Disconcerting findings....

During the permit conference one of the Mining Company owners, John Collins, was questioned about the awards he said he received. We did some research on the operators of the proposed sand mine. As of yet, we have not found the awards he was talking about. In all fairness, we are not professionals and can only view open records that are available. What we have found however, is rather disturbing. We are sharing our findings because they are very concerning. It appears that Mr. Collins was, at one time, part owner of several mining companies; Licking River Resources, Licking River Mines, Sand Lick Coal and US Coal Acquisitions. On March 9th, 2015 Ember Energies was formed. Two days later, on March 11th, 2015 he ended his association with all the other companies. Permits then began being transferred from old companies to Ember Energies. We have found several large violations from some of those past companies. One in which the fine by the EPA was $60,000, another one that was almost ten times that. So far we do not know if this was a single fine or accumulated fines from various violations that amounted to $507,000 altogether. 
 It appears that another owner of Silicon Dioxide, Kenneth Bailey – in the 1980's on 10+ instances either was the permit holder or the operator of a mine that forfeited the bond on a mine. What that means is that he mined a piece of land and then just abandoned and walked away from the mine and thus doing no reclamation of the site. These histories raise some very serious questions for us. If this is true for you as well we encourage you to include them in your email to Fred Buckner or send him another one, voicing your new concerns. The good news: As of now we have over 1300 signatures on our petition. Thank you!