Article: Groups back state lawsuit on rock mining
NASHVILLE — A Bredesen administration bill that would put new restrictions on rock mining stalled Wednesday in the House Government Operations Committee amid industry concerns and Republican opposition.
The sponsor of the bill, Rep. Mike McDonald, D-Portland, later vowed to return with it and said, “why Republicans feel they need to reward businesses that severely damage and destroy Tennessee’s public lands is beyond me.”
But Rep. Jim Cobb, R-Spring City, a committee member, said he and others have concerns the bill will have a “retroactive” impact and infringe on the property rights of businessmen who sold surface rights to property years ago but retained ownership of the mineral rights.
“Is the government stepping in to force someone to breach a contract?” he said.
The bill also was postponed in the Senate Environment, Conservation and Tourism Committee at the request of its Senate sponsor, Senate Democratic Leader Jim Kyle of Memphis, who said he has his own reservations.
The legislation is an attempt to better regulate rock mining, a practice that drew attention last year when Florida-based Lahiere-Hill LLC, which owns the mineral rights in the state’s Cumberland Trail State Park, paid contractors with front-end loaders to dig out sandstone rock in the park near Soddy-Daisy and Chattanooga.
Some home owners along the Cumberland Plateau, meanwhile, have been shocked to find the money they paid to purchase homes covered only surface rights and not mineral rights.
Under a compromise struck between some area lawmakers, the Department of Environment and Conservation, the Tennessee Roadbuilders Association and the Tennessee Farm Bureau, owners of both surface and mineral rights — if they are the one and the same — can continue to mine without state interference.
In cases where the ownership is split, the bill provides no rock miner can engage in rock “harvesting” unless he has the written consent of the surface rights owner. Absent an agreement, the rock miner would have to obtain a state permit and post a bond guaranteeing reclamation of the land.
The compromise, however, began crumbling in the face of a new lobbying push by Lahiere-Hill, rock mining companies and smaller contractors not involved in the compromise.
During the House committee meeting, Rep. Susan Lynn, R-Mt. Juliet, questioned whether purchasers of the surface rights shouldn’t have known better what they had gotten into.
“It seems to me buyer beware,” Rep. Lynn said.
She questioned if the bill violated a constitutional provision that prohibits the taking of private property without “just compensation.”
Department of Environment and Conservation attorney Alan Leiserson disagreed, noting the federal government legally was able to put new restrictions on coal mining in 1977.
Although Democrats have a majority on the panel, the House panel abruptly adjourned after the chairman, Rep. Mike Kernell, D-Memphis, lost control amid a concerted GOP attack.
“I think we need to bring this committee meeting to order here,” said Speaker Pro Tem Lois DeBerry, D-Memphis, who later made a successful motion to adjourn when the apparently confused Chairman Kernell could not exert command.
Meanwhile, Sen. Kyle said he is trying to see if “we can bridge a compromise,” noting he is not sure “whether we’ll be able to do that or not” before the session ends.
Chattanooga attorney Bart Quinn, who is lobbying for Lahiere-Hill, said mineral rights owners and rock miners are seeking to work with the department “to pass good legislation.”
