most have raised private funds to hire Executive Directors. In addition to AML/AMD abatement, most groups are vocal about the development of new regulations and enforcement. Some groups have been working for as long as 10 years. Their primary focus deals with water quality issues.

Presentations by these other groups illustrate the fact that we are lucky in Coal Creek because our coal mine drainage (CMD) is alkaline. In many of the other watersheds, their CMD is very acidic which creates serious treatment problems. In Ohio, students in the Monday Creek watershed use red and orange crayons/pens for streams when drawing landscape scenes. They don't realize that streams are supposed to be blue and green. Whitewater rafting companies along the Cheat River of Northern West Virginia have gone out of business due to reduced water quality from AMD.

On June 7, 2000, the watershed groups developed a set of observations and recommendations. These items are summarized as follows (with comments regarding how they relate to Coal Creek):

	Support by agencies. Two agencies providing support to most other watershed groups are the National Resource Conservation Service (NRCS) and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. In the past, TVA provided many of the services offered by these federal agencies in the Tennessee Valley. However, with elimination of non-power congressional funding of TVA programs, we need to seek ways for NRCS and the Corps to establish assistance programs for the Tennessee Valley like they have in other watersheds. Other agencies currently providing support to watershed groups include VISTA/Americorps volunteers and OSM/EPA interns.
	Facilitating partnerships. Policy decisions must be inclusive of all stakeholders. If a stakeholder declines participation, the process continues and stakeholders can join at any time. Decisions need to be made on the local level with consistent and responsible participation from agencies. Congress should request that the Corporation for National Service (CNS) make local VISTA/Americorps positions in watershed groups a priority which can be done with no additional congressional funding. Communication/coordination between agencies is required to provide one-stop-shopping for watershed groups. Now we have to work through a maze to obtain assistance and grants.
	Funding. The major source of funding for many of the watershed groups has been from private sources. Friends of the Cheat received a $200,000 donation from Anchor Energy (local coal company). The North Chickamauga Creek Conservancy received several million dollars from Olan Mills Photography and other Chattanooga businesses. Private funding is important, but federal funding needs to be made available. SMCRA outlined the method to fund the reclamation of abandoned mine lands (trust fund built from fees paid by active mining companies). Past administrations have decided to use money in the AMLR trust fund for non-AMLR projects. Money in the current trust fund is no longer available. Current and future administrations can do the right thing with future money paid into the AMLR trust fund and use that money for AMLR projects only.
	Enforcement of Clean Water Act/SMCRA laws. Items in this category went beyond the focus of restoration of abandoned mined lands. However, due to the number of groups with this as their focus, recommendations were provided regarding current mining, timbering, farming, and other activities.

On June 8, 2000, we traveled to Washington to present the above recommendations to federal officials. A formal presentation was followed by meetings with individual congressional representatives. Margy White and Marykatherine Gonzalez, who both attended our Coal Creek Watershed Day event, attended the formal presentation. In the official photo of the meeting, Assistant OSM Director Mary Josie Blanchard was wearing the "Coal Creek Watershed Day 2000" baseball cap that I gave her.

I met with Congressman Wamp, his legislative director (Robert Hobart), his Anderson County District Director (Linda Ponce), and legislative assistant (Kurt Schlieter). Congressman Wamp is on the AMLR appropriations subcommittee. He observed that money in the current AMLR trust fund is not available for AMLR projects. He committed to seeing that future AMLR funding is properly managed. He suggested that we coordinate future efforts with Kurt Schlieter and Linda Ponce. After the meeting, Linda and I discussed arrangements for taking Congressman Wamp on a possible tour of Coal Creek during his next visit to Anderson County.

Participation in the roundtable was a worthwhile endeavor. The biggest benefit was the realization that we have a good plan. No other watershed group has our technical resources in terms of engineers and scientists. No other group has as many specific initiatives as we do for addressing quality of life issues (i.e. education, flooding, economic development, etc.). Most of the other groups are farther along than we are in their abatement of CMD because they have been at it longer.

Don't forget about June 24, 2000 (Deadwood Removal Day). We will meet at 8:00 am at Briceville Elementary to divide into teams. Rev. Daugherty sent out a newsletter to residents last week to gather support. The newsletter stated that "an army of beavers couldn't have done a better job of building deadwood/debris dams at the bridges."