As many of you know, the Soddy Gorge segment of the Cumberland Trail State Park is being hauled off a dump truck load at a time. Not only is the trail being destroyed, but the gorge that this park is supposed to protect is being devastated and forever changed. Furthermore, these “rock miners” can just leave, no laws forcing them to reclaim the land. Unfortunately, the state tried to take this issue to court but the judge ruled in favor of the mineral rights owner, the case is under appeal.
What can we do?
Please read the text below - it sums up the issue. The next step is to contact your state representative and senator and ask them to amend the mining laws so this type of operation can at the very least be regulated. This is a problem not only on public land but if private property owners do not own their mineral rights, it can happen on private lands also. Now is the time to stand up and ask the people representing you to stop the wholesale destruction of the Cumberland Plateau. Please tell everyone you know and get the word out.
Background
n the last decade, the Cumberland Trail Conference (CTC) has raised $1.7 million, provided more than half of the funds to purchase three watersheds (Rock, Possum, and Soddy) in Hamilton County, and organized 150,000 volunteer hours to design, build, and maintain the Cumberland Trail. This trail is the central feature of the Cumberland Trail State Park, a long distance hiking trail stretching through 11 Cumberland Plateau counties. A large fraction of the volunteer hours was invested in the three watersheds and by December 2006, 35 miles of continuous trail was available for hiking and other outdoor recreational pursuits. Regrettably, these 35 miles did not remain open for more than a month. The state closed a section of the trail to public use because of the public safety concern caused by surface rock removal on park property. The holder of the mineral rights, LaHiere-Hill, claimed surface rocks are a mineral.
The Tennessee Department of Environment and Conservation (TDEC) filed a suit in the Hamilton County Chancery Court to stop the rock removal. The court opinion and order was issued on April 4, 2007. The order did not stop the rock removal on State Park land but provided limited protection for the trail. Since April of 2007, the rock removal operation has changed. Surface rock removal is now taking place deep within the gorge about 75 feet from the creek, another much improved road goes to the bottom of the gorge and cuts across the trail, and several thousand tons of rock have been removed forever changing the character of the gorge and it is being demolished.
We want to take action to stop the current damage and prevent future damage. Groups are encouraged to file amicus curiae (friends of the court) briefs in support of the TDEC appeal of a recent decision by the Hamilton County Chancery Court. This decision has an impact on all of the State owned land (lands we as citizens own) on the Cumberland Plateau that does not include the ownership of mining rights. I urge all groups interested in saving the Cumberland Plateau to file briefs to stop surface rock removal being an acceptable form of mining.
Regarding Rock Mining
A number of sources have indicated that the State’s inability to adequately control “rock mining” stems from Tennessee Code, Title 59 – “Mines and Mining”, Chapter 8 – “Strip and Open Pit Mines” , Part 2 entitled “Tennessee Mineral Surface Mining Law of 1972“ which empowers regulation of surface mining operations but specifically excludes the mining of limestone and dimension stone. It is further thought that an amendment to this law, which would remove the exclusion of limestone and dimension stone mining, would be a feasible and obtainable approach to empowering the State to regulate these operations.
The statutes I referred to starts at Tennessee Code Annotated 59-8-201. The definition of minerals is found in T.C.A. 59-8-202. I am pasting the definition:
(7) (A) “Mineral” means, in any county having a population of more than six hundred thousand (600,000) according to the 1970 federal census or any subsequent federal census, clay, stone, gravel, sand, phosphate rock, metallic ore and any other solid material or substance of commercial value found in natural deposits on or in the earth, but does not include limestone, coal, marble, chert or dimension stone;
(B) “Mineral” means, in any county having a population of six hundred thousand (600,000) or less according to the 1970 federal census or any subsequent federal census, clay, stone, phosphate rock, metallic ore, and any other solid material or substance of commercial value found in natural deposits on or in the earth, but does not include limestone, coal, marble, chert, gravel, sand or dimension stone;
The website that has the whole Tennessee Code Annotated is:
http://michie.lexisnexis.com/tennessee/lpext.dll?f=templates&fn=main-h.htm&cp=
You click on the code on the left side of the page--go down to Title 59 and click on it.
Tony Hook
General Manager
Cumberland Trail Conference
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