Coal Mining Executive testifies it is cheaper to pay safety violations than avoiding them, highlighting U.S.-Mexico border Coal Mine Dilemma (Opinion)

By: Jose G. Landa, Eagle Pass Business Journal, Inc., Copyright 2015

In a federal criminal trial in West Virginia against Massey Coal Chief Executive Officer Don Blankenship, former Massey Coal subsidiary president Christopher Blanchard testified that his boss, Blankenship, preferred to pay OSHA safety violation fines rather than taking precautions to avoid them.

Blanchard’s testimony is a stark admission of the American Coal industry’s longstanding practice and custom to prefer paying low, minimum federal fines for coal mining safety violations rather than paying for safety measures and equipment to avoid safety violations.  In other words, Blanchard’s testimony can be interpreted to mean that profits and greed are more important to coal mining companies than the safety and health of coal mining workers and communities they operate in.

Blanchard testified that he previously was paid $450,000 per year as president of a Massey Coal subsidiary and received a pay raise to $600,000 per year even after his coal mine suffered an accident which killed multiple workers and injured many other workers.

Blanchard’s testimony highlights the current situation in Eagle Pass, Maverick County, Texas, which the Railroad Commision of Texas (RCT) and the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality (TCEQ) granted permits to a Texas Limited Partnership, Dos Republicas Coal Partnership, owned by a Mexican-owned company to construct and operate an open surface coal mine, Eagle Pass Mine, on the banks of Elm Creek, a direct water tributary of the Rio Grande River, only one or two miles upstream from both the City of Eagle Pass, Texas Regional Municipal Water Treatment Plant and the City of Piedras Negras, Coahuila, Mexico Municipal Treatment Plant on the Rio Grande River (U.S.-Mexico border) despite overwhelming opposition to said coal mine by U.S.-Mexico citizens.

The Mexican parent company of Dos Republicas Coal Partnership and its Mexican subsidiaries have a poor safety and enrvionmental record in Mexico.  Although Dos Republicas Coal Partnership has contracted North American Coal Company to operate its Eagle Pass Mine, North American Coal Company has incorporated a Nevada subsidiary company, Camino Real Fuels, to operate the Eagle Pass Mine to shield it from liability.

Worsening the environmental problem at the U.S.-Mexico border is the opening and operation of a Mexican open surface coal mine on the banks of the Rio Grande River in Piedras Negras, Coahuila, Mexico, opposite of Eagle Pass, Texas, since 2011 by a Mexican subsidiary of Dos Republicas Coal Partnership’s Mexican parent company, Grupo Acerero del Norte, S.A. (Grupo GAN).

With the opening of the Dos Republicas’ Eagle Pass Mine earlier this year, the U.S.-Mexico border at Eagle Pass, Texas and Piedras Negras, Coahuila, Mexico has two-twin sisters-open surface coal mines operating and owned by the same Mexican parent company, Grupo Acerero del Norte, S.A. (Grupo GAN), discharging their coal mining waste waters and stormwaters into the ecological sensitive Rio Grande River, which is the sole source of potable water to over six milion U.S.-Mexico residents from Eagle Pass, Texas downstream to Brownsville, Texas and Matamoros, Tamaulipas, Mexico.

The Dos Republicas Coal Partnership coal mine dilemma is compounded by an October 8, 2015 flooding in Eagle Pass, Texas caused by 12 inches of rain within a 24 hour period which resulted in the Elm Creek cresting and flooding above its banks and reported mass killing of fish in the creek and surrounding ponds in the vicinity.  EPA and TCEQ both conducted tests on the water quality of Elm Creek after the October 8th flood and fish kill, but did not test the actual dead fish themselves.  Test results are pending.  Elm Creek has flooded four times over the past five year period.

Earlier this year, contractors at the Dos Republicas’ Eagle Pass Mine received numerous notices of safety violations by the federal Mining Safety and Health Administration (MSHA), incurring minimal fines.

What is alarming in Blanchard’s testimony in the West Virginia federal criminal trial is the tacit acknowledgement of the American Coal industry’s lack of respect for human life and public health of its workers and community residents.  These are the same concerns and complaints raised by Maverick County residents to their state agencies, Railroad Commission of Texas and TCEQ, against the permitting of the Dos Republicas’ Eagle Pass Mine on the U.S.-Mexico border but their voices fell on deaf ears of their Republican industry friendly state agencies.  

The City of Eagle Pass, Maverick County, Maverick County Hospital District, Maverick County Environmental and Public Health Association, and Maverick County farmers, ranchers, and residents are currently appealing the Railroad Commission of Texas’ January 29, 2013 decision to permit the Dos Republicas’ Eagle Pass Mine before the Texas Third Court of Appeals in Austin, Texas.  A decision is expected to be announced in the near future.  

Opponents of the Eagle Pass Mine also are contesting the renewal and expansion of a TCEQ permit to Dos Republicas Coal Partnership to discharge its coal mining waste waters and stormwaters into Elm Creek and the Rio Grande River.  A public hearing is scheduled on November 16, 2015 in Ausitn, Texas.

If Blanchard’s testimony is any indication, Maverick Countians and over six million U.S.-Mexico border residents can expect to become victims of the greatest environmental injustice committed by the coal mining industry.