February 25, 2019 - The Ohio Department of Natural Resources has scheduled a second public hearing for a proposed strip mine in the Perry State Forest, northeast of Athens County, for this Tuesday.

The meeting starts at 6 p.m. at the New Lexington High School in New Lexington, Perry County.

ODNR is reviewing a mining permit application by Westmoreland Coal Company, and its local subsidiary Oxford Mining Company, both of which filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy on Oct. 9. Earlier this month, the company's Buckingham and Oxford mines were purchased by the newly formed CCU Coal and Construction, as part of the bankruptcy process.

According to an article last week in the Columbus Dispatch, Oxford Coal’s former owner, Chuck Ungurean, formed CCU Coal and Construction in December.

The permit for the proposed mine, would allow the company to strip mine more than 500 acres of public land.

A group of “concerned citizens and recreationists” calling itself the Friends of Perry State Forest on Jan. 22, along with the Ohio Environmental Council, filed an appeal with the state Environmental Review Appeals Commission, challenging a Clean Water Act permit issued the mining company by the Ohio EPA.

According to a news release from Friends of Perry State Forest, “If ODNR issues a mining permit, Oxford could mine within close proximity to homes and directly up to property lines, potentially causing structural damage to homes and wells, reduced property values, increased traffic on local roads, noise from blasting and traffic, and air and water pollution.”

The news release recalled that during a first public meeting on the proposed mine, last June, “more than 100 local residents attended to voice opposition to the project.”

In the release, Friends of Perry State Forest criticized the state’s failure to consider the project’s social and economic impacts or Oxford’s financial woes. The group cited Oxford’s “checkered performance history in the county, which suggests the company will ignore the state’s blasting and water-discharge limitations, putting water and local residents’ homes at risk.”

The opponents’ news release included a quote from Bonny Garey, who lives about 100 yards from the proposed mine boundary:

“We use our water well for our home. We have never had any problems with our water. There has never been a public water line access to Number 8 Hollow Road. If the blasting cracks our well and cisterns, we won’t have any water at all…. We’re concerned with the air quality also. My husband and child have asthma. Mining so close to our home would pose a substantial risk of dirty air.”

In addition to impacting local residents, the Friends of Perry State Forest release charged that the mining project will adversely impact all-terrain vehicle (APV) trails in the Perry State Forest. Perry is the most popular APV area in the state, the release stated.

Friends of Perry State Forest cited numerous alleged problems in Oxford’s application, including failure to establish baseline pollution loads or describe water treatment practices that would demonstrate that the project would result in improved water quality. They note that Oxford failed to test a number of water wells belonging to residents living near the proposed mine, and that the company’s application fails to answer numerous questions.

Moreover, the group has expressed concerns that the company’s bankruptcy and sale suggest that it’s not prepared to clean up any mess left after the mining is finished. In its bankruptcy filing, the release said, Westmoreland described its obligations for reclamation and restoration of sites and protection of water quality as “burdensome regulations.”

The Columbus Dispatch story reported that state officials have argued that the mining project actually will improve the landscape on the state forest, by “removing pits of low pH water, fixing iron seeps and removing highwalls – manmade cliffs on the upward side of an excavation – that were left after the land was mined in the 1930s and 1940s but were never returned to a natural state because environmental regulations weren’t in place then.”

Under the new permit application, CCU would have to reclaim the property after the completion of mining, the Dispatch reported.

If ODNR approves the mining permit and the project commences, discharge wastewater would flow into the Buckeye Fork, which flows into the Hocking River miles upstream of Athens.

Concerned citizens can submit comments to ODNR at alicia.davis@dnr.state.oh.us and include ODNR Application No. 10555.