photo by Darrell Hoemann/CU-Citizen Access.org
Jonathan Ashbrook, left, on his property with Sue and Tom Smith near the proposed site of the Sunrise coal mine outside Homer, Ill. The three are members of a grassroots organization, Stand Up To Coal, opposing the mine. Ashbrook's family has owned land near the seasonal creek known as The Olive Branch for the past 140 years. The original mine permit stated it would use local field drainage tiles for mine discharge, which empties in the Olive Branch about a mile from the mine site.
Keith Rohl remembers the day he was asked to lease the coal rights to his farmland in Homer, Illinois.
It was 2009, a wet year for the crops, when he was lined up at the grain elevator with his neighbors hearing about the proposed Bulldog Mine for the first time.
“The neighbors were all talking about, ‘You sell your coal rights, and you get to farm your land on top. You’re going to have all kinds of money and everything.’ And I thought ‘Boy, that sounds great to me, and I was ready to sign up,’ ” he said.