Coal opponents share health concerns at discussion

PALMER — Sutton area residents fighting against possible open-pit coal mining north of Palmer are hoping a presentation at the Palmer Depot on the health hazards of coal mining helped clarify their concerns.

Nearly 90 Valley residents reportedly attended the event Monday sponsored by Mat Valley Coalition and the Alaska Center for Action on Toxins. Local Sierra Club representatives also were on hand to snip hair samples for a national project on mercury levels in various communities.

Buffalo Mine Road resident Michele Prevost, a pediatric orthopedic surgeon who works in Palmer with her surgeon husband, gave a PowerPoint presentation on why coal dust is more toxic than dust in general.

Coal mine proponents often argue there’s so much gravel and river silt dust in the Valley’s air already, a little coal dust from a local mine is not going to make a difference. But for those fighting to preserve the pristine bluffs between Miles 53 and 75 of the Glenn Highway that snake along the edge of the Matanuska River, any additional threat to their present quality of life is taken very seriously.

“I spoke about the true costs of our dependence on coal,” Dr. Prevost said Tuesday. “It’s not only going to affect our air, but it can cause problems with the water supply. I just wanted to give people a heads up on what we could be facing if the mines open again.”

Usibelli Coal Mine, one of the companies considering taking advantage of the rich coal veins running through Wishbone Hill in and around Sutton, has stated it plans to dig up to 500 feet below the surface to reach the coal. Prevost and other residents in the area claim the local water table is about 300 feet down in some places. Prevost said there is research — included a study by the Environmental Protection Agency — on the health risks associated with contaminated water.

“Toxic water can increase cancer risk by more than 2,000 times,” Prevost said. “And coal-fired power plants represent a whole host of additional health issues. I’m not sure people understand what they’re asking for when they say they want coal energy because it’s cheaper than other sources. It’s not really cheaper if you take into consideration the external costs.”

Jim Tapley, a Sutton resident in favor of coal mines because of the jobs they would create, seemed to be the only one in attendance at Monday’s event to challenge Prevost.

“They talk about huge strip mines and huge ponds and black lung and it’s just scare tactics. I told them they’re painting the worst scenario and that coal mining here would be different now,” Tapley said. “I asked Dr. Prevost why she even moved to Buffalo Mine Road in the first place. I mean, the name of the road should have given her a clue.”

Prevost told Tapley she and her husband weren’t aware of the possibility of coal mines opening again because the Mat-Su Borough and their realtor told them in 2006 mining was part of the area’s history, not its future.

“We just believed like everyone else who moved here that the name of the road was simply a historical reference, like Artillery Road in Eagle River,” Prevost said. “The only way we could have known of Usibelli’s lease at Wishbone Hill would have been to go into the bowels of the Department of Natural Resources and find their permit. That exceeds what is considered reasonable when you are looking at homes.”

Prevost, who served in the U.S. Air Force with her husband before they began their private orthopedic practices, feels her local and national government has let citizens down when it comes to protecting them from harmful industries.

“Sadly, I think our government is way behind the power curve,” she said. “Arizona has rules of not mining when it’s windy and even West Virginia has a law that mines can’t blast within 7/10 of a mile of homes. That’s not much, but at least they have something. We really don’t have any regulations like that here.”

The Prevost property is among the approximately 120 homes that are within one mile of the Wishbone Hill site. Some of the homes abut the Usibelli property line. Many of the Sutton residents who’ve voiced support for the mine live at least five miles from it, although some of them are within two miles of another possible mine at Jonesville.

Suzanne McCausland, a Butte resident who has suffered from bronchitis for most of her life, grew up in the Sutton area in the 1950s and ’60s with a father who worked in the Evan Jones mine there. She said the family had made a decision then that it would be safer for him to work locally than to commute to Anchorage for a construction job.

In January 1957, her father and another miner had just exited the mine shaft when an explosion inside the mine knocked them to the ground. Five miners were killed and she can vividly recall the grief experienced by her classmates who lost their fathers.

She was 12 at the time. She also remembers one of those families being compensated $800 for their loss and that the miner’s wife couldn’t cash the check because the bank needed her husband’s signature.

McCausland said that although she realizes Usibelli wouldn’t be operating an underground mine, the health risks would still exist.

“My father died at age 67 and we believe his poor health was directly related to working in and around the mine and living nearby,” she said. “I think they were exposed to a lot of toxins. And I remember playing nearby and going onto the mine property. I believe my lung issues can also be traced to the mine. To this day, I can’t sing because I don’t have the lung capacity and I’ve never smoked.”

Contact K.T. McKee at kate.mckee@frontiersman.com or 352-2252.