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Battlefield petition public hearing canceled today
October 26, 2006
By Vickie Welborn
vwelborn@gannett.com
MANSFIELD – State conservation officials have canceled a public hearing set for 6 p.m. today to receive oral and written comments a petition that sought to declare lands around the Mansfield battlefield unsuitable for lignite mining.
The hearing was canceled after the petitioners - the Austin Civil War Round Table, Inc., and the Louisiana Environmental Action Network - withdrew the petition filed in 2004.
In his letter to state Conservation Commissioner James H. Welsh, attorney Adam Babich states, “The petitioners have determined that further progress in their efforts to preserve the Mansfield Battlefield as a unique historical resource can best be made in other contexts.”
The Tulane Environmental Law Clinic filed the petition in an effort to declare a portion of the original Mansfield battlefield, not the state-owned Mansfield State Historic Site property, declared unsuitable for lignite mining.
The original petition specifically targets about 6,000 acres located about four miles southeast of Mansfield. Some has already been mined by the Dolet Hills Lignite Mining operation. The mine, owned by AEP-SWEPCO, obtained a 40-year permit in 1983 to dig coal from southeast DeSoto Parish.
The Mansfield State Historic Site comprises about 177 acres. Another 41 acres near there is in the state’s hands for future development, and preservation groups had negotiated the protection of another 60 acres.
The impact of the lignite operation has drawn national and international attention as the nonprofit Civil War Preservation Trust had for four years identified the site of the Battle of Mansfield as one of the most endangered battlefields in the nation. The site is no longer on the most endangered list.
The Battle of Mansfield was waged in three phases from April 8-9, 1864.
©The Times
October 26, 2006
October 26, 2006
vwelborn@gannett.com
MANSFIELD – State conservation officials have canceled a public hearing set for 6 p.m. today to receive oral and written comments a petition that sought to declare lands around the Mansfield battlefield unsuitable for lignite mining.
The hearing was canceled after the petitioners - the Austin Civil War Round Table, Inc., and the Louisiana Environmental Action Network - withdrew the petition filed in 2004.
In his letter to state Conservation Commissioner James H. Welsh, attorney Adam Babich states, “The petitioners have determined that further progress in their efforts to preserve the Mansfield Battlefield as a unique historical resource can best be made in other contexts.”
The Tulane Environmental Law Clinic filed the petition in an effort to declare a portion of the original Mansfield battlefield, not the state-owned Mansfield State Historic Site property, declared unsuitable for lignite mining.
The original petition specifically targets about 6,000 acres located about four miles southeast of Mansfield. Some has already been mined by the Dolet Hills Lignite Mining operation. The mine, owned by AEP-SWEPCO, obtained a 40-year permit in 1983 to dig coal from southeast DeSoto Parish.
The Mansfield State Historic Site comprises about 177 acres. Another 41 acres near there is in the state’s hands for future development, and preservation groups had negotiated the protection of another 60 acres.
The impact of the lignite operation has drawn national and international attention as the nonprofit Civil War Preservation Trust had for four years identified the site of the Battle of Mansfield as one of the most endangered battlefields in the nation. The site is no longer on the most endangered list.
The Battle of Mansfield was waged in three phases from April 8-9, 1864.
©The Times
October 26, 2006
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