Use Your Words

Headed for the Capitol to Speak Out

On February 5th, after some encouragement from friends at the Ohio Valley Environmental Coalition, I agreed to attend and sign up to speak at the public comments session regarding the West Virginia House Bill 2566 Coal Jobs and Safety Act of 2015.

This is a 59 page bill.  You would think from the title that this is a positive bill that creates new job opportunities and a safer working environment for coal miners.

Nothing could be further from the truth.  The closest you could maybe infer from the language of this bill is that maybe layoffs could be avoided by reducing safety requirements and regulations, and reducing or eliminating water and pollution standards at the mines themselves.

How would this help? The coal industry would not have to absorb the finiancial hit of the soft coal market.  They could maintain their status quo by balancing that hit with cutting costs associated with mine/miner and environmental safety. So, perhaps by balancing that financial scale they could avoid job losses.

Am I oversimplifying?  I don’t believe so.  One coal official subtlely threatened that without these changes, coal is too expensive to mine in West Virginia and the jobs would go elsewhere.  Another one implied that members of United Mine Workers union get special treatment when it comes to issues such as positive drug tests and health claims.  Another insisted that mine owner/operators already maintain a higher standard than is required regarding clean water.

Acid Mine Run-Off from Keystone Development #1 Surface Mine

I ask you:  Does this water look like they are maintaining a higher standard than is required?  This photo is from a mine near my home just this past summer.  This is a West Virginia Department of Environmetal Protection regulated and inspected site.  Can you imagine what would happen if section 2-11-6 (2)  of HB 2566: “Water quality standards … shall not be independently or directly enforced” were to pass?

I am not a coal miner, nor an environmental expert.  I am just a citizen of West Virginia who is tired of a legislature who continually yields to the bullying of the coal industry at the cost of miner’s lives and safety.  I am discourged that our delegates and senators ignore the ruination of our environment and the massive, and fatal, health concerns wrought by the toxic chemicals that current mining practices release into our air and water.

I challenged the legislators to stand for West Virginians.  To stand for those who cannot buy their support.  I called a pig a pig.  This bill is not about jobs.  This bill is a serious weakening of those laws that have been put in place to protect miners, to protect citizens. I asked the legislators to remember that they represent the people, not the corporations.

I don’t know if I had any impact at all on the legislators regarding HB 2566.  I do know that I was stunned when afterwards miners sought me out to thank me for my words.  This is not a battle between miners and “tree huggers.”  This is a battle between citizens and corporations.

If the stink-eye that the coal officials gave me means anything, then maybe I was at least a wee bit effective.  Even if I only pissed them off.

This is a personal blog and these are my impressions
and my understanding of the situation.

Cradle to Grave

This past week I had the honor of attending the Extreme Energy Summit in Biloxi, Mississippi.  From the event website:

“The Summit…will bring together a wide variety of leaders representing groups across the country who are resisting all forms of energy extraction, from small grassroots community groups working in frontline communities to large national nonprofits and everything in between.   In addition to meeting and strategizing, this diverse and dynamic group of organizers will have the opportunity to tour and see the heavily impacted Gulf Coast region as a coalition of local and regional groups have graciously agreed to host us and organize a tour of communities impacted by energy infrastructure in the Mobile area.”

I was deeply affected by the tour that we took of the gulf region, from the Eastern Biloxi Mississippi Coalition of Vietnamese-American Fisher Folks and Families and how the BP Oil Disaster continues to affect their lives and livelihoods to the Wedgewood Community in Pensacola, Florida whose community is surrounded on three sides by seven (soon to be eight) landfills, with additional stops at the Chevron Refinery in Pascagoula, MS, the MacCaffie Coal Terminal in Mobile, Alabama and Africatown, Alabama.

There was a phrase I learned during the tour, “From Cradle to Grave”: the full journey of an extracted energy product – extraction, processing, distribution (both raw and refined), and waste.

I am fairly educated and familiar with how coal is extracted, particularly here in West Virginia.  I have seen the processing plants and the coal trains.  But I never thought it completely through to the distribution of the coal and the dispersion of the associated waste.  I never thought about where the coal goes, or that as it travels its’ toxic dust and other by-products are spread along the way.

I learned that the removal of the coal from “my mine” is the “cradle”.   The coal is transported by truck to be processed, typically very near where it is extracted.  Then it is transported, generally by train, for immediate use, or for sale around the globe.

Port Terminal, Mobile, Alabama

The MacCaffie Coal Terminal, Port of Mobile, Alabama is huge.  This is where much of our coal is transported to be shipped to countries around the world. In the shadow of this huge port is Africatown.  This small historic community deals on a daily basis with the toxic effects of coal dust, chemicals that leak from trains and barges transporting coal, tar sands, and oil, among other products.

The terminal houses tank farms, open coal cars and shipping containers storing toxic extractive energy products as far as the eye can see – so many that if even the smallest percentage of them are leaking they have the potential to devastate not only Africatown, but the entire gulf region.

Which brings me to “…the Grave.”

Where did the sludge from the BP Oil Disaster go?  When there is an environmental clean-up, such as the MCHM from the Elk River spill in Charleston, WV, what is the final destination for the disposal of such waste?

Wedgewood Community, Pensacola, Florida

Simple answer?  Landfills.  The final stop on our tour was a community in Pensacola, Florida known as Wedgewood.  After listening to the presentation outlining the seven landfills and the hazardous waste they contain, I was genuinely concerned about breathing the air.  I wish I were exaggerating.  I was appalled that anyone had to live in these conditions.  This was a nice neighborhood.  A proud neighborhood whose property values are now so low that they can’t move away from the stench and the health risks.  I can’t wrap my brain around the fact that someone, anyone, in their local, county or state government thought that it was appropriate, IS appropriate to locate these landfills on the very borders of this community.

Let me be clear:  throughout the process, from extraction, to processing, transportation and disposal, people die.  They die as a result of exposure to toxic by-products in their water, in their air.  Our need to “keep the lights on” poisons our citizens, our neighbors, our families.

I wish I knew of a solution.  Simply reducing our energy footprint would help, but not solve this issue.  Requiring these industries to not only implement responsible practices for extraction, but holding them responsible for clean-up, repair and restitution would be a positive step. Renewable energy would go a long way towards being a solution.  But even if new technology, clean technology, were implemented today, we would still have a toxic legacy that requires response.

“Cradle to Grave.” People, communities are dying. Don’t doubt it.  Don’t minimize it.  Own it.  Do what you can about it.

Off I Go to D.C. – Or “going off” in D.C.

The Alliance for Appalachia hosted an event this past weekend called “Our Water, Our Future.” I was surprised and tickled pink to be invited and to receive a scholarship/sponsorship which covered all my expenses. I didn’t know what to expect, but I was told to bring one business appropriate outfit.  I went to the event open to learning and willing to go with the flow.

Saturday was our traveling day.  Driving through the West Virginian and Southern Virginian mountains.  I discovered that I’ve gotten much better at spotting a Mountaintop Removal Mine from a distance.  Generally, they hide them from highway travelers.  But as coal becomes scarcer they are being permitted to mine closer to the public.  One such mine is the Pax mine.  You can see portions of it from the highway.  The tell-tale perfectly flat silhouette, seeing through a line of trees where once a mountain stood.  A “reclaimed” area of patchy grass, small bushes and a scrubby pine tree here and there where a hardwood forest had been before.  Sobering.

Woot! Group picture time!

Sunday was totally about training.  I had a lot to learn and people to meet.  One of our first training sessions we worked with the Value/Problem/Solution or Action/Vision formula.  I discovered that my own “formula” looks like this:

Value – Our homes and our lives are NOT the cost of business
Problem – Polluted Streams;  Wells Destroyed;  Watershed Changed/Flooding;  Health Concerns;  CITIZENS DO NOT MATTER
Solution/Action – Stop Mountaintop Removal;  Stream Protection Rule;  Re-funding Health Studies;  MAKE CITIZENS MATTER
Vision – A Real Plan for a Sustainable Economic Transition;  Coal/Gas/Oil Companies truly Held Accountable

Then I attended training for meeting with the Council on Environmental Quality.  I had never even heard of them.

Bill Price of the Sierra Club explains the Council on Environmental Quality

We had four “asks” of the CEQ:

1. Promulgate a Strong Stream Protection Rule
2. Promulgate a Strong Conductivity Rule
3. Promulgate a Selenium Standard
4. Promulgate a Strong Minefill Rule

The various organizations represented (The Alliance for Appalachia, Ohio Valley Environmental Coalition, Kentuckians for the Commonwealth, Southern Appalachian Mountain Stewards, Appalachian Voices and the Statewide Organizing for Community eMpowerment) had been working for six months to organize and schedule this meeting, which was a continuation of meetings that have been going on for years.

They had requested three hours and specific Administration personnel to continue the work that had been done at previous meetings.  While we were preparing Sunday afternoon we discovered that we had ONE hour.  This gave each of us only 1-2 minutes in which to present our concerns!  I was asked to speak last on the topic of Public Engagement.

Monday was our meeting with CEQ.  We had another pre-meeting planning session.  We timed our speeches and honed our messages.

Other participants in the event met up with a Quaker group to go picket and protest at PNC bank.  PNC, BB&T and other banks provide loans for Mountaintop Removal and Fracking projects.  They succeeded in closing that branch of the bank and bringing awareness to the public of how their money is being used to pollute and destroy Appalachia.

The meeting was frustrating.  Not only had it been cut back to one hour, but none of the participants we had requested were there.  No one from the Administration had been in their positions for more than a year.  They referred to our meeting as an “opening dialogue”.  One of our members pointed out that this had been a five year dialogue.  They heard our concerns, politely, and offered nothing.  I left wondering if we had achieved anything at all.

After the meeting on the steps leading to the back of the White House.

Tuesday was our Day of Action.  We donned our “Appalachian Water Rescue” vests and grabbed our buckets and signs and marched to the Metro.  While on the Metro we sang and answered questions about who we were and what we were doing.

We met up at Lafayette Square.

Several of us gave speeches.  There was a bucket brigade from the fountain to our water barrels – Clean Water for Appalachia.

We wanted to deliver a report card to the Administration on environmental issues, giving the Administration an “incomplete” in all categories.  The people working in the CEQ building refused to accept our report card.  They refused to acknowledge our presence. Even when we treated them to some music and dancing:

A few of us blocked the entrance to their federal building, risking arrest.  I nearly lost it when I felt bullied by a Homeland Security officer.  So disrespectful. I felt, once again, betrayed by people I thought were there to protect my right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.

I met some of the most amazing people with heart-rending stories.  They made me cry.  They made me laugh.  They made me feel welcome.  They made me feel like fighting.

Sanity and Profanities

This has been a busy week in my fight against the Keystone Development #2 Strip Mine.  This past Thursday, August 7th, Tam and I attended a rally on the capitol steps.  Several hundred people attended and the rally received a fair amount of media response.  I spoke on behalf of the residents that will be affected by the Keystone Development #2 mine.  I was so nervous that I don’t know what I said.  The next day over 4,000 signatures to Governor Tomblin’s office.  Again the media attended.  Tam and I finished the day with a picnic sponsored by the Ohio Valley Environmental Coalition.

These events and the people involved made me feel positive, hopeful and personally powerful.

Then  yesterday I went to a hearing at the Department of Environmental Protection regarding this permit.

This was not my first hearing and I was better prepared this time for my anger and frustration.  I knew that the DEP attorney would roll his eyes and be disrespectful.  I knew that the Keystone attorneys would be arrogant and dismissive of human life.  I knew that the Surface Mine Board would give the impression that they were objective while finding for the mining company every time.

One expert for our appeal was trying to discuss the watershed plan and the high potential for flooding from this permit.  It seemed that the only thing that the Board and attorneys for the DEP and Keystone could focus on was whether or not the witness was an engineer.  I’m not certain how that would change the inadequate watershed plan.

When an expert for the appellants was expressing concerns about mine run-off and the affect it could have on aquatic and terrestrial life, the attorney for Keystone said, “and some flies might die, none of them would be on the endangered species list, would they?”

The arrogance demonstrated by Keystone’s attorney in the above quote was minor compared to the repeated comments he made in asides about being done with “these people”. Kanawha State Forest might not be affected by pollution in Kanawha Fork but WE would be! Our ground and well water WILL be. When my father-in-law made this point from the witness stand the attorney for Keystone snidely said, “You don’t know that.”  Fred responded with, “Prove to me it won’t.  You can’t.”

Kanawha Fork is the creek that runs in front of our homes, it joins up with Davis creek at the entrance to Kanawha State Forest, and then runs through Loudendale, WV, approximately 2,300 people potentially affected by water polluted by mine run-off. 2,300 homes in danger from mine-related flooding. But then, from what I’ve seen of Mr. Hoyer, we’re probably less significant than the flies he mentioned.

Our attorneys tried to get clarification on the $700,000 payment to the Department of Natural Resources.  The CEO of Revelation Energy said it was a way to give back to the community for the “temporary inconvenience.”  His attorneys repeatedly called it a “settlement” and a “done deal” that they would not discuss.  First of all, ten YEARS is not “temporary.”  Second, no matter what you call it, the “settlement” sounds more like the Department of Natural Resources signed off on the permit because they were paid off to do so.

The mine has had three violations since the permit was signed in May.  The precursor to this mine, Keystone Development #1, has had a history of being in violation, a history which seems to be repeating itself at Keystone Development #2.

West Virginia Governor, Earl Ray Tomblin has the authority to rescind the permit, or, at the very least, place the entire permit on hold until a full review can be done.  To ignore us and not respond in any way makes his alliance clear.  He does not represent the people of West Virginia.  He represents the corporations.

The time I spent at the hearing was not a complete waste.  Since I am often overwhelmed by the desire to burst out at these hearings and am fluent in American Sign Language, it’s important to keep my mouth shut and my hands busy.  So I brought my sanity with me in the form of crochet.  I may get a lot of gifts done this way.

 

This is a personal blog and these are my impressions and my understanding of the situation.

 

 

Mountaintop Removal and Blanket Forts

I’ve been two weeks, no after checking the calendar it’s actually almost three weeks, telling myself that I needed to post to my blog.  But I couldn’t.  I was hurting.  I was depressed.  I was too angry.  You see, the day after I came back from vacation I attended a hearing of the Surface Mine Board of the Department of Environmental Protection regarding the Keystone Development #2.

The purpose of the hearing was to request a stay of the permit until additional public concerns and issues with the permit itself could be clarified.  The stay was denied and the hearing will be continued on August 11th regarding other issues we were hoping to address.

It’s not the board’s decision regarding the stay, nor the continuance that had me emotionally needing a blanket fort.  No, it was the attitudes of the DEP attorney and the attorneys for Keystone Development.  Condescending, arrogant, dismissive, mean-spirited, snarly, rude.  I was shocked.

I expected the DEP attorney to be impartial at the very least.  I mean, Department of Environmental Protection.  I guess I’m naive.  I thought they’d side on protecting the environment.

One of our experts pointed out that the watershed plan for the permit was based on a seven-year-old soil study and that a newer study had been available since December, 2013.  Using the information from the 2013 study, our expert shared, the watershed numbers for water run-off showed a 25-50% increase.  This is significant!  But the Keystone Development expert, while acknowledging that our experts’ math was correct, insisted that she could make the existing plan and numbers “work.”  Excuse me?  It’s not her home that could potentially be flooded!

The Keystone attorney made closing remarks that sounded more like a threat than closing remarks.  He slammed both palms on the table and reminded the surface mine board that the governor wouldn’t be happy to lose $2,000,000 in revenue.

I left the hearing feeling so very, very angry with nowhere to channel that anger.  I knew I couldn’t say anything to anyone at the hearing without damaging our attorneys’ case and reputation.  I don’t want to say or do anything that reflects poorly on the Kanawha Forest Coalition or any of the organizations that have been incredibly supportive.  I went into hermit mode.

Luckily, these folk from KFC, OVEC, RAMPS and other organizations understand and won’t let me hide for long.  They encourage my self-care and validate the extreme emotional highs and lows of this journey.

When this reality looms over your life:

Our home is about 2000 feet from the northern phase of the Keystone Development Mountaintop Removal Coal Mine.
Photo courtesy of Viv/Southwings

it becomes vital to find the positive. 

 This is a personal blog and these are my impressions and my understanding of the situation.

Everywhere I Go…

I’ve been on vacation.  I tried to take a vacation from the stress and frustration of fighting our new neighbor, the Keystone Development #2 Mountaintop Removal Coal Mine.  I discovered that wherever I go, this issue now goes with me.  People ask about it, which is an educational opportunity that I won’t pass up.  My friends and family probably heard more, and now know more, than they wanted to.  I’d like to apologize for that, but I can’t really.  I think we should become more conscious of the true costs of our energy consumption.

On the last day of my vacation I went to an amazing dinner at a local restaurant, The Bluegrass Kitchen.  They were sponsoring a Haiku event.  The above image was mine.  My dear daughter read it and said, “Wow, mom, that’s depressing.”  She was right.  I consciously moved the issue to the back of my mind to enjoy the food, drink and especially, the company of my spouse and out-of-state family.

But it’s never really gone.  Every day there is something to do regarding the fight.  I can’t apologize for being, honestly, obsessed, by something so important.  It’s hard for me to understand why everyone isn’t.

Once Aware…

I’m on vacation.  Far away from any coal mine.  But I can’t really get away.  I brought study material (that’s on me) to enjoy (?) on my son’s back porch with a cup of chai on this sunny summer day.  Email reminds me that an informational meeting needs to be publicized on Facebook.  Son urges me to connect my blog to my brand new Twitter account to share my blog further.

But it goes deeper than that.

I can’t really get away because now I am awake to some of the true costs of the electricity that I use every day.  I love my tech gadgets.  No, I SERIOUSLY love my tech gadgets.  But now I know that especially in Appalachia, someone’s groundwater has been polluted to bring me this electricity.  A mountaintop is gone, destroyed for the coal it contains, to fire up a coal fired electric plant.  A community’s air is fouled.  A homeowner’s home has lost all of it’s financial value because of a neighboring mine.  Someone is struggling with health problems due to pollutants and stress from living near a mine.  And I’m aware that there are additional costs that I don’t really know about yet.

I am aware and I can’t stop being so.

Coal is safe.  “Clean Coal” is achievable.  Pollutants from coal mining are strictly regulated. Mountaintop Removal sites are left better than before.

I Used to Love the Smell of a Campfire

Image from “How to Destroy a Forest Habitat“

For the past few days, stepping outside, especially first thing in the morning, the scent of a wood burning fire is on the breeze through the hollow.  I know my neighbors aren’t burning anything and there isn’t anyone other than the Senior Ranger for Kanawha State Forest upwind of us.  He’s not burning anything either.

I suspect that the Keystone Development #2 coal mine has stared phase one and is clear cutting all the timber and burning it.  I can’t prove this without trespassing on mine land.  Or checking Google Earth and seeing if there is a recent satellite image.

Typically, they cut all of the trees and bulldoze them over the side (filling the valley/hollow) and set them on fire.  The wood is not sold for lumber, mulched to feed the topsoil during reclamation, or given away as free fuel for residents in the area who still heat with wood burning stoves.  It’s simply burned.

But I’m not sure what they are doing at KD#2.  You see, the permit doesn’t allow them to fill the hollows/valleys surrounding the permit area.  Of course, that doesn’t mean that they aren’t doing so.  Often, according to the research I’ve been doing, they do what they want and simply absorb the fines into the cost of the job.  The fines are so minimal that they are not a deterrent.  There are no cameras on the work site.  So unless an inspector just happens to stop up there, if they are bulldozing the trees over the side, no one will know.  Honestly makes me wish I had access to a drone with a camera.

We can put surveillance cameras in the workplace.  At traffic crossings.  On our ATM’s.  But not on the property of a mining permit that has some very specific restrictions.  This makes no sense to me.

None of this makes any sense to me.

It breaks my heart to even think about the destruction of the trees.  I’m reminded of Treebeard from “Lord of the Rings”:

Treebeard: [after seeing the torn-down forest around Isengard]
Many of these trees were my friends, creatures I had known from nut and acorn…
Pippin: I’m sorry Treebeard.
Treebeard: They had voices of their own…

 

 

Riding the MTR Pendulum

Any time spent not focusing on educating people about Mountaintop Removal coal mining, or on canvassing our community, calling elected officials, writing here on my blog or attending meetings feels like guilty, stolen time.  No matter what I’m doing, my activity, my thoughts are interrupted by something else I need to do to stop this mine and save our home.  Just now, I stopped writing to send a quick email to our attorney.  Every day, all day, is like that.  I’m doing laundry and making phone calls.  It feels like I’m doing everything (I’m not).  It feels like it’s all up to me (it’s not).  It feels like no one else is helping (patently not true).  I can’t do enough.

Or, I do nothing.  Awash in hopelessness.  “I wonder if I’ll be able to open our windows to the bird song and the breeze this time next year.”  “I wonder if I’ll be able to drink our water.”  “I wonder if my spouse’s COPD will flair.”  “I wonder if my father-in-law’s Asbestosis will flair.” “What’s the point.  No one wins against coal.” “The mine complex is only five miles from the state capitol building – kind of says it all.”  “WHY DOES NO ONE CARE?”  Self-pity and despair.  I loathe it.

All of us, me, my spouse and my father-in-law had a conversation where we all admitted to feeling this way.  Up one minute, and not just down, but all the way down, the next.  We committed to not taking it out on each other.  To remember that we’re in this together.  We’re driving each other in this struggle and making allowances.

But we’re not stopping.

WV DEP: Who do they protect?

If you go out to the West Virginia Department of Environmental Protections’ website, specifically the page for the Division of Mining and Reclamation, you will notice that it says “Our Mission” and then nothing.  No mission statement.  It’s difficult to determine exactly what they do.  I know that by law they approve, regulate, and inspect the surface mine permits.  But what, exactly, does that mean for our neighborhood?

We requested a meeting with the DEP.  I called and expressed some of our most pressing concerns and the gentleman I spoke with said he would pull together some experts to answer our questions.  We were limited to six people.  Four of us went.  The DEP had, I don’t remember exactly, between eight and twelve people.

Our most pressing concerns were:

• flooding – we don’t believe that their surface run-off analysis is accurate
• contamination of our well water (all five homes are on well water)
• damage from fly rock
• damage from dust
• damage from our rock wall becoming unstable due to vibration

The ridge (which we are calling Mt. Middlelick)  on which the mining site is located, currently drains into creeks running on both the eastern and western boundaries of this permit.  Those creeks feed into the creek which defines our hollow.  Our creek feeds into Davis creek, affecting the residents of Loudendale and Davis Creek.  The area is already considered a flood zone.  The permit only requires a “25 year flood” prevention plan.  But no one could tell us clearly how a “25 year flood” event is defined.  Common sense says if you remove all of the trees and undergrowth, and all of the topsoil, the rain water / snow melt has no where to go but into the watershed.  And there is nothing to slow it down.  No one at the DEP said it directly, but we were all left with the impression that nothing would change in the permit UNTIL it was proven to be a problem.  Lucky us.

We were told to mark measurements on our bridge into the hollow, to keep a daily journal and make note daily of the water level in the creek.  And to purchase a rain gauge.

We are very concerned that our well water and ground water will become contaminated because of the watershed issue.  They will monitor our well (our well is the monitoring well) every three months.  They won’t be monitoring for heavy metals, which I don’t understand.  If our water should become contaminated we have to prove that the mine contaminated it.  WE have to prove they contaminated it.  If anyone spots chemicals in the creek water as part of our daily monitoring, a call can be made to DEP, but unless a DEP inspector actually SEES the contaminant, well, nothing happens.

At the meeting we asked about Fly Rock – the debris that can fall from the explosives used to get to the coal.  DEP gave conflicting answers.  We were told that we shouldn’t expect any.  We were also told that debris can fly as far as 3000 ft.   They also told us that 1000 ft is considered the minimum safe distance.  Finally, we were told that by law nothing is to leave the permit boundaries.  I’m still researching to see what the truth is regarding fly rock. But they agreed that three of the hiking trails at Kanawha State Forest would be at risk for hikers, bikers, horseback riders to be struck by fly rock.  We were stunned!  We asked them how they were going to make certain that users of the Forest were safe?  The DEP said that was the responsibility of the mining company, not them.

And if our homes are damaged by fly rock, or by blasting vibrations, we have to prove that the mine is responsible and that we (or our insurance companies) have to sue the mining company.  The issue would go before a third party insurance examiner who would determine if it should go to arbitration.  If the claim goes to arbitration, there is a $600 fee which is split with the coal company.  DEP is not involved.

So.  We monitor our own creek levels.  If we want to make sure we don’t have heavy metals in our water we either have to fight to get the DEP to provide monitoring equipment, or find a way to get it through another agency.  If we believe our groundwater is being polluted we have to first prove that it is being contaminated and then prove the contamination is due to the mine.  If we believe our air quality is polluted from dust, same thing.  Plus, unless an inspector visually sees an excess of dust from the mine, personally, the DEP will do nothing.  Videos, photographs, are not considered valid proof.

Are you noting the pattern here?  The burden of protecting our homes, our health and the health of our community and environment is on us, the citizens.  So, who does the Department of Environmental Protection protect?  Not this: