Kentucky Coal and EPA

By Randy Walters:

On Wednesday, February 10th the Senate Committee on Natural Resources and Energy held a hearing in Frankfort. At that hearing this writer and Joey Lewis of Delta Testing in Hyden testified to the committee that the United States EPA was forcing unrealistic water standards on the coal industry. The issue at hand is the Mayfly and water conductivity. The EPA wants all discharged water from mining to be at or below 500 micro ohms per centimeter (electrical current the water will conduct). There is no accepted standard for this level, just the EPA citing a study that itself admits is not conclusive.

At first we thought it was only the coal industry, but we soon learned it would be the entire state, and any entity that discharges water. This takes in sewage plants, the aluminum industry, the stainless steel industry, the car industry, and on and on. The University of California, Davis, reports that a small sewage plant discharges water at a level of 900-1400 micro ohms per centimeter. This means that all the sewage plants in Kentucky, and eventually the nation, will have to be outfitted with new equipment at a tremendous cost, and it still might not be enough to satisfy the EPA. The testimony given by myself and Joey Lewis was confirmed by the Commissioner of Kentucky's Department of Environmental Protection, and was even made worse as he explained the EPA was really shooting for a level of 300 micro ohms per centimeter. He also told us that the EPA had informed him they had been waiting eight years to do this.

There are currently 49 Kentucky Mining Permits on hold as a result of the EPA forcing the Kentucky Division of Water to enforce these arbitrary and capricious standards. We cannot afford to allow the EPA and the liberal Obama Administration to run business out of Kentucky while putting limits on our infrastructure's ability to function Senator Brandon Smith is now threatening to file suit against the EPA on behalf of the committee.

Attend the Restore America Rally at the capital in Frankfort on February 20th at noon. The Mayflower Compact brought us America, the Mayfly Compact can only bring us Maggots and more federal government. Come to think of it, they are both the same.