Dos Republicas Coal Partnership Representative disrupts Maverick County Environmental and Public Health Association’s meeting
Dos Republicas Coal Partnership Eagle Pass Mine representative John Bowles disrupted the Thursday, April 28, 2011, meeting of the newly formed Maverick County Environmental and Public Health Association held at the Seco Mines Community Center in Eagle Pass.
Bowles attended the Maverick County Environmental and Public Health Association meeting and sat in the rear of the meeting place. While Maverick County Environmental and Public Health Association President Jose Luis Rosales was presiding over the meeting in accordance with the agenda, Bowles stood up and walked to the front of the meeting head table and introduced himself and began to speak about how he has worked for Dos Republicas Coal Partnership and Altos Hornos de Mexico, S.A. de C.V. (AHMSA) and North American Coal Corporation at the Eagle Pass Mine site for the past six years and how he is certified as an EPA (Environmental Protection Agency) Specialist responsible for managing and reporting all environmental conditions at the Eagle Pass Mine site to EPA and the State agencies (eg. Texas Commission on Environmental Quality and the Railroad Commission of Texas).
Bowles also stated that Dos Republicas Coal Partnership is owned by one of the richest man in the world and how North American Coal Corporation is the third-largest coal company in the United States, both entities with world-wide resources available to them.
Bowles added how he is a member of the Eagle Pass and Maverick County community all his life and that he is the son of the late John Bowles, former Sheriff of Maverick County, Texas, and the grandson of the late Hal P. Bowles. He proclaimed to have the best interest of the community in his work at the proposed Eagle Pass Mine owned by Dos Republicas Coal Partnership.
During his unsolicited soliloquy, Bowles was questioned by Maverick County Environmental and Public Health Association members and/or attendees what guarantees did Dos Republicas Coal Partnership give the communities of Eagle Pass and Maverick County that the proposed strip coal mine known as the Eagle Pass Mine would not contaminate the public water supply, air, and affect the public’s health, to which Bowles replied “there are no guarantees,” citing the nuclear disaster in Fukushima, Japan, for the proposition that Dos Republicas Coal Partnership’s Eagle Pass Minecannot guarantee that there will never be contamination of the local environment, water, and air of Eagle Pass and Maverick County. Bowles became argumentative and defensive with local educator and YBA Society President and Co-Founder Yesenia Martinez, at which time Maverick County Environmental and Public Health Association member, Dr. Hector R. Treviño, raised a point of order to President Jose Luis Rosales to continue with the meeting’s agenda noting Bowles was not on the agenda and out-of-order, which the majority in attendance agreed with, causing Maverick County Environmental and Public Health Association Treasurer and Board of Director Juanita Martinez to advise Bowles he was dismissed from speaking because he was not on the agenda, which Bowles withdrew from the head table and stormed out of the meeting.
Upon Dos Republicas Coal Partnership representative John Bowles departure from the meeting, the Maverick County Environmental and Public Health Association’s meeting calmed down and proceeded with its agenda.
