Undermined: Fifteenth in a series about the impacts of longwall mining in Alabama.
JASPER, Ala.—Verby Burton said she wasn’t expecting much from Thursday’s meeting of the Alabama Surface Mining Commission, the agency tasked with regulating the surface impacts of underground coal mining in the state.
“And that’s exactly what I got,” Burton said after the meeting. “Not much.”
Burton is a resident of Oak Grove, a rural community in western Jefferson County, about 45 miles southwest of Birmingham, that sits above an expanding longwall coal mine. The impacts of the aggressive form of mining—cracking roads, damaging foundations, causing land subsidence and triggering the escape of potentially explosive methane gas—have plagued the community for years. That culminated in a home explosion atop the mine in March 2024 that that killed grandfather W.M. Griffice and seriously injured his grandson.
In December, after a series of investigations by Inside Climate News into the explosion and Alabama’s lax regulatory response, federal mining officials forced the state’s hand, issuing a so-called ten-day notice requiring the Alabama Surface Mining Commission to demand methane monitoring plans from coal companies in the state.
In a letter sent in January, the agency’s director, Kathy Love, did just that, requiring that the companies submit new “subsidence control plans” that include measures related to monitoring levels of potentially explosive methane gas in and around homes located above their operations.
At Thursday’s meeting, however, Love announced that she had delayed the March 31 deadline she’d previously imposed for submitting such methane monitoring plans by six months, giving coal companies until Sept. 30 to submit the updated documents.
“I was under pressure to get an answer out for that ten-day notice, and, unbeknownst to me—I should’ve thought about it—March 31 is not enough time,” she said.
Love did not mention during Thursday’s meeting how she’d determined that the initial 90-day period was insufficient, but a draft letter from her agency to coal companies across the state obtained by Inside Climate News notes that her decision came after a request from the Alabama Mining Association, a lobbying group that bills itself as the “collective voice of Alabama’s mining industry.”
The draft letter says “mine operators sought assistance from the Alabama Mining Association (AMA) to obtain a deadline extension to allow adequate time for the completion of the comprehensive plans.”
AMA then formally requested a 180-day extension of the deadline in a letter to the state agency dated March 18, the letter states, and “upon review of the facts and circumstances,” the Alabama regulator granted the request.
Meanwhile, residents who reside atop the expanding Oak Grove mine live in fear of a methane explosion in their home.
Resident Phyllis Wright said in an interview that during a recent thunderstorm, her home methane monitor alerted her to an unsafe level of the gas, advising her to “ventilate and evacuate” her home. Wright didn’t know what to do, she said, and still hasn’t received guidance from mine operators or state or federal regulators as to what should be done in such situations.
At Thursday’s meeting, Love, citing that incident, initially appeared somewhat dismissive of home methane monitors.
“I don’t know what caused that, but it was just an incident that may have been a false alarm or caused by the lightning,” she told residents and commissioners gathered for the meeting. “I don’t know. I can’t even verify anything like that.”
Asked later by an Inside Climate News reporter whether she would have such a monitor in her home were she to live above an expanding longwall mine, however, Love didn’t hesitate to answer.
“Yes, I would,” she said. “Just like I have a fire alarm.”
Love emphasized in the meeting that she believes that coal operators in Alabama are going beyond what’s required by law to monitor methane and ensure the safety of those living above mines. Residents like Lisa Lindsay, W.M. Griffice’s closest neighbor, are skeptical of that claim.
Crimson Oak Grove Resources, the mining company that owns and operates the mine below her home, placed methane monitors under her property following the fatal explosion in 2024.
Since then, Lindsay told Love and commissioners, she’s requested information on the observed methane levels. Only occasionally has she gotten a response, she said. And when she has heard back from company representatives, their answers aren’t specific, simply telling her that elevated levels of methane were detected beneath her home “fewer than five times.”
“They’ve refused to tell me what’s happening under my house,” Lindsay said.
“I don’t know what the justification is for not giving you those readings,” Love responded. “I will make the phone call and see what I can do.”
Oak Grove Resources did not respond to a request for comment. The company hasn’t answered any of Inside Climate News’ questions since the explosion.
“Y’all need to get on it, then,” Lindsay told Love and agency commissioners. “Y’all are the last line of defense for us residents versus the mining industry. Your job is to regulate and help protect us, right? So that’s something that really, really has got to be followed up on. We need to know what’s going on underneath our houses.”
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Thank you,
Lee Hedgepeth
Reporter, Alabama
Lee Hedgepeth is Inside Climate News’ Alabama reporter. Raised in Grand Bay, Alabama, a small town on the Gulf Coast, Lee holds master’s degrees in community journalism and political development from the University of Alabama and Tulane University. Lee is the founder of Tread, a newsletter of Southern journalism, and has also worked for news outlets across Alabama, including CBS 42, Alabama Political Reporter and the Anniston Star. His reporting has focused on issues impacting members of marginalized groups, including homelessness, poverty, and the death penalty. His award-winning journalism has appeared in publications across the country and has been cited by the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal and the Washington Post, among others.
