These problems have been going on since 1990.

In the opinion of our legal counsel, an informational meeting does not violate the Sunshine Law. We were not asking township officials to take an action. This was an opportunity to explain where (the permit) stands so we can answer questions.

If you try to undertake what is a $5 billion problem here on a month-to-month basis, it's going to take a long, long time at that rate to see significant results. It's important to us to know how much we're getting and for how long.

Everyone said there's nothing you can do about it. Now people are finding out you can.

For a long time, the entire nation depended on coal, limestone, iron ore and steel from Pennsylvania. It helped win the Revolutionary War, it built railroads that opened the West and rebuilt Europe after two world wars. Our take on this is that this is not Pennsylvania's abandoned mine problem, it's America's problem.

It's not something the company was faulted for. They make a very concerted effort to have a safe workplace. They promote it ... It's an ongoing thing and it involves communication at all levels.

The supervisors and FROST had requested a private meeting at the end of the review process to discuss what was going to be in the permit. We were doing what we were asked to do. If we had known the trouble this would cause, we wouldn't have done it that way.

The supervisors and FROST requested a meeting with us when we neared the end of the process.

The state is focused on cleaning up this huge, historic mess. We don't believe we're asking for anything extravagant (from the federal government) to do it.

You have a material that can be used as fuel. As soon as you get the material out of the stream, it (the stream) improves. If we can clean streams while creating electricity, and it's not costing the taxpayers any money to clean up these streams, that's a good thing.