In documents requested by Environmentalist Chad Kister, John Burns gave a document showing the proposed buffer zones, with OU clearly indicated the amount of coal and the cost as the only variables of consideration in the two buffer zones.
The first buffer zone listed is the smallest - 1,000 feet from the old-growth forest sections of Dysart Woods. It is only "350 to 375 acres" and does not even cover about a third of the 455 acre Dysart Woods nature preserve that OU owns! Yet it appears OU is choosing this option. The only other listings of information on the map other than the size is the amount of coal and its value. For the first proposal, the amount of coal is 2.45 to 2.6 million tons of coal "valued between $53.9" million "and $57.2" million.
The second is 1,285 feet from the old-growth forest. It would
add an additional 106 acres to the first proposal. It would add an
additional 725,000 tons of and "an additional $16" million.
"OU's proposed buffer zone ignores the watershed of the ancient forest
and doesn't even protect a third of the Dysart Woods nature preserve area,"
Kister said. "OU is selling out Dysart Woods for the profits of Ohio
Valley Coal Co. at the expense of the virgin forest that OU owns and is
legally pledged to protect."
OU's documents reveal that OU's attorney instructed their hired consultant to remove sections dealing with Mary Stoertz, OU's own scientist who drafted the watershed buffer zone that OU turned in July 9, 1997 – just last summer – as OU's proposed buffer zone.
OU's attorney, David Northrop last summer called for protecting
this full watershed buffer zone. On Feb. 24 this year Northrop issued
a letter to OU's scientific consultant for Dysart Woods, Richard Parizek
of Penn State university, asking that he "delete the references to Mary
Stoertz' work. We are requesting a 1,000 foot buffer zone around
the boundaries of the old-growth forest area."
That means OU is only asking for a 350 to 375 acre buffer zone, 12
times smaller than the watershed buffer zone that OU President Robert Glidden
said he supported protecting at OU's Faculty Senate meeting October 20,
1997 (Kister has it on tape), and that Faculty Senate voted with a 96 percent
majority to endorse protecting with a strong motion (also available from
Kister). Student Senate and Graduate Student Senate also passed motions
asking that this buffer zone be protected from mining. Thousands
of letters have been sent to the ODMR, Governor George Voinovich and Glidden
asking that they protect the watershed buffer zone from mining.
The part that Northrop asked Parizek to delete reads, "Mining to the surface drainage basin limit on Dr. M. Stoertz's topographic map could impact the eastern most tributary drainage channel but should not influence surface runoff to either ephemeral stream channels provided that mining were to be restricted to her outline marked Sensitive Area Limit. This 1,200 foot sensitive area (beyond the watershed) limit offset line is within the limit of control and mining affected streams defined by Tieman and Rauch (1987)." Thus, Parizek endorsed Stoertz's watershed buffer zone that is 12 times larger than OU's currently proposed buffer zone, but OU's attorney ordered him to delete this section.
"OU is suppressing its own researchers to further the aims of the coal company. OU is deciding the fate of Dysart Woods based on the bottom line of Ohio Valley Coal Co. In gross violation of its legal committment to protect Dysart Woods," Kister said. "For a quarter century OU has successfully fought off mining threats to the buffer zone. We cannot tolerate the destruction of the last .004 percent of the ancient forest remaining in Ohio."
Further, Moyd Ahmed, who scientifically delineated the original watershed buffer zone, wrote to OU administrators this past December asking that they support the Buckeye Forest Council's Petition for Lands Unsuitable for Mining which would protect the full 4,170 acre watershed buffer zone based in part on Ahmed's studies.
The OU Campus Greens, Student Senate and a dozen other student organizations requested in January that OU have a public hearing on the decision to cut the buffer zone so massively, but OU has refused, acting instead like a private corporation. Kister has asked top administrators every week since January for a public hearing, but again they refused. Kister asked within the allotted time to be on the Board of Trustees meeting agenda but OU refused.
The OU Campus Greens is preparing to act at OU's upcoming Board of Trustees meeting this Friday and Saturday. Another press release with more details will follow in the coming days.