Bluefield Daily Telegraph
CHARLESTON — A new report by the West Virginia Division of Energy and the Office of Coalfield Community Development has found that 13,000 people are working in West Virginia as a result of projects created on land that has been reclaimed after surface mining.The report found that 13,335 jobs were created from 43 different projects on reclaimed land in 12 counties, including McDowell. The report found that the uses of surface mine sites are varied, and include residential development, tourism, energy, schools, government facilities and manufacturing.
That’s a lot of jobs, and a lot of potential for additional growth and economic development. Opponents of mountaintop mining should take a detailed look at this report. It certainly sheds new light on the mountaintop mining debate.
With some areas of our state having little flat land for development, the use of surface mined lands is critically important to providing land for new industry and facilities for use by the general public, Division of Energy Director Jeff Herholdt said in a press release last week.
In addition to the flat land, Herholdt said many projects are able to take advantage of infrastructure, roads and electric service used during coal mining.
The report went on to identify a number of successful economic development projects created on land that has been reclaimed after surface mining.
The success stories include Tom’s Mountain in McDowell County, which is the site of Mount View High School, and Coal City Elementary, along with Independence middle and high schools in Raleigh County.
The Tom’s Mountain site was also used as an emergency housing site by the Federal Emergency Management Agency following the devastating flood of 2001.
In addition, the FBI Complex in Clarksburg, a facility that employs more than 3,000 people, was constructed on 986 acres of reclaimed mine land. In Brooke County, more than a thousand people work at the 238-bed Weirton Medical Center, a facility also constructed on reclaimed mine land in 1978, the report added.
And more projects are planned on reclaimed land. For example, more than 10,000 acres of surface mined land will soon be home to the new National Boy Scout Jamboree set to open in 2013. The center is expected to house 50,000 Boy Scouts each year, along with thousands of additional guests.
Locally, officials are also actively marketing reclaimed surface mine sites. Such sites are considered ideal for economic development projects, according to Janet Bailey, executive director of the Development Authority of Mercer County.
We would encourage everyone — including the many outspoken critics of mountaintop mining as well as the Obama administration — to take a detailed look at this report, which shows the economic impact of successfully reclaimed surface mine sites.