mountaintop mining

On Thursday night, environmental lawyer Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., will step onto a stage in the heart of Appalachian coal country to debate Mr. Coal himself, Massey Energy CEO and global warming skeptic Don Blankenship.

There’s little question who has the home field advantage at the University of Charleston in West Virginia.

As the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency emerges from a dark eight years under the Bush administration, it is consciously and relatively successfully trying to base its decisions on science. That is why its decision last week to not object to a permit for a mountaintop mine in West Virginia seems so odd now.

A comprehensive study in Friday's issue of the journal Science points to a striking lack of attention to the science in the agency's handling of mountaintop mining practices in Appalachia.

The EPA put its promise to protect mountain streams into action today, taking a rare first step toward vetoing a permit for the largest mountaintop mining operation in Appalachia.

The agency has used that authority only 12 times since the Clean Water Act was enacted in 1972. And it has never vetoed a water permit for an already-approved mine.

“That it is necessary in this circumstance to initiate Section 404(c) review reflects the magnitude and scale of anticipated direct, indirect and cumulative adverse environmental impacts associated with this mountaintop removal mining operation,” William Early, acting administrator for EPA Region 3, wrote in a letter today notifying the Army Corps of Engineers of the decision.

Under the Clean Water Act, the Corps issues permits that allow strip mining companies to push their mining debris into adjacent valleys with streams, but the EPA has the power to review those permits and order changes.

If the Spruce No. 1 mine were allowed to continue as planned in Logan County, W.Va., Early writes, it would bury seven miles of streams in the Coal River sub-basin, in a watershed where one-third of the streams have already been degraded by mining activity.

Six months after EPA officials announced they had serious concerns about water contamination from mountaintop mining in Appalachia, the agency is starting to tighten the reins on mining permits.

The EPA outraged the coal industry last week when it asked the Army Corps of Engineers to suspend, revoke or at least modify a two-year-old permit covering the largest mountaintop mining project in West Virginia.

Today, EPA officials announced that they were also requesting closer reviews of 79 pending mountaintop mining permits on the grounds that "all of the projects would likely cause water quality impacts requiring additional review under the Clean Water Act."

Mike Brune, executive director of the Rainforest Action Network, was one of 29 people arrested by West Virginia State Police yesterday while peacefully protesting mountaintop mining.

The horn blasted right outside the window where we slept early this morning.

"Wake up, losers!" two miners yelled from their pickup truck, gunning the engine. "Wake up! Time to get a job! Better yet, time to get the f*** out of town!"

Ah, yes. Mornings in the coal fields of West Virginia. For wake-up calls, I generally prefer morning crickets, birds chirping, perhaps the smell of coffee – I'll even take a few kicks to the ribs in bed from my little ones. Oddly enough, however, I must say I find taunts from belligerent coal miners to be highly motivational.

I've been in West Virginia the past few days to help bring an end to mountaintop removal.

NASA's chief climate scientist James Hansen put it all on the line today to call attention to the devastation of mountaintop mining, getting arrested along with actress Daryl Hannah, Rainforest Action Network Director Mike Brune and 26 other activists in a protest at West Virginia's Coal River Valley.

The group had led a rally at the Marsh Fork Elementary School, in the shadow of a coal silo, then marched 300 yards to a mountaintop mining site run by coal giant Massey Energy.

“I am not a politician; I am a scientist and a citizen,” Hansen said from the rally. “Politicians may have to advocate for halfway measures if they choose. But it is our responsibility to make sure our representatives feel the full force of citizens who speak for what is right, not what is politically expedient.

Read More

Bookmark/Search this post with:

• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 

• Stacy Morford's blog
• 2 comments

If the Obama administration wants to protect the people and mountains of Appalachia, it needs to end the destructive practice of mountaintop mining, not settle for promises of stricter scrutiny of the mining permits, advocates say.

This morning, the White House announced what it described as an “unprecedented” agreement among the Environmental Protection Agency, the Army Corps of Engineers and the Interior Department to better coordinate and tighten the agencies’ oversight of mountaintop mining and to review the mining existing laws.

In a memorandum of understanding, the agencies promised to:

• Require more stringent environmental reviews for future mountaintop mining permits, including using the Clean Water Act to reduce contamination in streams and watersheds;

• Propose a rule change to stop allowing a type of nationwide permit that doesn’t require site-specific reviews for mining operations to dump the mineral-laden debris of former mountaintops into streams;

• Strengthen oversight of state agencies, both in their permitting and enforcement;

• And, if the U.S. District Court vacates the Bush administration’s 2008 Stream Buffer Zone Rule as requested, return to the 1983 rules restoring the 100-foot buffer zone around streams for mining waste.

These are all steps in the right direction, but they aren’t enough, says Willa Mays, Executive Director of Appalachian Voices:

"Their priorities do not take into account that mountains are being blown up today, and until mountaintop removal coal mining is ended, residents will continue to suffer from high disease rates, floods, and poisoned water supplies directly attributable to this mining practice."

Advocates across Appalachia echoed her concern.

In Appalachia, there is a growing struggle between two formidable forces – the coal industry that provides jobs in this impoverished region and the religious leaders who knit its rural communities together.

As with everything here, the mountains and the coal they hold are at the heart of the conflict.

When the mines were underground, faith and mining could co-exist. But then the coal giants found a cheaper way to get at the wealth: They began blowing the tops off mountains and scrapping out the coal, contaminating streams and ravaging the landscape in the process.

“God put humanity in the garden to care for and cultivate it. We forget that,” says Father John Rousch, who takes anyone willing to listen to witness the devastation.

Rousch's Catholic Committee of Appalachia is one of several religious groups that have begun speaking out in Appalachia's churches, communities and state capitols against a practice they see as an outrage against creation: mountaintop removal.

Half a dozen major religious denominations have issued statements opposing mountaintop mining in recent years, but the strongest voices in this fight are coming from the local churches.

Unlike activists who sweep in from the cities, these religious leaders belong to coal country. They have the trust of the people, and they understand that when it comes to jobs here, coal is still king.

The EPA put the coal industry on notice today: Mountaintop mining won't be getting a free pass from the federal government any more.

EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson announced that her agency has serious concerns about the damage mountaintop mining is causing in the streams of Appalachia, and she said the EPA will be carefully reviewing mountaintop mining permit requests.

The move sends a strong signal that the new EPA will be steering the federal government back to the original intent of the Clean Water Act.

“It certainly doesn’t resolve the issue of mountaintop removal permanently, but it’s an enormous first step,” said Matt Wasson, executive director of Appalachian Voices.

“It restores hope that we can get past the legacy of the last eight years and really start working toward building a new green jobs economy in the region – that’s what we’re hoping is the next step the Obama administration will be taking.”