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Each day that I go to work at Western Fuels I can look across the farm <br />ground that we have created and it has helped this community and its land <br />owners more than anything I have seen in my mining career. In 1993 when <br />Western Fuels started, the water that we faced through the swamp ground <br />that we were mining was a true challenge. We all learned as we mined how <br />to irrigate the ground below us so it was possible to get the coal from <br />beneath the water. As we reclaimed the ground that we mined, there were <br />green fields and hay crop that would not grow there before. It was virtually <br />a swamp before and farmable ground after. I am proud of our reclamation <br />awards that we have received. <br />_ There will never be a time that a mining company does not face problems. <br />Either with the State Regulations or land owners in general. I have seen it <br />for 40 years and it will never change. As the permits become stricter to <br />protect our State, it is a challenge for all mining companies. In the process <br />of all the compliance that they must meet, jobs are lost and communities are <br />destroyed and the mining industry which once built this wonderful State is <br />becoming a thing of the past. I am now 58 years old. My State that I grew <br />up in is becoming something that I do not know anymore. Our jobs are all <br />in some other country and we ask ourselves what has happened. Is the <br />answer not as clear as our blue skies? <br />I could not be more proud to be an employee of Western Fuels and what <br />they have done for this community through employment, taxes for the <br />schools, support for the businesses and the farm ground that they are <br />returning to the land owners to make their lives and the lives of their <br />children and grandchildren something that they can support their families on <br />for generations to come. I Would give my eye teeth to have -land returned to <br />me in the condition that we are leaving it in for the land owners in this <br />community. <br />I am and will always be a miner. It has provided a living for my family for <br />generations also and they have not always been good times. I am no <br />different than a land owner, other than my land has been the mine that I <br />work on. I feel I can take as much pride in that as farmers can from the <br />hay and crops that they grow. Someday my grandchildren will be able to <br />say "My Grandmother helped create all these fields that you see." That will