This post is the last in this series of four pieces concerning the Tampa Energy Company, or TECO, as it is better-known. Of course, if and when I have more information, I'll write about it again.

TECO has finished its operations in McRoberts, Kentucky. Though they claim that they restored the mountain and reclaimed it, it is not so. The mountain is gone, and all that is left is a huge rocky scar where the mountain was. The valleys are still filled, and there are still problems with serious and dangerous flooding. The Burke's garden was never replaced, and the homes that were destroyed in TECO's time in McRoberts were not replaced, either. The town and its 921 residents will never be the same again.

TECO, however, is not completely gone. They have changed their name in Kentucky to the Clintwood Elkhorn Coal Company and have now a mine site in Pike County. It is a mountaintop removal site, and the same things are occurring in Pike county as did in neighboring Letcher County. Clintwood Elkhorn Coal is a subsidiary of TECO, and their callous disregard for the law and for the people is still evident.

In 2001, the Letcher County grand jury criticized the operation of TECO's mine because of damaged homes and angered neighbors.  There were many complaints from residents about water, mud and debris from TECO’s mines had flooded their property. Other residents told the grand jury panel that blasting at the mine had cracked walls and ceilings, and that in at least one instance, an elderly woman’s house had sustained considerable damage after a blast from the TECO mine.

"They haven't been a real good neighbor," said Wayne Fleming, a county magistrate who represents the towns of McRoberts, Dunham and Haymond, where residents complain of problems from the mines. "Really, no neighbor at all.

TECO officials are quick to point out that they have operated well within the laws and regulations for mining coal. They blamed the flooding on “an act of God,” or mining operations which occurred before they bought the mine property.

Mining inspectors agreed that TECO had followed the law., but that the laws needed to be clarified and tightened up.

But neighbors say that TECO not only offered no help in repairing property damage, but that they had no one at TECO to contact in the event of an emergency.

"It is the sincere hope of the grand jury that TECO Mining will undertake steps to improve its image and to better address the complaints of these citizens," the report stated.

This is not the first time that Tampa Electric Co., the utility that earns the lion's share of TECO's revenues, has encountered complaints about and opposition to its environmental practices.

The Justice Department and Environmental Protection Agency sued Tampa Electric in 1999 over emissions from its coal-burning Big Bend and Gannon plants. The state of Florida later worked out a deal for TECO to spend $1-billion over the next decade to reduce air pollution.

Previous owners of the Kentucky mines observed the thousand foot rule, meaning that they did not mine within 1000 feet of resident homes. TECO has mined within 700 feet of homes.

Fleming said that residents have complained about mine blasts shaking their homes apart. As many as ninety people say that their homes have sustained damage as a result of these blasts, mostly cracked walla and ceilings. TECO applied for and was granted variances to use stronger explosives than those permitted by law. TECO spokesperson Laura Plumb, however, claimed that all blasts were within state laws and guidelines.

In 2002, five major floods came when silt ponds, which are different from slurry impoundment ponds, overflowed. These ponds are designed to catch runoff from mines before it pollutes rivers. When Fleming and a sheriff’s deputy went to inspect the ponds during the floods, they were turned away by a security guard.

Grand jury members also heard from residents who complained they couldn't open windows and doors or sit outside because dust kicked up from the mines worsened their breathing problems, some caused by years of working in mines.

"Such complaints arise from nearly all mining activities," the report states. "However ... in the past many coal companies washed down the homes of the community at no charge and extensively used water trucks and other means to optimize the dust problems."

On August 11, 2007, a letter was published in the St. Petersburg Times by a Sierra Club member who was writing about TECO's destructive mining practices. An excerpt of that letter follows here:

"Letters to the Editor(St. Pete Times 8/11) "Destructive mining"

TECO sometimes boasts of its clean-burning power plants in the flier that accompanies the electric bill. Seemed to me to be a good thing, until recently.

In the summer 2007 issue of the Natural Resources Defense Council's bulletin OnEarth, there's an article entitled "Appalachian Apocalypse," about mountaintop removal mining. This one-page article describes the destruction to the eastern Kentucky Appalachian region by the digging out of the entire tops of mountains for low-sulphur coal, and the depositing of all the remains into the lower streams and valleys. What stunned me was this passage:

"The resulting 'valley fills' create the largest man-made earthen structures in the country - huge treeless funnels that let mud and rainwater wash unimpeded through low-lying communities all across central Appalachia. The town of McRoberts, Kentucky, recently endured three '100-year floods' in 10 days. The water filled homes and carried away carports. When TECO Energy of Tampa, Florida, had leveled every peak around the community, it took the coal, took the profits, and left the people of McRoberts with crumbling homes, terrible roads, and a constant fear of being washed away in one's sleep."

Of course, TECO keeps its source of low-sulphur coal a guarded secret; eastern Kentucky is well out of sight of the Tampa Bay area. But I feel the company has a serious responsibility to repair this devastation to the extent possible.

What do you have to say to your Tampa Bay customers, TECO, about this ecological destruction? Are you going to clean up after yourself, and at least reforest the leveled mountains?

Jim van Koolbergen, Tampa Sierra Club

In 2008, TECO issued an environmental report in which they defend their efforts to be good citizens and to take a serious interest in environmental issues regarding their mining practices. The relevant portion of that Environmental Report follows here:

TECO COAL

Kentucky-based TECO Coal has promoted the development of reforested mine lands as a viable reclamation technique. The company’s environmental goals are to protect the environment, reclaim and improve mined areas and enhance wildlife habitat. As part of a continued commitment to being a good corporate citizen, reclamation of post-mined land is a high priority for the company.

Since trees provide one of the most effective vehicles known for absorbing and storing carbon, the company has planted nearly one million trees, mostly native species that are predominantly mixed hardwoods. This effort includes a joint project between the University of Kentucky Forestry Department and TECO Coal’s Premier Elkhorn Company, which planted 121,920 trees on over 170 acres in McRoberts, Kentucky, in February 2005. Future surface mining permits will include, as part of the post-mining land use outline, a provision to recreate forest lands with hardwood trees.

TECO Coal and its affiliate companies have been honored 12 times by various reforestation organizations and by the states of Kentucky and Tennessee for exceptional

reclamation accomplishments. In 2006, Gratify Coal Company, which is part of TECO Coal’s family of companies, was awarded the Excellence in Reforestation Award by the Appalachian Regional Reforestation Initiative.

TECO Coal has been, for the last four years, actively involved with the Corbin High School Environmental Studies Class doing field work on quantifying forest growth and quality. This was a joint effort with the federal office of Surface Mine Reclamation and Enforcement.

TECO Coal also recycles and reuse materials of its mining process. Heavy equipment generates almost all of the recyclable metals sent out of its operations annually. Old equipment is used for parts until there are no economically significant parts remaining for reuse. The frames and other components of the machines are then recycled for their scrap metal value.

The company also sells large equipment tires that a third party converts into watering troughs for elk in national parks in the western United States. Other parts of the tires are used in the manufacture of industrial and agricultural implements, such as scrapper blades and bucket linings. Scrap rubber is sent to industrial burners for steam generation for either heat value or power generation.

The company also has devised a method for using old equipment tires to establish road barriers (guard rails) rather than sending them to landfills. The company’s operations are subject to various federal, state and local air and water pollution standards. In 2007, TECO Coal spent about $2.6 million on environmental protection and reclamation programs. The Surface Mining Control and Reclamation Act of 1977 places charges of 15 and 35 cents on every net ton of underground and surface coal mined, respectively, to create a fund for reclaiming land and water adversely affected by coal mining. For 2007, TECO Coal paid nearly $2 million for reclamation through this program.

TECO ENERGY, INC Environmental Report 2008

In June of 2008, at the same time as the Environmental Report, Kentuckians for the Commonwealth and the Sierra Club sent TECO notice that they were filing suits against TECO for creating two large valley fills without permits. The KFTC website explains:

The letter, sent on Tuesday, accuses TECO subsidiary Clintwood Elkhorn Mining of violating the Clean Water Act by dumping its mining waste into Pike County streams and allowing it to remain there. The violation is near Fishtrap Lake.

A “Section 404” permit from the U.S. Corps of Engineers is required before a company may fill a stream. Clintwood Elkhorn has applied for this permit but it has not been granted.

“Clintwood Elkhorn's filling of the streams at issue in this letter before the Corps has considered the permit application betrays a reckless disregard for the rule of law,” the letter states.

“It's a slap in the face to the community members and to the enforcement departments,” said KFTC member Rully Urias, who lives near Fishtrap Lake. “It shows their total disregard of the laws in place to protect the environment and the people. And maybe they'll get a slap on the wrist for it."

Urias and Sierra Club organizer John Cleveland visited the site on May 22 and saw two valley fills and two ponds that were not approved on any permit. A followup conversation with Corps officials in their Sassafras, Kentucky office revealed that they were aware of this violation because Clintwood Elkhorn had self-reported it, but the agency has not acted.

“You can't do two valleys fills and say I didn't know. They knew what they were doing. It's definitely not a mistake,” said Urias. “I knew they did stuff like this, I just didn't think they'd be so bold about it. How often does it happen if they have a protocol for when it does happen?"

Despite TECO's claims to the contrary, their record with environmental safety and protection is shabby. There is no amount of cosmetic maneuvering which will change that. For Kentucky residents, TECO has been devastating, and their excuses and treatment of the land and of the people have been unconscionable and a matter of depraved indifference to the people of the Commonwealth of Kentucky.