Everyone said there's nothing you can do about it. Now people are finding out you can. |
For a long time, the entire nation depended on coal, limestone, iron ore and steel from Pennsylvania. It helped win the Revolutionary War, it built railroads that opened the West and rebuilt Europe after two world wars. Our take on this is that this is not Pennsylvania's abandoned mine problem, it's America's problem. |
I think they appreciate that; our modern mining industry sometimes faces a lot of anti-mining bias based on things that were done in the past. |
If you try to undertake what is a $5 billion problem here on a month-to-month basis, it's going to take a long, long time at that rate to see significant results. It's important to us to know how much we're getting and for how long. |
In the opinion of our legal counsel, an informational meeting does not violate the Sunshine Law. We were not asking township officials to take an action. This was an opportunity to explain where (the permit) stands so we can answer questions. |
It's not something the company was faulted for. They make a very concerted effort to have a safe workplace. They promote it ... It's an ongoing thing and it involves communication at all levels. |
Management was a bigger concern to us than the finances. The reclamation just wasn't being done despite several amended agreements. |
Mining is dangerous, but it is work habits that make it unsafe. When there's an accident you need to learn from it, so you can make sure it doesn't happen again. You learn from the accident so it doesn't repeat itself. |
Mountain streams and rivers that were orange when I was a kid are now filled with fish, are now lined with trees and rhododendrons, and that's progress. |
The state is focused on cleaning up this huge, historic mess. We don't believe we're asking for anything extravagant (from the federal government) to do it. |
The supervisors and FROST had requested a private meeting at the end of the review process to discuss what was going to be in the permit. We were doing what we were asked to do. If we had known the trouble this would cause, we wouldn't have done it that way. |
The supervisors and FROST requested a meeting with us when we neared the end of the process. |
There are an awful lot of people that have put time into making this happen, people who aren't looking at the problem and complaining, but looking for a solution to the problem. |
These problems have been going on since 1990. |
We don't want to order these companies to spend $100,000 on something that's going to be obsolete before it's paid for. |