West Virginia DEP Secretary Randy Huffman told a congressional subcommittee Thursday his agency isn't taking sides in the mountaintop removal mining debate.

Huffman was one of several witnesses before the U.S. Senate Environment and Public Works Water and Wildlife Subcommittee that is considering a bill that would change the Clean Water Act, putting the controversial mining technique in jeopardy.

Huffman told subcommittee members that valley fills are used in other ways not just mountaintop mining. "What must be understood is that the connection between protecting water quality and the practice of mountaintop mining is not a unique one," he said.

But Randy Pomponio with the federal EPA told senators the mining technique as a cumulative impact downstream and on drinking water for years to come.

Coalfields activist Maria Gunnoe testified mountaintop removal is a human rights issue not a jobs issue. "We can live without energy in West Virginia, but we cannot live without good, healthy, clean water," she said.

A crowd of coal supporters from southern West Virginia traveled to Washington for the hearing.  "What we're trying to do is absolutely bring the truth about the mining process, the mining technique that we utilize, to the public so they can make a judgment themselves," coal miner Roger Horton said on Thursday's MetroNews Talkline.

The supporters represented a cross-section of the community according to Horton.  "Everything from educators to miners, to owners of the company, to land owners, the whole nine yards, who believe in what we're doing and want to continue doing it.  We're providing fuel for America," he said.

Gunnoe told Senators it's time to make a decision about the future of the mountains.  "We need to decide as a country, can we really keep doing this? Can we really keep flattening mountains to produce energy?"