Kentucky Coordinator

Background

Railroads penetrated into the rugged mountains of Eastern Kentucky and the first coal mines opened here in the 1870s, 50 years after the first mine opened in Western Kentucky. By 1912, rails had been laid to all of the coal-producing counties and companies such as Bethlehem Steel, U.S. Steel, International Harvester, Ford and Consolidation Coal were building entire cities in places where before there had been only wilderness, or a few isolated cabins. As machines took the place of men in the 1940s, companies began selling off the company houses, stores, streets and hotels and laying off workers. Today, once-thriving cities such as Lynch, Benham, Jenkins, Haymond, Regina, Garrett and Wayland are only shadows of their former selves. Some towns, like Carbon Glow, Hot Spot, Hardburley and Hicarbon have disappeared so completely that a visitor would be hard pressed to tell that towns ever existed there. Often, evidence of much of that old mining can be found in the orange or white stream beds caused by the acidic discharge that has leeched minerals such as iron and aluminum from the ground. Acid Mine Drainage, sewage from poorly functioning or non-existent septic systems and siltation from mining, drilling and timbering operations, are the most prevalent water pollution problems in the region.

 

Located in Whitesburg in Letcher County, the Kentucky Regional Office was opened in November 2008 to provide support for OSM/VISTAs in Kentucky, Virginia and Tennessee and to recruit new watershed groups in the eastern Kentucky coal counties.

 

 

Goals and Accomplishments:

The OSM/VISTA serving as Kentucky Coordinator participates in regional environmental and economic development projects; works to build the capacity of OSM/VISTAs to serve their local hosts effectively; educates the public and officials on the local, regional, state and federal levels about what the Appalachian Coal Country Watershed Team does; coordinates training opportunities for OSM/VISTAs; and works with teachers to bring watershed education to the classroom.

 

The Kentucky Coordinator is working with multiple communities across the region to develop their own OSM/VISTA projects.

 

The Kentucky Coordinator recently worked with the Appalachian Regional Reforestation Initiative to complete a 5-acre demonstration project of the Forestry Reclamation Approach for surface mines on which the natural succession of plant growth has been arrested by poor soils, high compaction and aggressive grasses. Such sites allow rapid runoff of rainwater, causing soil erosion, stream siltation and increased likelihood of flooding downstream. The project included a team made up of the ACCWT, ARRI, the U.S. Office of Surface Mining Reclamation and Enforcement, the Kentucky Department of Mines and Minerals, The Kentucky Division of Forestry, ArborGen, James River Coal Company, Conservation Districts, the Sierra Club, local watershed group Headwaters Inc, the Eastern Coal Regional Roundtable and private volunteers from across Kentucky.

 

The mining company use a bulldozer to rip five acres of strip-mined land that a private owner agreed to reforest, and volunteers from environmental groups and the mining company planted 4,200 hardwood trees on the tract, including some blight resistant American chestnuts. Ripping the land four feet deep (like plowing a farm) will allow rainwater to infiltrate into the ground rather than run off into the streams, and the tree roots will be allowed room to spread out and grow.

 

Partners and Contributors:

Since the Kentucky Regional Office is new, it is currently operating under $3,000 grant from the Office of Surface Mining, and is seeking additional funding. Office space is temporarily provided free by the Letcher County Public Library District.