“An Irresponsible Government 
Which Has Thrown Aside All Considerations 
Of Humanity And Of Right” 

It’s almost impossible to describe the troubles of Diane and Roy Brendel of Spraggs, Greene County.  Their house was undermined by Consol Energy’s Blacksville #2 Mine on Thanksgiving night, November 23, 2000.  We wrote about the actual undermining in a previous Pollution Update [http://www.rayproffitt.org/stopper/spsum2001/ttspsum2001.htm]   Their house has not been repaired, except for small, band-aid style repairs made to treat some of the symptoms, such as when the kitchen counter pulls away from the wall, or interior walls separate from ceilings.  Other, more dramatic things, like bowed and sloping floors, have been simply left alone.  The interior of the house is braced with “walls” made from 2 x 4s, and the whole house is held together by a system of steel jacks and 6 x 6 treated lumber posts (some ominously bowed by the pressure) both inside the basement and on the exterior of the house.  Their possessions are stacked in boxes in the house and in a semi-trailer (minus the tractor) on the lawn.  Even with the longwall machine long gone, new damage occasionally crops up as the ground doesn’t seem to be quite done moving.  Stone houses don't take too well to  being moved around.    

As Roy put it, they never intended for their plight to become a poster child for the downsides of longwall mining, but that's the way it's turning out.  Even if the home is repaired and repaired soon, it will take some time for the family to make that house a home again.     

This situation is more complex than the “normal” housewrecking that goes on in Greene and Washington counties.  Diane and Roy own and live in an historic home, the Ernest Thralls House ( http://www.nationalregisterofhistoricplaces.com/PA/Greene/state.html ).  Major Thralls was a Greene County native that served in the US Army, in part, under General John J. "Black Jack" Pershing, helping to pacify the southwestern US from the marauding of "Pancho" Villa (http://www.emnrd.state.nm.us/nmparks/PAGES/PARKS/PANCHO/PANCHO.HTM ).  American lives were lost and much of Columbus, New Mexico was destroyed.  Pershing’s “Punitive Expedition” to Mexico would be likely be called "counter-terrorism"or some such thing today.  After service in the southwest, both Major Thralls and General Pershing went to France to fight in World War I and make the world “safe for democracy.” 

Major Thralls eventually went home to Greene County and designed and built the house in a southwestern style, and it has many unique features (or had, as some have been irreparably damaged) that reflect his love for the southwest.  It is hard to imagine what Major Thralls (buried at Arlington National Cemetery), or General Pershing for that matter, would think about what has happened to the Brendels and their home.  One of the icons of the American way of life is the sanctity and privacy of the family home, and for some time now the Brendels have been squaring off against a company determined to extract coal and, now that the coal is out (and the Brendels’ home wrecked), equally determined to keeping costs down.  The actual mining took place after discussions between Consol, the state, the Federal government and the Brendels on protecting this historic property were suddenly and mysteriously terminated, and the Federal Office of Surface Mining approved an inadequate protection plan.  Mining occurred  48 hours after that.  By law, an historic home can’t be irreparably damaged, and any damage that does occur has to be repaired in conformity with the standards of historical architecture.   

The result of the mining was massive, probably irreparable damage to the home, just as the architect and engineers hired by the Brendels predicted before the mining.   Now no one in government or the coal company will admit the damage is irreparable, because by law the mining can’t irreparably harm an historic property.  The whole thing is being litigated, because Diane and Roy want their house restored, and the company’s cost estimate is one-sixth of the estimate of an independent contractor (obtained by the Brendels at the coal company’s request).   In the meantime, only band-aid style repairs are being made (example: when large cracks appear because the walls shift, the “repair” consists of squirting expandable foam in the crack and painting it over).   

Real fair fight here, with the Brendels, a pair of everyday folks (whose easy-going nature remains intact considering what they have been through), versus Consol Energy, a large corporation whose larger corporate “parent”resides way over the ocean in Germany in the name of “Rheinbraun AG,” which is a subsidiary of an even larger corporation “RWE AG” ( http://www.consolenergy.com/news/news_history.htm); interested readers can find out for themselves what those two companies are about).  The law that results in the destruction of Pennsylvania homes was not written in Germany, however, but right here in Pennsylvania. 

Now that the damage has been done, the bureaucrats and politicians sit on the sidelines offering excuses why they can’t do what anyone else would consider to be the decent thing, considering how these folks have been victimized.  So even though the state government facilitated the destruction (see previous PU’s on Act 54 http://www.rayproffitt.org/pu/pu073199.htm), and the Federal government gave the green light to mine, they now refuse to get involved in a dispute between the two private parties (Brendels vs. supernational corporations).  No matter what injustices are done to the residents and natural resources of Greene and Washington counties, government is quick to point out that all that happens is within the law.  Here, it wasn’t within the law because the process wasn’t followed, so the easiest course for government is to look for excuses to stay out of it and especially stay away from saying the house was “irreparably” harmed because that would be admitting that the law was violated.   

So this has been going on for over two years now.  Just when they thought things couldn’t get much worse, Diane and Roy received a letter a few months ago from their homeowner’s insurance company saying that the company was no longer conducting business in Pennsylvania and the Brendels would need a new policy.  Nothing personal about the Brendels’ place; all the Pennsylvania customers are in the same boat.  If you or I get that letter, it’s no big deal, a couple of phone calls at most and we have a new policy, at probably the same money.   

The Brendels didn’t think that much about it, either.  By law, the coal company is responsible for the damage to the home, so that shouldn’t be a consideration.  They need coverage for the other stuff - fire, theft, liability.  Their local independent insurance agent said not to worry, that he represented 16 companies and he could get them a policy.  Wrong.  Zero for sixteen.  Well, there is a kind of “assigned risk” pool for homeowners insurance, kind of like getting car insurance  when no one really wants you because of your driving record, but you have to have it to drive because it is required by law.  Surely that last resort insurance will be available.  

Wrong again.  Seems no one, even the “assigned risk” companies, are keen on insuring a house that has been undermined, even if someone else is responsible by law to repair the damage caused by mining.  The Brendels’ insurance will expire on March 6, 2003, and then their mortgage holder will probably begin to do what mortgage holders do when the homeowners don’t carry insurance, and even if they are not foreclosed, the Brendels will be responsible if someone falls and gets hurt or something else happens.   

No insurance company is interested, and various officials supposedly working on the problem for months have no good news on the insurance issue as the deadline looms.  The same PA General Assembly that overwhelmingly passed Act 54 that is the direct cause of all this misery, the same DEEP that implements this law, the same Federal Office of Surface Mining that signed off on the mining plan that wrecked the Brendels’ home, the US Congress, or anyone else in “public service.”  All the King’s horses and men can’t seem to fix this, although they broke it.  One gets the sense that to the state and Federal governments, the Brendels are an uncomfortable reminder that things don’t always go as planned, that the change in the mining law that allows unfettered longwall mining to occur provided that the damage is repaired - Act 54 - just isn’t working for the Brendels, and probably many others.    

President Wilson coined that familiar phrase “the world must be made safe for democracy” when asking Congress to declare war on Germany in 1917.  In that same address, he decried Germany’s decision to conduct unrestricted submarine warfare as an action of “an irresponsible government which has thrown aside all considerations of humanity and of right.”

Major Thralls fought in Mexico to protect American lives and property.  And for American principles.  He fought in World War I for the same reasons.  Granted, there is a very large distinction between deliberate acts of war and the damage to homes and lives that is occurring in southwestern Pennsylvania.  All the same, we wonder how President Wilson would describe the government that has allowed the Brendels’ home and way of life to be torpedoed, and now offers them nothing but excuses.

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