How will trucks impact our quality of life?

– The Obvious:

                - Traffic Congestion

                - Increased traffic, pedestrian accidents and fatalities

                - Coal dust pollution covering our beautiful landscape and buildings

                - Air & noise pollution

                - Road Damage w/slow repairs at our cost

                - Residential detours during parades and festivals

                - Decrease in property values. Especially along Hwy 89.

- The Not So Obvious:

                - Law Suits from accidents and coal truck spills.

- Do the research. We did. There are hundreds of wrongful death cases in coal mining states. These cases have created specialized jobs for attorneys advertising relief for victims of coal truck accidents.

                - Emery County, Utah continues to deal with many road problems and hazards created by coal trucks:

-Utah Transportation Commission excerpts from minutes taken at Informal Public Meeting--Emery County Courthouse, July 27, 2000:

–“There has also been an increase in the amount of coal trucks on the highway… since the trucks have changed to bigger, single tires, more ruts are being created.” –Ira W. Hatch, County Commissioner

–“A person can’t make it from one community to another without taking their life in their hands.”

–Mayor Daryl Wilcox.

-Mayor Garth Larson: “The current coal traffic and the proposed increase in the number of trucks is of high concern to the citizens in Ferron City. They are particularly concerned about the safety at their school crossing, as their children have to cross the highway many times a day.”

                                – Mayor Larson said he is also concerned about the ruts the coal trucks are creating on the highway.

                                -Forrest Adison, President of local union at Trail Mountain:

                                                -The workers have concerns for themselves and their families who travel over the roads.

                                                -There are narrow areas with heavy truck traffic.

-There are problems with speeding and overloaded trucks.

                                                -The crossing of Main Street in all towns is difficult.

                                                -The possible railroad coming in is too far down the road.

-They are concerned with the rutting and the slowness in fixing those problems. It seems the money keeps getting diverted elsewhere.

                                                -Future regulations are needed.

-Chairman Brown wondered why roads aren’t part of a company’s consideration when a decision is made to change a coal source and to drive on different roads. Why don’t they bring the state into those discussions?

-Mayor Wilcox of Elmo said the companies are not familiar with the terrain and territory; therefore they don’t look at the transportation issue.

-Vic Staley said, with all the details of what the roads are like,    he wants to know what can be done. The roads are terrible and they are narrow. Is there a plan to make the roads safer?

-Lamont Gordon, Castle Dale City Council said they are concerned about the coal truck traffic. They have older buildings on Main Street that shake and rattle when the trucks go by. Also, noon is a busy time in Castle Dale and the trucks create a big problem. The speed limit is 35mph, but the trucks are traveling faster than that through their city.

-Commissioner Wilson asked for a response as to what the process is to fix a road, timing and funding.

                                –Mike Miles from Region Four said, “Things are going to happen but it may take a while.

                                                –Slide Repair and Oiling: $1.6million project

                                                –Widening of lanes: $8million project.

                                                –STIP is a five year program, and prior to going on the STIP, projects are in

another five year program that identifies priorities. So, it takes at least five years for a project to progress.

–To get on the fast track, sometimes there is alternate funding available and design/build can be done to speed things up. But there has to be money available.

                – Julia Bonds, WV, Age 51:

- “Coal trucks routinely bearing twice the legal load barrel down narrow, steep highways and through towns, endangering drivers, beating up the roads and cracking house foundations.”

- “The monster trucks have been responsible for 14 deaths in the past two years, including a brother and sister who were crushed to death when a coal truck forced their vehicle into another oncoming truck.” –Article from Goldman Environmental Foundation.

- China: “Dust particles and emissions from coal trucks blacken and seriously deteriorate the beautiful statues built in the 4^th century.” –Xinhua News Agency.

                – Coal Hauling Laws Haven’t Fixed Problems w/overweight trucks in coal mining states:

– House Bills allow cities and counties to authorize trucks to exceed applicable weight limits through cooperative agreements. What are the laws and statistics in the state of Utah? We should find out.

                – Patsy Carter, Marin County, KY. Member of Kentuckians for the Common Wealth: Action for Justice

                                - Lost her daughter to a coal truck accident.

                                - Keeps hearing about more and more people getting killed.

- Tried to fight it at the Capitol building. They said, “You know better than that. Trucks aren’t illegal.”

                                - Started following trucks and filming:

                                                - They ran stop signs

                                                - They tipped over and spilled coal on roads and houses

                                                - Numerous coverage from news crews and magazines

- Drivers didn’t like what was going on. There was much hostility and many protests

- “Our heritage is going fast, our water, our water wells.”

- “It’s something you can’t fight on your own. You’ve got to have help.”

– University of Kentucky Study on “Economic Impact of Heavy Loads on the Highway Infrastructure”

- Trucks hauling coal on the extended weight system were authorized to exceed the normal weight limits through the payment of an annual decal fee.

- Economic impact study revealed the additional expense for maintaining and operating the coal haul routes to be $3.2 million (exclusive of bridges).

–        Coal Truck Crackdowns due to Overloaded Trucks in Kentucky:

– Trucks slowed to a crawl on steeper grades.

– Rear-end collisions with passenger cars going twice as fast.

–        Gov. Ernie Fletcher cracked down and fatalities involving heavy coal trucks declined from 40 the year before to 13 over the past year.

–        40 fatalities in one year from coal trucks!

- West VA Citizen Action Group Claimed the following in 2003:

- Since January of 2000, at least 18 people have been killed in accidents involving coal trucks.

- In addition they cost WV taxpayers millions of dollars in road and bridge repairs.

- The cost to upgrade the state’s roads would amount to $6.5 billion.

- Operators are purchasing newer trucks that are overweight even when empty.

- Coal industry has continued to call for a near doubling of the current legal limit on coal trucks.

- Recent state bill raised the legal weight limit for coal trucks to 126,000 pounds.

- They did this in spite of overwhelming public opposition.

- “This is a perfect example of elected officials ignoring the public good in favor of special interests.”

- Charleston Gazette Article Represents the Following:

- Chesapeake, Ohio: The town is required to allow massive loaded coal trucks to transport their loads through the town to the river tipples.

- The town has no authority to do anything about it.

- The weight limit was 65,000 pounds. Coal owners loaded trucks to excesses of 165,000 pounds.

- The town is dirty, unsafe, environmentally deficient and unhealthy due to dirt and dust stirred up by the weight and speed of the behemoths.

- Homes along the highway have to be washed, porches must be swept daily, cars parked along the highway must be constantly washed, property values have lessened tremendously.

How will the Mine Impact Tourism?

-Tourism is one of Garfield County’s largest economies:

- Last year, more than 18 million tourists visited the Beehive State.

- According to the Utah Office of Tourism, traveler spending contributed $5.45 billion to Utah’s economy in the 2005 fiscal year alone—a jump of nearly 10 percent over the previous year.

- That visitor spending is estimated to have generated $433 million in state and local tax revenues. 

- Strip mining is how they’ll get the coal out.

-Coal jobs have dropped 61 percent precisely because strip mining requires far fewer men to operate much larger machinery.

                - Strip mining destroys far more jobs than it creates.

                -The Coal Hollow Mine will produce 90-120 jobs at best.

–Strip mining is a miniscule part of the mining economy in the U.S.

– It will adversely affect tourism, Garfield County’s largest economy.

– Destroys headwater streams and watersheds, creating a permanent condition of pollution to our well water and streams.

– Strip mine companies often declare bankruptcy when coal booms end, leaving the state to pick up the resulting costs of landslides, massive erosion and contaminated sites. Costs can run into the millions.

– Strip mining destroys fishing and fisheries.

- It’s a bad deal for Garfield County: economically, socially and environmentally.

- The future is in tourism and Garfield County’s natural beauty, not roads full of coal trucks.

How will this Project Affect Garfield County?

- Retirement/Summer home communities are a big industry moving into Garfield County.

-Many of the building sites are along Hwy 89 between Hatch and Panguitch.

-They are not moving here so they can look out their window and see coal trucks, polluted streams and strip mining operations.

-They are here for the beauty, clean air, peace and quiet, the hunting and fishing and tourism; our largest economic contributors!

-The coal mine will destroy the natural beauty that attracts these communities.

-We can’t bury our heads in the sand and be shortsighted about this. Many locals are blinded by illusions of cash and a growing economy. It’s not going to happen that way! It will destroy our economy and our precious wildlife!

-Yes, coal brings economic wealth, but not to our county. Who will pay for the long term costs to our water and our environment?

How will the coal be mined?

- Surface Mining

- Type of mining used to extract mineral deposits that are close to the surface.

- In most forms of surface mining, heavy equipment such as earthmovers, first remove the overburden—the soil and rock above the deposit.

- Next, huge machines, such as dragline excavators, extract the mineral.

- Surface mining generally leaves large devastated areas, called spoil banks, unless the land is reclaimed.

- Since surface mining removes overlying landscapes, it has a heavy negative impact on human settlements in the area, on local ecosystems, and on the environment.

- Types of Surface Mining

- Strip Mining

- Open Pit Mining

- Mountaintop Removal

- Dredging

- Strip Mining is the Chosen Method for Coal Hollow Mine

- Practice of mining a seam of mineral ore by first removing all of the soil and rock that lies on top of it (the overburden)

- It is similar to open pit mining in many regards.

- It uses some of the largest machines on earth.

- Modern strip mining is heavily mechanized and employs as few people as possible.

- Effects of Strip Mining

- The greatest negative effects of surface mining are in the areas of social development and environmental management.

- Entire communities have been uprooted in Africa to accommodate for strip mining. They were given limited land to live on, let alone farmland and water.

- The Chiefs of each town signed on behalf of their people.

- They were tricked into believing that the strip mines would bring their villages jobs, and they gave up precious farmland where they grew cash crops of cocoa and palm trees.

- More often than not, and all over the world, communities are not involved during the baseline studies, nor do they have the capacity to conduct such studies independently.

- Strip mining heavily pollutes streams with deadly chemicals used in the mining process, such as arsenic and cyanide.

- There is a huge push by a group called United Mountain Defense to ban strip mining in all states! Here are the facts:

- Neighboring communities to mines have been forced to leave their homes for many reasons. Here are some:

- It completely annihilates streams and forests and causes extensive blasting damages to homes.

- The pollution from mining and the toxic chemicals used in the preparation of coal for market have been linked to rising asthma rates and other serious respiratory ailments, particularly among children.

- Residents who live near the mining blasts also suffer from traumatic stress.

- Slurry dams thick with heavy metals such as arsenic, mercury and lead routinely overflow into watersheds and contaminate drinking water.

- Julia Bond’s (quoted earlier) grandson stood in a stream in Coal River Valley with his fists full of dead fish and asked, “What’s wrong with these fish?”

- Environmentalists and communities who call for a ban to surface mining are accused of being “anti-development.”

- “When powerful people pursue profits at the expense of human rights and our environment, they have failed as leaders,” Bonds has said. “Responsible citizens must step forward, not just to point the way, but to lead the way to a better world.

We are prepared to fight starting today. What are you prepared to do right now?