Kentucky voices - Op-EdBy Robert Richardson
When I visit relatives in Big Stone Gap, Va., I love to stop at Roaring Branch. There are steps that lead up to a wonderful spot overlooking the highway.
If it's 95 degrees and 95 percent humidity on the road, it is always 20 to 25 degrees cooler up there, just like walking into air conditioning. There is always a very good flow of water, even in times of drought; it is clean, clear and unpolluted. I would say it is even safe to drink — at least it was.
I was shocked and completely dismayed by what I found on a recent trip: Roaring Branch no longer roars.
It doesn't growl or even bark; it barely whimpers. There is only a trickle of water down the hollow now.
The natural breeze that comes down the hollow is only a few degrees cooler than the surrounding area; the natural air conditioning is gone. This stream probably put a couple of million gallons of water a year into the Powell River.
What could have caused such a beautiful stream of water that has run for thousands of years to dry up like that?
For those of us who travel from Lynch across Black Mountain, the reason is very clear when you look at what has happened down on the Virginia side of the mountain.
The mountain has been torn to pieces. Mountaintop-removal mining has extended down behind Roaring Branch, and the stream has literally disappeared. Southwestern Virginia has lost one of its crown jewels.
The upper flow of water into Little Looney Creek has also disappeared, but when you get down far enough, its sulfur water flows from an old abandoned mine in Inman, Va.
I don't have personal knowledge of every stream in southeastern Kentucky that no longer exists because of mountaintop removal, but there are at least hundreds, maybe thousands. Of these, I don't know how many would have had Roaring Branch's volume of flow, probably lots of them.
If you take the flow from all of the streams combined — big ones, medium and small ones — how many gallons of water a year no longer flow into the Cumberland and Kentucky rivers?
The mountains act like a sponge and absorb the water and slowly release it into the rivers, keeping them healthy and flowing. How long before the Kentucky River becomes the Kentucky Creek, and what will Lexington, Frankfort and the other towns that depend on the Kentucky for drinking water do?
The coal companies are like the little boy who cried wolf. When an effort is made to stop mountaintop removal, they cry that their mines will have to shut down and that everyone will lose their jobs.
I have yet to see a coal company that actually cares about the long-term financial situation of its employees. When the coal is gone, the companies will lay off the workers and never think of them again.
This achieves the desired effect of scaring the men whose jobs are threatened, and thus, politicians become weak in the knees and are scared to do anything about it.
The Army Corps of Engineers turns a blind eye to it because they have been told to do so by politicians in Washington.
If the companies would deep-mine for coal, more jobs would be created and last a lot longer. The mountains would be healthy, and the rivers would continue to flow.
So what I witnessed in southwestern Virginia applies to Kentucky, also — not just to southeastern Kentucky but the whole state. Where does your drinking water come from? The mountains, of course.
I thank state Rep. Harry Moberly of Richmond for having the foresight to bring the ”stream-saver“ bill up for a vote in this year's regular General Assembly session.
Next time, the legislature needs to pass it because all of Kentucky depends on the mountains.
Robert Richardson of Lynch is a former coal miner.---------
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