By The River

The last time I saw Democratic Congressman John P. Murtha was in Centralia, Pa., in the late winter of 1983. He had come to look at the damage being caused by the Centralia mine fire, and I was covering his visit as a reporter for the Shamokin News-Item. Murtha was chairman of the House Interior Appropriations Committee, which I didn't fully appreciate at the time. Murtha is from Johnstown, Pa., and lots of Congressmen and state legislators from the coal regions were making the trek to Centralia.

Unlike the rest of them, Murtha was in a strong position to tell the U.S. Department of the Interior, which under Secretary James G. Watt had been less than eager to help the people of Centralia, to start spending money to do something about the mine fire. The fire had started in 1962 when a municipal clean-up project went badly wrong, and in 1979 broke through an underground fly ash barrier and began its final assault on this town of 1,000 souls.

Murtha arrived in Centralia with Congressman Frank Harrison and State Rep. Bob Belfanti. They're all in the photo above, along with Centralia Mayor John Wondoloski and Councilman Ken Wagner. That's mine fire steam in the background. Murtha is fourth from the right. The fire, in late 1982, had moved under Route 61 at Centralia and was causing hellacious problems. PennDOT finally closed the highway permanently and rerouted it through the nearby village of Byrnesville. Murtha didn't say much that day that I could hear, but he, Harrison, and U.S. Sen. Arlen Specter moved a $42 million appropriation through Congress later that year to relocate all the people of Centralia.

I bring this up, of course, because Murtha is now running for House Majority Leader against U.S. Rep. Steny Hoyer of Maryland. He has the backing of House Speaker-elect Nancy Pelosi, an old friend even though they don't see eye-to-eye on the so-called social issues like guns and abortion. But they do agree on the stupidity of the Iraq War. Murtha spoke out bravely against the war when it wasn't popular or even safe for Democrats to do so. He deserves the job.

Murtha will be seen in "The Town that Was," a feature-length documentary about the Centralia mine fire that will be released next year. Directed by Chris Perkel and Georgie Rowland, the film focuses on one of the 12 or so people remaining in Centralia, John Lokitis Jr., but also includes much about the history of the fire and how it destroyed Centralia (I'm in it too).