Madison County Illinois is directly across the Mississippi River from St Louis and extends NE to include the cities of Alton, Edwardsville, Collinsville and Granite City.  The eastern part of the county is primarily flat farmland.

This resolution is especially interesting since Madison County does not have nearly as much flat farmland as Montgomery County.  Yet, the Montgomery County Board and the hapless Hillsboro City Council have done and are doing all they can to facilitate the opening of a longwall mine directly across the RR tracks in Hillsboro, Illinois  from the Hospital, Health Club, 2 clinics, a Nursing Home and a Doctor's Office.

WHEREAS, coal mining interests have been reviewing the suitability of lands located within

Madison County, Illinois in order to place a long wall mine operation within the confines of Madison

County, Illinois; and

WHEREAS, long wall mining has been found to have an adverse affect on the environment,

particularly agriculturally sensitive lands;

WHEREAS, Madison County has adopted a comprehensive plan that heretofore places an

emphasis on the protection of the natural resources and the environment of the County; and

WHEREAS, performance criteria, as utilized by both state and federal mining law address

concerns in the areas of mine site conformance to the County's Comprehensive Land Use Plan,

Conservation Lands Systems and other related conservation plans, prevention of water quality and

quantity impacts, concurrent reclamation and visual impacts; and

WHEREAS, both state and federal law will be required to take into account consistency with local

land use and development plans, which in this case is the Madison County Comprehensive Land Use

Plan; and

WHEREAS, the typical legacy left behind from prior and existing mines may place undue costs

and adverse impacts on the tax payers of Madison County with few local tax benefits, and is therefore

unacceptable; and

WHEREAS, a recent study of the effects of Long Wall mining found that water quality impacts

from long wall mines are consistently underestimated and therefore the mitigation is consistently

inadequate; and

WHEREAS, water quality impacts to the Silver Creek Watershed and the water source for the

communities of Highland, St. Jacob and Marine could be detrimental to rare riparian habitat along the

creeks, the endangered species within the creeks, and the high quality water supply to the entire area; and

WHEREAS, environmental impacts associated with the deposition of dredge and fill materials on

agricultural lands have been shown to be detrimental; and

WHEREAS, the practice of long wall mining and the associated subsidence typically has a serious

effect on area geology, particularly on flat surface lands, and that remediation of the subsidence has

proven to be detrimental to the land; and

WHEREAS, the information any Coal company has provided the County to date leaves many

questions unanswered and is insufficient to determine if and how Madison County would be able to meet

any environmental performance criteria outlined by the County to address the negative impacts associated

with long wall mining.

NOW, THEREFORE, UPON MOTION DULY MADE, SECONDED AND CARRIED,

BE IT RESOLVED THAT:

1. The Madison County Board opposes the development of any long wall mining operation in Madison

County.

2. Madison County will continue to actively comment on any future plans of operations submitted on any

such mine, including during any formal review by the U.S. Department of the Interior per the National

Environmental Policy Act and through the Illinois Department of Natural Resources, Bureau of Mines.

3. The Madison County Board requests that both of State and Federal legislators take active roles in the

curtailment of such mining operations that have an adverse effect on agricultural lands within Madison

County.

Passed by the Madison County Board this ______ day of ________________________. 2009

Approved:

Alan J. Dunstan, Chairman

Attest:

Mark Von Nida, County Clerk