Oct. 16--BIG STONE GAP, Va. -- A raucous crowd arrived Thursday for a public hearing on the future of permits allowing surface mine waste to be dumped into streams.

Speakers on both sides competed with the cheers and boos of more than 400 people crammed into an auditorium at the Mountain Empire Community College, while hundreds more listened from outside. Many had parked their cars along the highway and walked up a big hill to the college to participate in the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers hearing on whether to stop issuing Nationwide 21 permits, which provide a more-streamlined process than individual permits for the waste sites, known as valley fills.

Thursday's hearing is one of several scheduled in six Appalachian coal mining states on the Corps' proposed change in regulations, which would require a longer and more costly individual permitting process.

"This is probably one of the most important public hearings that will be held in Southwest Virginia this year and maybe the next several years," said Delegate Bud Phillips, one of many elected officials who spoke in favor of keeping the permits.

"Coal has been the lifeblood of our community for over 100 years. It continues to be the lifeblood of our community," Phillips said. "Let's preserve 21, and let's preserve the families and the communities in Southwest Virginia."

Local elected officials, who rely on the severance tax generated by coal to pay for basic county services, spoke for continued use of the permits.

"I plead with you and I beg with you," Supervisor Bob Adkins said, "don't destroy the jobs that we have here in Wise County."

Opponents of Nationwide 21 permits, some local and some from outside the region, spoke just as passionately.

"It not only destroys the water, it destroys every living creature that comes in contact with it," Pete Ramey, president of the Big Stone Gap-based Southern Appalachian Mountain Stewards, said of surface mining in the area. "The Army Corps of Engineers has the authority to stop this."

Haiz Oppenheimer, an environmental activist who traveled from Blacksburg for the hearing, said the issue goes beyond the coalfield region.

"This issue extends beyond Appalachia," he said. "Mountaintop removal poisons the water supply here and it threatens to damage the water of millions of people."

Representatives of several local coal companies also spoke.