Maple Creek miners called back to work
Jim Wesolowsky received an early Christmas gift this year. And although the 46-year-old coal miner said that the holiday is still weeks away, the timing was just right for many area coal miners.
Wesolowsky and hundreds of other area coal miners were called back to work this week as Maple Creek mine reopened its doors after a month-long, state-ordered shutdown due to mining violations.
The idling was the result of a state Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) ruling that restricted the mine’s longwall activity.
The Environmental Hearing Board (EHB) upheld the DEP ruling regarding longwall mining at the Washington County mine site a few weeks ago and as recently as Dec. 2, area miners were strapped for cash for the upcoming holiday season as well as concerned for their futures in the mining industry.
One of those worried about the future was Wesolowsky.
When the amiable father and husband finally got out of the minimum wage jobs that had plagued him for more than a dozen years about eight years ago, he said he felt a relief knowing that he was entering a business that would surely provide for he and his family until he retired.
Now, with the second work stoppage in less than six months at Maple Creek Mine fresh in his mind, Wesolowsky said despite the good news, he is concerned his investment in mining might not pay off after all.
“This is definitely a good thing for us,” Wesolowsky said of the resumption. “But I worry about longwall’s future.”
Wesolowsky began working at the mine in June 1996 after struggling to find a “good job” working as a deliveryman for Herr’s Potato Chips and at Romeos in Uniontown.
Wesolowsky, who works as a mine “helper,” explained that in old-fashioned mining, or room and pillar style, miners can work an area that is only as wide and tall as the tunnel they build.
He said in longwall operations, miners can work an area 750-800 feet wide through the use of mobile roof supports, something that allows mining companies to extract coal faster and in larger quantities. But Wesolowsky added the method also increases the risk of mine subsidence and other damage in its wake, including loss of stream flow, one of the deciding factors in the Maple Creek case.
Maple Creek’s troubles arose in April when the state began investigating alleged violations of mining law. According to the DEP, the High Quality mine, operated by Maple Creek Mining Inc. has been under investigation by the state since April, when the first alleged infractions occurred. The violations allege mine officials made non-compliant subsidence notifications to homeowners near the Maple Creek mine and include moving a property line on a mine map.
Workers at the mine were laid off for four days in July as Maple Creek tried to play hardball with the state to get the mine operation back online. In August, the alleged abuses claimed by the DEP were turned over to the state Attorney General’s office.
Then, DEP ordered the mine to cease longwall operations again last month after an unnamed tributary was threatened by the invasive technique.
UMCO/Maple Creek Mining Inc. appealed DEP’s ruling immediately and the EHB heard the case Nov. 19.
During the hearing, mine owner Bob Murray told the board the stream is actually a ditch that intermittently runs and is used by one farmer to water his cattle.
Despite Murray’s claims, the board ruled to uphold the DEP restrictions regarding the unnamed tributary. The board found that the mine did not provide expert testimony to refute the DEP’s classification of the stream and found that the state had just cause in protecting the waterway.
According to the original ruling by the DEP, despite continued negotiations with UMCO Energy Inc., the operators could not reconcile what DEP officials see as a real threat to an unnamed tributary if the mining continues.
Wesolowsky, who attended many of the hearings regarding the mine’s fate, said the Environmental Protection Agency and the DEP have ruled that longwall mining under the “ditch” would cause irreparable damage to the springs that feed the waterway, something Wesolowsky said is just unfair to the miners.
He said even the farmer who uses the stream to water his cattle “doesn’t care” if the company longwall mines under the ditch.
“It is not enough to hold 480 jobs in limbo,” he said.
According to Wesolowsky, the company, in a similar predicament earlier this year, drilled three wells to augment the stream flow in another waterway and Wesolowsky said the augmented stream ran more than twice as strong once augmented than prior to the change.
Wesolowsky said the company is teaming with the United Mine Workers of America (UMWA) to battle the ruling, and said the case will eventually go before the state Supreme Court.
“The secretary is a tree-hugger though, so this could go against us in the end,” Wesolowsky said.
In the meantime, Wesolowsky and his coal mining comrades across the region returned to work as the mine reopened on a seven days on, seven days off basis, with miners working to develop the next longwall panel. The preparations will keep the workers busy for three to five months, a respite in the ongoing legal battles to keep the mine open. And Wesolowsky said the miners will be able to apply for unemployment compensation during the idle weeks.
“This is a little better than unemployment,” Wesolowsky said.
Ed Yankovich, district president of the UMWA, agreed.
“This resumption of work preserves all the integrity of the miners’ wages and benefits and is essentially a Christmas present,” Yankovich said.
Yankovich said Maple Creek owner Bob Murray “made the commitment that he didn’t want to see any jobs lost and he made the steps necessary that these men will all be working, and for that, he is to be commended.”
Yankovich said the 6 East panel, which runs under the stream, still remains in litigation, but the miners will work to prepare the next panel to be mined, bypassing the controversial block of coal. The project should take between three to five months and all workers should be returned to full-time status after the panel is ready to be mined next spring.
“There are men down there who are more senior and who could have worked full time while young men were out of a job and faced with a bleak Christmas,” Yankovich said of the work agreement. “But they wouldn’t let that happen. They said, ‘I will work one week on and one week off so your family can eat,’ and those members should be extremely proud.”
In Wesolowsky’s cozy living room, one Wesolowsky was able to pay off free and clear with his mining salary. A Christmas wreath decorates the coffee table, a festive reindeer on the floor seems to listen intently to Wesolowsky as he describes the ups and downs of the mine’s history.
The struggle to keep the mine open has brought the often-criticized owner of the mine “closer” to the employees, as they fight for their financial lives together, Wesolowsky said.
“We all need this. I mean, this could be our livelihoods,” Wesolowsky said. “I could get a job at Wal-Mart, but I had that kind of job for the majority of my life. I want to keep this one.”
“I enjoy the time off, but I get to worrying,” Wesolowsky admitted, glancing at his 6-year-old daughter, Jessica, and wife, Sharon. “With Sharon working, that helps.”
But the couple said they truly worry more about the men who are the only income earners for their families and how they will survive.
“It is scary,” said Sharon, who works as a billing manager at West Virginia University in Morgantown, W.Va. “I just think of them and the struggle this must be.”
Now Wesolowsky said that with at least three months of work guaranteed, he and his wife can afford to do the things they thought they might not be able to just a few days ago, like buying Jessica a new bicycle for Christmas.
“It is in the back of your mind and you can’t do the things you’d like, the spur of the moment things. You have to dip into savings to get by. It is tough,” Wesolowsky said.
The second-generation coal miner said he “came from poor” and he doesn’t want to go back anytime soon.
“You don’t want to see it happen, but all you can do is wait and see,” he said.