“It’s heartbreaking to think that they would dump this coal waste in neighborhoods and near schools and playgrounds. I know that this is not the best we can do. We have to make better choices and change the way we get energy and provide jobs for workers. People say, “if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it!” Well, this is definitely broken, and it needs fixing.”

-Jessica Deis, Jefferson County KFTC member

Encourage the EPA to adopt the most stringent standards needed for managing coal ash by submitting the comments below. Please add a personal statement at the top – your personal voice makes these comments more powerful.

For more details about this issue, click the "more" button below or read KFTC’s organizational comments on the proposed regulations here.

Residents of Benham and Lynch in Harlan County are creating a new future of their communities. They are asking for your support to help stop another proposal to strip away the communities' assets and their hopes for the future.

“Our little communities of Benham and Lynch have a lot of potential. The Portal 31 Exhibition Coal Mine, Lynch Depot, Benham Theater, the Schoolhouse Inn, and the Kentucky Coal Mining Museum are all part of our history and heritage. We are planning to rehab the Old Restaurant and Old Fire Station, near Portal 31. We can continue to build tourism if we protect these facilities and the beauty of our mountains” – Stanley Sturgill

This area also boasts the highest peak in the state (Black Mountain), great quality drinking water, and local development plans that can be a showcase for the rest of the state.

That is, if they can keep coal companies from destroying everything.

Residents are now challenging the fifth pending coal mining permit application that puts all their present and future plans at risk. The latest is a 500-acre strip mining proposal that would come very close to historic buildings in Lynch. The company, Nally & Hamilton, has caused KFTC members numerous problems over the years. The strip mining on the other side of the mountain from Benham and Lynch destroyed Elmer Lloyd’s pond three years ago and contributed to additional problems last week. Check out his story here.

Harlan chapter members recently filed, with the help of Kentucky Resources Council, that an area including these 500 acres be declared Unsuitable for Mining. But Benham and Lynch residents must also fight for this individual permit to be denied while the larger petition proceeds for the viewshed and watershed be declared unsuitable for mining.

Their future and their children and grandchildren’s future depend on the right decisions.

Please use the form below to send a message to Natural Resources Commissioner Carl Campbell. You are encouraged to submit comments by 4 p.m. on Thursday, September 2.