HAZARD, Ky. (AP) - A pair of congressmen took an aerial tour of mountaintop mining sites on Friday before meeting residents of the central Appalachian coalfields.

U.S. Rep. Ben Chandler (D-Ky.) and U.S. Rep. Norm Dicks, (D-Wash.) twice flew over the mining sites in West Virginia and Kentucky, squeezing a meeting with Appalachian residents in between.

Chandler, whose district is based in central Kentucky, called the visit a "fact-finding trip."

The congressmen were accompanied by representatives from the Office of Surface Mining, as well as Kentuckians for the Commonwealth, a group that opposes mountaintop removal, the Lexington Herald-Leader reported on its web site.

Dicks chairs the House Appropriations subcommittee overseeing environmental matters, which gives him control of the budget of the Office of Surface Mining. On what what his first trip over the area, he said he was struck by how large some of the mining sites were.

Dicks said he will look at whether the OSM is doing its job adequately, and whether it has the money and staff to do its job.

"I'm here to learn," Dicks said. "There's a lot of concern in the state about the extent of mountaintop mining and how the environmental issues are dealt with. We are trying to find out as much as we can so next year, as we look at the budget, we will be in a better position to ask questions and do our oversight responsibility."

Chandler, who is a member of the subcommittee, and Dicks were also scheduled to take a bus tour led by International Coal Group Inc. of an active mining site in Montgomery Creek in Perry County. That tour was closed to reporters.

Doug Doerrfeld, chairman of Kentuckians for the Commonwealth, said mountaintop removal mining pollutes and destroys a diverse ecosystem by dumping leftover debris into neighboring valleys and burying natural streams.

Doerrfeld said the tour would allow Chandler and Dicks to see "how pervasive the abuse by the mine industry has become on Kentucky's mountains, forests and streams and the people."

Doerrfeld said he hopes the visit leads to the passage of the Clean Water Protection Act in Washington and the passage of the Stream Saver bill during the next Kentucky General Assembly session. Chandler and Dicks are sponsors of both.

"We hope this leads to an ongoing conversation and more fact finding," Doerrfeld said.

Industry officials defend the practice of mountaintop removal mining, saying it creates jobs in areas where there are not many other jobs and creates flat land in an area where there is little of it available for development outside flood-prone areas.

Bernie Faulkner, 60, of Hazard, said that mining gets a bad name from the media and others who seem to focus only on active mining sites.

"We all agree that active mining is ugly," Faulkner said. "It's like an open heart on the table during surgery, but what they put it back to is, in some cases, better and more beautiful than before."

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