Residents pack theater to watch mining movie
WAYNESBURG – A group of about 400 people with widely different views of longwall mining packed the Waynesburg Theatre on Tuesday evening to view a film about the effects the mining has had on properties in southwestern Pennsylvania. “Let a thousand schools of thought contend,” said Terri Taylor, producer of “Subsided Ground…Fallen Futures,” which was shown Tuesday for the first time in Greene County. “I want to start a dialog.”
Taylor said that the half-dozen conservation groups that organized the event invited public officials, agency representatives, mining officials and several media outlets. Many of those people attended, including representatives from RAG Resources, CONSOL Energy, the American Coal Association and the United Mine Workers of America.
All of the property owners featured in the video were in the audience, including Murray and Laurine Williams, owners of the Kent Farm in Franklin Township, and Roy and Diane Brendel, who own the Thralls House near Spraggs. Both homes are listed on the National Register of Historic Places and have been undermined.
The video showed the damage that the homes have suffered, as well as subsidence damage to Enlow Fork and Laurel Run.
Several speakers gave presentations, including Jeanne Clark of PennFuture, who asked the group to send letters in support of House Bill 1800, known as the “Coalfield Water and Property Protection Act.”
“Pennsylvanians have a right to clean water, clean air and land that’s protected,” Clark said. “We are going to the state Capitol to change the law. It’s time for some fairness.”
Mark Hersh, an aquatic biologist with the Raymond Proffitt Foundation of Langhorne, which sponsored the video, countered that the problem lies more with how laws are enforced.
“We need to make the (state Department of Environmental Protection) obey the laws,” he said. “They are ignoring the law.”
Marian Plovic, an elderly woman from Washington County whose home was undermined in 1997, said she has spent $20,000 “to fight this injustice.”
Not everyone was as enthusiastic about the presentation or the public outcry.
About 70 rank-and-file coal miners, wearing white T-shirts with the slogan “Coal: America’s Energy Source,” filled about five rows in the center section of the theater. Many of them sat quietly with their arms folded over their chests.
As the white-shirted miners filed quickly and quietly out the door after the presentation, Mike Rounds, spokesman for RAG Emerald Resources, said, “The important thing about this is about 70-plus miners came. They are sick and tired of being beat up in public with no opportunity to speak. They don’t feel their jobs have been fairly represented.
“RAG goes above and beyond the letter of the law and always has,” Rounds said.
Joe Cerenzia, spokesman for CONSOL, said the company has a problem with the film.
“They never contacted us. …Terri Taylor knows who we are and never contacted us. Some of this stuff is sensationalized and not accurately presented,” he said. “We strive for some fairness.”
Barry Cox, president of UMWA local 2258, stressed the importance of mining to the region’s economy.
“We’re taxpayers. This is the livelihood of Greene, Fayette, and Washington counties,” he said.