Check out the trailer below, then look for the premiere on Planet Green November 15th.
October 15, 2009
Coal Country, a documentary about the battle fought over coal mining in Appalachia, exposes the environmental tragedy and social conflicts that have arisen from mining coal.
The Sierra Club is heavily promoting the film by sending out 45-minute promotional videos, promoting their own agenda to rid the US of its reliance on coal.
--Alison Kelman
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Showing posts with label Ban Mt Top Removal. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Ban Mt Top Removal. Show all posts
Friday, October 16, 2009
Thursday, October 15, 2009
Mountaintop Mining, Up Close and Personal
by SolveClimate Staff - Oct 14th, 2009
Words alone can’t describe what mountaintop mining is doing to Appalachia, its streams and the lives of its people.
Coal companies have dynamited more than 470 mountaintops and pushed the debris into valleys, burying hundreds of miles of streams and contaminating the water with metals such as nickel, lead, cadmium, iron and selenium.
From those bare expanses, the mining companies strip out the coal and then move on to the next mountain. The treeless landscapes, meanwhile, can create dangerous flash flooding for nearby residents, and the mining debris can render their well water undrinkable.
In a new 20-minute documentary produced by Yale Environment 360 and MediaStorm, Chad Stevens takes his video camera inside the community meetings, homes and offices of the people on both sides of the front lines, capturing their emotions and letting them tell the story. The producers' goal was to show the many views of the conflict and provide an environmental science perspective.
“I wanted us to really show what is happening on the ground there, which is really stunning in some cases and hard to describe in the written word,” said Yale's Roger Cohn, an executive producer of Leveling Appalachia: The Legacy of Mountaintop Removal Mining.
The video is worth watching.
It flips from residents like Debbie Jarrell of Rock Creek, W.Va., who has fought strip mining on Coal River Mountain:
"What do you tell your grandchildren? We used to have clean water. We used to be able to drink it out of the creek. We used to be able to go up that hollow — well, there’s not a hollow now — but we used to be able to go up there and pick berries."
To the people in charge of laws and regulations, like West Virginia Gov. Joe Manchin:
"The reality is that 50 percent of the energy for the United States comes from coal. You can't keep the country running without it and be competitive in a global economy. … We've got to use what we have."
To experts like Jack Spadaro, a mining health and safety consultant and former mine inspector:
"We’ve just obliterated one of the most advanced ecosystems in the world."
And biology professor Ben Stout of Wheeling Jesuit University:
"We’re also burying one of the most productive forests in the world, one very capable of capturing and sequestering carbon."
To industry representatives, like West Virginia Coal Association’s Chris Hamilton, whose claims defy science and get at the corporate truth:
“Mountains are not destroyed. Water systems are not destroyed here in West Virginia."
"… I hear that all the time: ‘They’re impacting our mountains.’ Well, they’re not ‘our mountains’. Those mountains have been bought."
The same arguments erupted again this week at public hearings on mountaintop mining, where the Army Corps of Engineers heard from environmentalists, area residents and hundreds of coal miners worried about their jobs if the federal government tightened its rules.
In Pikeville, Ky., miners said their employers gave them the day off and bused them in to fill the auditorium. Just ahead of those hearings, the Sierra Club released a report saying that other types of mining in Appalachia employ more workers and suggesting that mountaintop mining costs states more that it generates.
The disputes over strip mining the Appalachian Mountains have become raucous, and threatening in some places, where miners fearful for their livelihoods have clashed with protesters fearful for the environment and residents for their mountain homes.
In another new documentary, Coal Country, Judy Bonds of Coal River Mountain Watch describes what's going on with mountaintop mining as a war:
"It's families against families," she says. "Upton Sinclair once said that it's hard to get a man to understand something when his paycheck depends upon him not understanding it."
http://solveclimate.com/blog/20091014/mountaintop-mining-close-and-personal
Words alone can’t describe what mountaintop mining is doing to Appalachia, its streams and the lives of its people.
Coal companies have dynamited more than 470 mountaintops and pushed the debris into valleys, burying hundreds of miles of streams and contaminating the water with metals such as nickel, lead, cadmium, iron and selenium.
From those bare expanses, the mining companies strip out the coal and then move on to the next mountain. The treeless landscapes, meanwhile, can create dangerous flash flooding for nearby residents, and the mining debris can render their well water undrinkable.
In a new 20-minute documentary produced by Yale Environment 360 and MediaStorm, Chad Stevens takes his video camera inside the community meetings, homes and offices of the people on both sides of the front lines, capturing their emotions and letting them tell the story. The producers' goal was to show the many views of the conflict and provide an environmental science perspective.
“I wanted us to really show what is happening on the ground there, which is really stunning in some cases and hard to describe in the written word,” said Yale's Roger Cohn, an executive producer of Leveling Appalachia: The Legacy of Mountaintop Removal Mining.
The video is worth watching.
It flips from residents like Debbie Jarrell of Rock Creek, W.Va., who has fought strip mining on Coal River Mountain:
"What do you tell your grandchildren? We used to have clean water. We used to be able to drink it out of the creek. We used to be able to go up that hollow — well, there’s not a hollow now — but we used to be able to go up there and pick berries."
To the people in charge of laws and regulations, like West Virginia Gov. Joe Manchin:
"The reality is that 50 percent of the energy for the United States comes from coal. You can't keep the country running without it and be competitive in a global economy. … We've got to use what we have."
To experts like Jack Spadaro, a mining health and safety consultant and former mine inspector:
"We’ve just obliterated one of the most advanced ecosystems in the world."
And biology professor Ben Stout of Wheeling Jesuit University:
"We’re also burying one of the most productive forests in the world, one very capable of capturing and sequestering carbon."
To industry representatives, like West Virginia Coal Association’s Chris Hamilton, whose claims defy science and get at the corporate truth:
“Mountains are not destroyed. Water systems are not destroyed here in West Virginia."
"… I hear that all the time: ‘They’re impacting our mountains.’ Well, they’re not ‘our mountains’. Those mountains have been bought."
The same arguments erupted again this week at public hearings on mountaintop mining, where the Army Corps of Engineers heard from environmentalists, area residents and hundreds of coal miners worried about their jobs if the federal government tightened its rules.
In Pikeville, Ky., miners said their employers gave them the day off and bused them in to fill the auditorium. Just ahead of those hearings, the Sierra Club released a report saying that other types of mining in Appalachia employ more workers and suggesting that mountaintop mining costs states more that it generates.
The disputes over strip mining the Appalachian Mountains have become raucous, and threatening in some places, where miners fearful for their livelihoods have clashed with protesters fearful for the environment and residents for their mountain homes.
In another new documentary, Coal Country, Judy Bonds of Coal River Mountain Watch describes what's going on with mountaintop mining as a war:
"It's families against families," she says. "Upton Sinclair once said that it's hard to get a man to understand something when his paycheck depends upon him not understanding it."
http://solveclimate.com/blog/20091014/mountaintop-mining-close-and-personal
Saturday, October 10, 2009
Senior Citizens March 25 Miles to End Mountaintop
posted by: Beth B.
Fifteen individuals between the ages of 50 and 83 set off on a March to End Mountaintop Removal at 10 a.m. on October 8th, 2009. The march was preceded by a rally and press conference in front of the State Capitol building in Charleston, Virginia, and is sponsored by a coalition that includes Climate Ground Zero, Mountain Justice, Intergenerational Justice and Christians for the Mountains. It is part of an ongoing civil disobedience campaign against mountaintop removal in West Virginia.
The seniors are walking five miles each day for five days, ending at Massey subsidiary Mammoth Coal on Monday, Oct. 12. In a statement issued by the US Mine Safety & Health Administration yesterday, Mammoth Coal was named as one of ten mining operators that need to improve performance or face tougher enforcement.
The mountaintop removal mine and processing plant, formerly operated by Cannelton Coal, was bought out by Massey in 2004. Massey cut the United Mine Workers of America contract and reopened the site, located east of Charleston on Route 60, as the non-union Mammoth Coal Company. The decision was met with a UMWA-organized picket and lawsuits.
"Mountaintop removal is closing in on our home place in Coal River, destroying the ridge up and down the river," said Julian Martin, 73, a coal miner's son and Vice President of the West Virginia Highlands Conservancy, "I see mountaintop removal as probably the world's worst environmental disaster." Martin's grandfather fought in the largest organized labor uprising in United States history, the Battle of Blair Mountain.
March organizers Roland Micklem, 81, and Andrew Munn, 23, are planning activities and speaking events each evening, including talks by Larry Gibson of the Keepers of the Mountain Foundation and Jesse Johnson, 2004 and 2008 Green Party gubernatorial candidate at the Unitarian Universalist Church of Charleston on Friday and Saturday night.
This action is monumental in demonstrating the way that mountaintop removal mining affects the lives of all humans, regardless of age, occupation, religion or political orientation. In a movement that is characterized by the actions of the "young and the restless" these seniors are taking a stand against the unneccessary destruction of West Virginia's mountains.
"We seniors need to make a statement with our own actions and share the risks that are part of this ongoing effort to stop the obliteration of West Virginia’s mountains," said Micklem, a Korean War veteran and former environmental journalist. His organizing philosophy is rooted in Ghandian principles of nonviolent civil disobedience and dialogue with opposition; the energetic senior invited Massey Energy officials to speak with him at the gates of Mammoth Coal Company on Monday. Micklem has not yet received a response.
These seniors are setting an incredible example for young activists, who sometimes have difficulty channeling their passion into peaceful, productive protests.
"As a young person, it is inspiring to see the strength with which senior citizens are stepping forward to meet the task at hand," said Munn, "Climate justice and the preservation of ecological and cultural heritage are issues for all generations, so I think it is fitting that we see this coalition emerging at the forefront of the movement to stop mountaintop removal."
Updates and multimedia can be found on www.climategroundzero.org
http://www.care2.com/causes/environment/blog/senior-citizens-march-25-miles-to-end/
Fifteen individuals between the ages of 50 and 83 set off on a March to End Mountaintop Removal at 10 a.m. on October 8th, 2009. The march was preceded by a rally and press conference in front of the State Capitol building in Charleston, Virginia, and is sponsored by a coalition that includes Climate Ground Zero, Mountain Justice, Intergenerational Justice and Christians for the Mountains. It is part of an ongoing civil disobedience campaign against mountaintop removal in West Virginia.
The seniors are walking five miles each day for five days, ending at Massey subsidiary Mammoth Coal on Monday, Oct. 12. In a statement issued by the US Mine Safety & Health Administration yesterday, Mammoth Coal was named as one of ten mining operators that need to improve performance or face tougher enforcement.
The mountaintop removal mine and processing plant, formerly operated by Cannelton Coal, was bought out by Massey in 2004. Massey cut the United Mine Workers of America contract and reopened the site, located east of Charleston on Route 60, as the non-union Mammoth Coal Company. The decision was met with a UMWA-organized picket and lawsuits.
"Mountaintop removal is closing in on our home place in Coal River, destroying the ridge up and down the river," said Julian Martin, 73, a coal miner's son and Vice President of the West Virginia Highlands Conservancy, "I see mountaintop removal as probably the world's worst environmental disaster." Martin's grandfather fought in the largest organized labor uprising in United States history, the Battle of Blair Mountain.
March organizers Roland Micklem, 81, and Andrew Munn, 23, are planning activities and speaking events each evening, including talks by Larry Gibson of the Keepers of the Mountain Foundation and Jesse Johnson, 2004 and 2008 Green Party gubernatorial candidate at the Unitarian Universalist Church of Charleston on Friday and Saturday night.
This action is monumental in demonstrating the way that mountaintop removal mining affects the lives of all humans, regardless of age, occupation, religion or political orientation. In a movement that is characterized by the actions of the "young and the restless" these seniors are taking a stand against the unneccessary destruction of West Virginia's mountains.
"We seniors need to make a statement with our own actions and share the risks that are part of this ongoing effort to stop the obliteration of West Virginia’s mountains," said Micklem, a Korean War veteran and former environmental journalist. His organizing philosophy is rooted in Ghandian principles of nonviolent civil disobedience and dialogue with opposition; the energetic senior invited Massey Energy officials to speak with him at the gates of Mammoth Coal Company on Monday. Micklem has not yet received a response.
These seniors are setting an incredible example for young activists, who sometimes have difficulty channeling their passion into peaceful, productive protests.
"As a young person, it is inspiring to see the strength with which senior citizens are stepping forward to meet the task at hand," said Munn, "Climate justice and the preservation of ecological and cultural heritage are issues for all generations, so I think it is fitting that we see this coalition emerging at the forefront of the movement to stop mountaintop removal."
Updates and multimedia can be found on www.climategroundzero.org
http://www.care2.com/causes/environment/blog/senior-citizens-march-25-miles-to-end/
Wednesday, September 2, 2009
80 New Permits = 80 Fewer Mountains
Comment: States that blow up their mountains will do anything to her people! Virginia is one of the Mt. Top Removal states! Virginia is considering uranium mining! Watch out people of Virginia, the State of Virginia will blow up our hills for greedy uranium mining, which will be shipped overseas and will not stay in Virginia!
Published by Sparki, August 24th, 2009 global warming
Here’s another reason to sign the newly emerging Climate Pledge of Resistance.
Within the next month, the EPA may start approving more than 80 new mountaintop removal mining permits. In my mind, 80 new permits equals 80 mountains.
Early on in the Obama administration, we thought they were moving towards ending this practice which destroys mountains, poisons water and harms communities, but after pressure from the mining industry and various pro-coal politicians they signaled their retreat. Now we could see an entire new round of destruction from these new permits.
To date, 500 mountains have been destroyed (now we’re looking at another 80?), 2000 miles of rivers and streams have been buried and over a million acres of forest cut down. Every week, Appalachia is hit with more force than the atomic bomb dropped on Hiroshima. If Obama’s retreat on mountaintop removal continues there won’t be any mountains left in Appalachia.
How much more are we going to take? There are a lot of different ways to get involved now to help stop this horrible practice. You can sign a petition, send a letter to Obama or join/support our friends in the coalfields fighting this atrocious process everyday.
http://itsgettinghotinhere.org/2009/08/24/mountaintop-removal-horror-show-moving-forward-with-over-80-new-permits/
Published by Sparki, August 24th, 2009 global warming
Here’s another reason to sign the newly emerging Climate Pledge of Resistance.
Within the next month, the EPA may start approving more than 80 new mountaintop removal mining permits. In my mind, 80 new permits equals 80 mountains.
Early on in the Obama administration, we thought they were moving towards ending this practice which destroys mountains, poisons water and harms communities, but after pressure from the mining industry and various pro-coal politicians they signaled their retreat. Now we could see an entire new round of destruction from these new permits.
To date, 500 mountains have been destroyed (now we’re looking at another 80?), 2000 miles of rivers and streams have been buried and over a million acres of forest cut down. Every week, Appalachia is hit with more force than the atomic bomb dropped on Hiroshima. If Obama’s retreat on mountaintop removal continues there won’t be any mountains left in Appalachia.
How much more are we going to take? There are a lot of different ways to get involved now to help stop this horrible practice. You can sign a petition, send a letter to Obama or join/support our friends in the coalfields fighting this atrocious process everyday.
http://itsgettinghotinhere.org/2009/08/24/mountaintop-removal-horror-show-moving-forward-with-over-80-new-permits/
Thursday, August 27, 2009
Tree-Sitters Protest Mountaintop Removal Mining
Comment: No to Mt. Top Removal, all states, stop blowing up our mountains and selling the coal to China or any greedy corporations!
Wednesday, 26 August 2009
GreenMuze Staff
Tree-sitters continue to oppose mountaintop removal coal mining from high up in the trees at a Massey Energy mine in Coal River Valley, West Virginia.
The two Red Creek protesters, Nick Stocks and Laura Steepleton, are perched on a platform at the edge of the Edwight Mine site above Pettry Bottom and Peachtree in Raleigh County. Today (August 26, 2009) is day two of their anti-mountain top removal protest.
Two other activists, Kim Ellis and Zoe Beavers were on the ground below the tree-sitters, but were arrested at noon on Tuesday (August 25, 2009).
The protesters are refusing to leave the area until Virginia-based Massey Energy stops blasting and compensates residents for home repair and health care.
The tree-sitters are 30ft (9.1m) from the mine and 300ft (91m) from the blasting area. State law prohibits blasting at the mine when people are too close.
The protestors are affiliated with Climate Ground Zero and Mountain Justice.
Visit: http://climategroundzero.org/
http://www.greenmuze.com/community/activism/1479-tree-sitters-protest-mountaintop-removal-mining.html
Tuesday, August 25, 2009
Army Corps Approves Controversial WV Coal Mine
Comment: The Change Dems are no different from the Bush's era! Still blowing up our Mountains and shipping it to China, a communist country!
08/18/2009
SustainableBusiness.com News
The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers issued a Clean Water Act permit last week for Consol Energy’s (NYSE: CNX) Peg Fork mountaintop removal coal mine in Mingo County, West Virginia. This controversial decision marks the first time during the Obama administration that the Army Corps approved a mine permit to which the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) had previously objected, opening the door for many new mountaintop removal coal mines in Appalachia.
The decision to allow this operation to proceed also demonstrates the Department of Interior's lack of will to enforce the clear mandates of a critical Surface Mining Act regulation, the Sierra Club said in a release.
"We are disappointed that the administration has approved a new mountaintop removal mine without making any commitment to adopt new regulations or policies that would end this destructive practice," said Ed Hopkins, Director of Sierra Club's Environmental Quality Program. "While we appreciate that the Obama administration is taking a harder look at mountaintop removal coal mining, unless that results in decisions that end the irreversible destruction of streams, the harder look isn’t going to do the job."
The Sierra Club said the permit would violate the Clean Water Act and the Surface Mining Act's buffer zone rule, which protects intermittent and perennial streams.
"The Department of Interior's continuing failure to force the mining industry to comply with the buffer zone rule is a reminder that it is business as usual at Interior," said Joe Lovett, of the Appalachian Center for the Economy and the Environment. Lovett called for Secretary Ken Salazar to "reverse the Bush Administration's refusal to enforce the Surface Mining Act and to protect our irreplaceable streams."
Earlier this year, the EPA conducted a review of 48 applications then pending before the Army Corps for Clean Water Act permits to fill streams. At the end of its review, the EPA identified the Peg Fork mine and five other mines as projects of high concern, and instructed the Army Corps to not issue those permits.
Following the EPA’s review, the Army Corps revised Consol Energy's permit for this mountaintop removal mine and issued the permit on Friday, August 7. But the revised permit still fails to satisfy the requirements for permits issued under the Clean Water Act, according to Sierra Club.
The original permit application proposed mining over 800 acres of mountainous terrain and dumping mining waste into eight valley fills and over 3 miles of streams. The revised permit that received EPA approval still allows two valley fills immediately, with the potential for up to six additional valley fills if EPA is satisfied with the results of downstream water quality monitoring from the initial fills.
The Peg Fork permit decision comes just as the EPA begins the process of reviewing more than 80 applications for Clean Water Act permits for mountaintop removal mining under the coordinated review process announced by the Obama administration in June. Mining companies have already buried close to 2,000 miles of Appalachian streams beneath piles of toxic waste and debris. Entire communities have been permanently displaced by mines the size of Manhattan.
"The Obama administration needs to commit to ending the devastation caused to our communities by mountaintop removal. The time to make that commitment is now," said Judy Bonds of Coal River Mountain Watch. "We can not live through another generation of permits that will bury hundreds more miles of streams and blast apart our mountains."
"Science and the law are at odds with this permit decision," said Janet Keating of the Ohio Valley Environmental Coalition. "In my opinion, the Corps' decision to issue this and other permits boils down to political pressure from coal-friendly legislators."
"A big part of the problem is that the Obama administration is still operating under the failed and broken regulations adopted during the Bush administration," said Joan Mulhern of the environmental law firm Earthjustice. "The White House and the agencies can and should immediately initiate the process for changing those regulations and restoring the environmental protections that existed prior to 2001."
"This week, newly appointed Assistant Secretary of the Army (Civil Works) Jo-Ellen Darcy begins to oversee the Army Corps’ permitting divisions, and she has the opportunity to take bold action on mountaintop removal coal mining," said Cindy Rank of the West Virginia Highlands Conservancy. "The Corps has shown an inexplicable eagerness to permit new mountaintop removal mining, but we hope that Assistant Secretary Darcy's leadership will mean more protections for the communities, streams and mountains of Appalachia."
http://www.sustainablebusiness.com/index.cfm/go/news.display/id/18728
08/18/2009
SustainableBusiness.com News
The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers issued a Clean Water Act permit last week for Consol Energy’s (NYSE: CNX) Peg Fork mountaintop removal coal mine in Mingo County, West Virginia. This controversial decision marks the first time during the Obama administration that the Army Corps approved a mine permit to which the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) had previously objected, opening the door for many new mountaintop removal coal mines in Appalachia.
The decision to allow this operation to proceed also demonstrates the Department of Interior's lack of will to enforce the clear mandates of a critical Surface Mining Act regulation, the Sierra Club said in a release.
"We are disappointed that the administration has approved a new mountaintop removal mine without making any commitment to adopt new regulations or policies that would end this destructive practice," said Ed Hopkins, Director of Sierra Club's Environmental Quality Program. "While we appreciate that the Obama administration is taking a harder look at mountaintop removal coal mining, unless that results in decisions that end the irreversible destruction of streams, the harder look isn’t going to do the job."
The Sierra Club said the permit would violate the Clean Water Act and the Surface Mining Act's buffer zone rule, which protects intermittent and perennial streams.
"The Department of Interior's continuing failure to force the mining industry to comply with the buffer zone rule is a reminder that it is business as usual at Interior," said Joe Lovett, of the Appalachian Center for the Economy and the Environment. Lovett called for Secretary Ken Salazar to "reverse the Bush Administration's refusal to enforce the Surface Mining Act and to protect our irreplaceable streams."
Earlier this year, the EPA conducted a review of 48 applications then pending before the Army Corps for Clean Water Act permits to fill streams. At the end of its review, the EPA identified the Peg Fork mine and five other mines as projects of high concern, and instructed the Army Corps to not issue those permits.
Following the EPA’s review, the Army Corps revised Consol Energy's permit for this mountaintop removal mine and issued the permit on Friday, August 7. But the revised permit still fails to satisfy the requirements for permits issued under the Clean Water Act, according to Sierra Club.
The original permit application proposed mining over 800 acres of mountainous terrain and dumping mining waste into eight valley fills and over 3 miles of streams. The revised permit that received EPA approval still allows two valley fills immediately, with the potential for up to six additional valley fills if EPA is satisfied with the results of downstream water quality monitoring from the initial fills.
The Peg Fork permit decision comes just as the EPA begins the process of reviewing more than 80 applications for Clean Water Act permits for mountaintop removal mining under the coordinated review process announced by the Obama administration in June. Mining companies have already buried close to 2,000 miles of Appalachian streams beneath piles of toxic waste and debris. Entire communities have been permanently displaced by mines the size of Manhattan.
"The Obama administration needs to commit to ending the devastation caused to our communities by mountaintop removal. The time to make that commitment is now," said Judy Bonds of Coal River Mountain Watch. "We can not live through another generation of permits that will bury hundreds more miles of streams and blast apart our mountains."
"Science and the law are at odds with this permit decision," said Janet Keating of the Ohio Valley Environmental Coalition. "In my opinion, the Corps' decision to issue this and other permits boils down to political pressure from coal-friendly legislators."
"A big part of the problem is that the Obama administration is still operating under the failed and broken regulations adopted during the Bush administration," said Joan Mulhern of the environmental law firm Earthjustice. "The White House and the agencies can and should immediately initiate the process for changing those regulations and restoring the environmental protections that existed prior to 2001."
"This week, newly appointed Assistant Secretary of the Army (Civil Works) Jo-Ellen Darcy begins to oversee the Army Corps’ permitting divisions, and she has the opportunity to take bold action on mountaintop removal coal mining," said Cindy Rank of the West Virginia Highlands Conservancy. "The Corps has shown an inexplicable eagerness to permit new mountaintop removal mining, but we hope that Assistant Secretary Darcy's leadership will mean more protections for the communities, streams and mountains of Appalachia."
http://www.sustainablebusiness.com/index.cfm/go/news.display/id/18728
Friday, August 7, 2009
Obama's OSM pick dodges questions on mountaintop removal
Comment: This dude is a weasel! The last administration hated the environment and the present is the same old, same old! Stop Blowing up our mountains and shipping it to China! Mt. Top removal has ruin people’s lives, ruin the water, and air!
August 6, 2009
President Obama's choice to be the nation's top strip-mining regulator said Thursday he needs to learn more about mountaintop removal coal mining before he can comment on whether it needs to be more strictly policed.
By Ken Ward Jr.
Staff writer
CHARLESTON, W.Va. -- President Obama's choice to be the nation's top strip-mining regulator said Thursday he needs to learn more about mountaintop removal coal mining before he can comment on whether it needs to be more strictly policed.
Joseph G. Pizarchik declined to offer his views on the practice and its regulation during a U.S. Senate committee hearing on his nomination as director of the Interior Department's Office of Surface Mining Reclamation and Enforcement.
Pizarchik also declined to answer questions about an Obama administration proposal to make major changes in the federal Abandoned Mine Lands program, but defended his record in Pennsylvania regulating the dumping of toxic coal ash at mining sites.
"With the science we have, we have not had any evidence of pollution of groundwater caused by the use of coal ash at these mine sites," Pizarchik said in response to questions from Senate Energy and Natural Resources Chairman Jeff Bingaman, D-N.M.
A group of Pennsylvania citizens and the Washington, D.C.-based Environmental Integrity Project said Thursday that their own reviews have "uncovered substantial evidence of the contamination of water supplies from this practice."
"[Pizarchik] continues to insist, despite volumes of evidence to the contrary, that there is no evidence of degradation to water from coal ash in any Pennsylvania coal mine," Eric Schaeffer, director of the Environmental Integrity Project, wrote in a letter to Bingaman. "After resisting regulation of mine-filling for many years, Mr. Pizarchik has recently responded with a proposal that still falls well short of the standards needed to protect groundwater and surface water."
During Thursday's hearing, Sen. Robert Menendez, D-N.J., tried three times to get Pizarchik to discuss mountaintop removal and what steps he would take at OSM to reduce environmental damage from the practice, but Pizarchik, the chief of Pennsylvania's strip-mine regulatory agency, responded that he would need to be confirmed and spend some time studying the issue before he could really comment.
"If confirmed, I will get involved in that project and learn more about the different perspectives held by the Environmental Protection Agency, the Army Corps of Engineers, as well as other stakeholders of interest, the citizens, environmentalists ... the state agencies that regulate the actual mining activity that occurs," Pizarchik said.
Pizarchik continued, "Getting involved and getting a better handle on the details of that, and how that is actually being implemented, and getting an understanding of the facts would be the first basis to determine what has transpired in the past, has that activity been done in accordance with the law as enacted by Congress and the regulations adopted by the state and federal agencies, and then looking at those facts and deciding what would be the appropriate action to take at that time."
Page 2 of 2
Menendez pressed Pizarchik for details of what the OSM plans to do as part of an announced program by the Obama administration to more closely regulate mountaintop removal. Again, Pizarchik said he could not answer in any detail.
"Without knowing the nuances and details of that, but if confirmed, I will be working for the president and I will be carrying out the course charted by the administration on that," Pizarchik said.
Sen. John Barrasso, R-Wyo., asked Pizarchik to comment on an Obama administration proposal to stop payments from the Abandoned Mine Land program to states -- such as Wyoming, the nation's largest coal producer -- that have certified all of their abandoned coal sites are already cleaned up.
"At this time, I am not familiar with the details of the proposal or the basis for the proposal, so it wouldn't be appropriate for me to speculate," Pizarchik responded.
In a prepared statement to the committee, Pizarchik described growing up on a small family farm in southwestern Pennsylvania.
"Coal was a part of our daily lives," he said. "That's how we heated our home. I also knew many people who worked in the mines, so I saw firsthand the value placed on the job in the mines tempered by the effects of poor safety regulations and the environmental havoc wreaked by unfettered mining.
"Through friends and family," Pizarchik told lawmakers, "I witnessed the benefits of improved safety and environmental standards."
In a letter to Bingaman, 125 Pennsylvania residents complained that Pizarchik has promoted the burial of streams by valley-fill waste piles, reduced public input at hearings on new mining permits and ignored citizen concerns about property and water damage caused by longwall underground mines.
During one meeting about longwall mining, the Pennsylvania residents said, Pizarchik, "stated that people willingly sold their coal 100 years ago, and people in the coalfields should have known what they were getting into when they moved into the coalfields."
Reach Ken Ward Jr. at kw...@wvgazette.com or 304-348-1702.
http://wvgazette.com/News/200908060647
August 6, 2009
President Obama's choice to be the nation's top strip-mining regulator said Thursday he needs to learn more about mountaintop removal coal mining before he can comment on whether it needs to be more strictly policed.
By Ken Ward Jr.
Staff writer
CHARLESTON, W.Va. -- President Obama's choice to be the nation's top strip-mining regulator said Thursday he needs to learn more about mountaintop removal coal mining before he can comment on whether it needs to be more strictly policed.
Joseph G. Pizarchik declined to offer his views on the practice and its regulation during a U.S. Senate committee hearing on his nomination as director of the Interior Department's Office of Surface Mining Reclamation and Enforcement.
Pizarchik also declined to answer questions about an Obama administration proposal to make major changes in the federal Abandoned Mine Lands program, but defended his record in Pennsylvania regulating the dumping of toxic coal ash at mining sites.
"With the science we have, we have not had any evidence of pollution of groundwater caused by the use of coal ash at these mine sites," Pizarchik said in response to questions from Senate Energy and Natural Resources Chairman Jeff Bingaman, D-N.M.
A group of Pennsylvania citizens and the Washington, D.C.-based Environmental Integrity Project said Thursday that their own reviews have "uncovered substantial evidence of the contamination of water supplies from this practice."
"[Pizarchik] continues to insist, despite volumes of evidence to the contrary, that there is no evidence of degradation to water from coal ash in any Pennsylvania coal mine," Eric Schaeffer, director of the Environmental Integrity Project, wrote in a letter to Bingaman. "After resisting regulation of mine-filling for many years, Mr. Pizarchik has recently responded with a proposal that still falls well short of the standards needed to protect groundwater and surface water."
During Thursday's hearing, Sen. Robert Menendez, D-N.J., tried three times to get Pizarchik to discuss mountaintop removal and what steps he would take at OSM to reduce environmental damage from the practice, but Pizarchik, the chief of Pennsylvania's strip-mine regulatory agency, responded that he would need to be confirmed and spend some time studying the issue before he could really comment.
"If confirmed, I will get involved in that project and learn more about the different perspectives held by the Environmental Protection Agency, the Army Corps of Engineers, as well as other stakeholders of interest, the citizens, environmentalists ... the state agencies that regulate the actual mining activity that occurs," Pizarchik said.
Pizarchik continued, "Getting involved and getting a better handle on the details of that, and how that is actually being implemented, and getting an understanding of the facts would be the first basis to determine what has transpired in the past, has that activity been done in accordance with the law as enacted by Congress and the regulations adopted by the state and federal agencies, and then looking at those facts and deciding what would be the appropriate action to take at that time."
Page 2 of 2
Menendez pressed Pizarchik for details of what the OSM plans to do as part of an announced program by the Obama administration to more closely regulate mountaintop removal. Again, Pizarchik said he could not answer in any detail.
"Without knowing the nuances and details of that, but if confirmed, I will be working for the president and I will be carrying out the course charted by the administration on that," Pizarchik said.
Sen. John Barrasso, R-Wyo., asked Pizarchik to comment on an Obama administration proposal to stop payments from the Abandoned Mine Land program to states -- such as Wyoming, the nation's largest coal producer -- that have certified all of their abandoned coal sites are already cleaned up.
"At this time, I am not familiar with the details of the proposal or the basis for the proposal, so it wouldn't be appropriate for me to speculate," Pizarchik responded.
In a prepared statement to the committee, Pizarchik described growing up on a small family farm in southwestern Pennsylvania.
"Coal was a part of our daily lives," he said. "That's how we heated our home. I also knew many people who worked in the mines, so I saw firsthand the value placed on the job in the mines tempered by the effects of poor safety regulations and the environmental havoc wreaked by unfettered mining.
"Through friends and family," Pizarchik told lawmakers, "I witnessed the benefits of improved safety and environmental standards."
In a letter to Bingaman, 125 Pennsylvania residents complained that Pizarchik has promoted the burial of streams by valley-fill waste piles, reduced public input at hearings on new mining permits and ignored citizen concerns about property and water damage caused by longwall underground mines.
During one meeting about longwall mining, the Pennsylvania residents said, Pizarchik, "stated that people willingly sold their coal 100 years ago, and people in the coalfields should have known what they were getting into when they moved into the coalfields."
Reach Ken Ward Jr. at kw...@wvgazette.com or 304-348-1702.
http://wvgazette.com/News/200908060647
Tuesday, July 28, 2009
Letter From Europe: Foreign Disbelief of Topless America
And here's a trailer for the forthcoming film documentary, On Coal River, that expertly details the human costs of "minimizing adverse environmental impacts," as the Obama administration likes to say, of mountaintop removal:
Comment: Mt. Top Removal is a legal form of mining, it has destroy people lives, their water and their land. Uranium mining will do the same to us!
Jeff Biggers
Author, The United States of Appalachia
Posted: July 28, 2009 05:57 AM
Spoleto, Umbria -- When President Barack Obama trundled into the bel paese of Italy for the G8 gathering last month, some of my neighbors in the verdant hills of Umbria were surprised to learn about their country's small but lingering dependence on coal-fired plants.
Draping banners down five coal-fired towers of carbon emissions that week, Greenpeace reminded the European gathering -- and President Obama -- of the inconvenient reality of coal.
Coal mining in Italy is considered a relic of yesteryear. Only a few miles from this Umbrian hilltown, the last smoldering lignite mine closed a couple of decades ago after a series of fatal accidents, and with it went the haze of sulfuric acid, mercury, lead and fly ash that cloaked much of Europe.
But, the greatest surprise -- sheer disbelief -- for my neighbors in Italy's protected Umbrian range was reserved for our own American style of Big Coal-gone-wild -- that federally sanctioned process of mountaintop removal mining that has laid waste to over a million acres of our nation's most diverse and ancient mountains in Appalachia, in order to produce less than 5-7 percent of national coal production.
Blowing up your mountains? The Italian asked again. How is that possible under President Obama?
It's hard for any foreigner to believe that President Obama has quietly acquiesced to the marketing and machinations of Big Coal, and allows millions of pounds of ammonium nitrate/fuel oil explosives to rip across our nation's first frontier, topple hundreds of mountains, and ruin and displace historic mountain communities -- that would have easily been granted regional protection by the United Nations or the European Community.
In fact, when I describe the process of mountaintop removal, and its 38-year reign of terror in Appalachia, no one believes me, so I am compelled to pull out my laptop and show them pictures and videos, including the creative work from Chicago's environmental-artist collective called Topless America.
Here is an incredible list of the scores of films on mountaintop removal documented by film critic and historian Steve Fesenmaier.
Last month in the west country of Ireland, I chatted in a pub with a shopkeeper from County Roscommon. We shared stories of our grandfathers, both of whom were coal miners. After telling me about Ireland's plans for off-shore wind turbines and other renewable energy projects outside Galway, the shopkeeper urged me to go and visit the Arigna Coal Mine in Derreenavoggy, County Roscommon. His grandfather had worked in the underground mine there; my grandfather worked in various underground mines in southern Illinois.
The Arigna mine is part of the Miners Way Historical Trail, which treks along the gorgeous hills and valleys of Arigna. Closed in 1990, after being mined underground for 400 years, the Arigna mine--the last working coal mine in Ireland -- has been turned into a heritage site. The shopkeeper raved about the natural beauty of the area -- his own "little Appalachia," he claimed. He told me to take a hike after I visited the museum. As the coal mine brochure hailed, "Arigna is situated in a picturesque valley with breathtaking scenery and unspoiled landscape."
Unspoiled landscape.
My grandparent's 150-year-old ancestral homestead in the Shawnee National Forest in southern Illinois was strip mined 10 years ago this month and has been turned into a leveled graveyard of foreign grasslands.
Over 1.5 million acres of hardwood deciduous forests, and over 500 mountains that would have been celebrated as a national park in any other region in the world, have been wiped out in Appalachia from mountaintop removal, the devastated ruins flatted into monuments of destruction.
I told the Irish shopkeeper he needed to visit Appalachia to believe it.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/jeff-biggers/letter-from-europe-foreig_b_245992.html
Comment: Mt. Top Removal is a legal form of mining, it has destroy people lives, their water and their land. Uranium mining will do the same to us!
Jeff Biggers
Author, The United States of Appalachia
Posted: July 28, 2009 05:57 AM
Spoleto, Umbria -- When President Barack Obama trundled into the bel paese of Italy for the G8 gathering last month, some of my neighbors in the verdant hills of Umbria were surprised to learn about their country's small but lingering dependence on coal-fired plants.
Draping banners down five coal-fired towers of carbon emissions that week, Greenpeace reminded the European gathering -- and President Obama -- of the inconvenient reality of coal.
Coal mining in Italy is considered a relic of yesteryear. Only a few miles from this Umbrian hilltown, the last smoldering lignite mine closed a couple of decades ago after a series of fatal accidents, and with it went the haze of sulfuric acid, mercury, lead and fly ash that cloaked much of Europe.
But, the greatest surprise -- sheer disbelief -- for my neighbors in Italy's protected Umbrian range was reserved for our own American style of Big Coal-gone-wild -- that federally sanctioned process of mountaintop removal mining that has laid waste to over a million acres of our nation's most diverse and ancient mountains in Appalachia, in order to produce less than 5-7 percent of national coal production.
Blowing up your mountains? The Italian asked again. How is that possible under President Obama?
It's hard for any foreigner to believe that President Obama has quietly acquiesced to the marketing and machinations of Big Coal, and allows millions of pounds of ammonium nitrate/fuel oil explosives to rip across our nation's first frontier, topple hundreds of mountains, and ruin and displace historic mountain communities -- that would have easily been granted regional protection by the United Nations or the European Community.
In fact, when I describe the process of mountaintop removal, and its 38-year reign of terror in Appalachia, no one believes me, so I am compelled to pull out my laptop and show them pictures and videos, including the creative work from Chicago's environmental-artist collective called Topless America.
Here is an incredible list of the scores of films on mountaintop removal documented by film critic and historian Steve Fesenmaier.
Last month in the west country of Ireland, I chatted in a pub with a shopkeeper from County Roscommon. We shared stories of our grandfathers, both of whom were coal miners. After telling me about Ireland's plans for off-shore wind turbines and other renewable energy projects outside Galway, the shopkeeper urged me to go and visit the Arigna Coal Mine in Derreenavoggy, County Roscommon. His grandfather had worked in the underground mine there; my grandfather worked in various underground mines in southern Illinois.
The Arigna mine is part of the Miners Way Historical Trail, which treks along the gorgeous hills and valleys of Arigna. Closed in 1990, after being mined underground for 400 years, the Arigna mine--the last working coal mine in Ireland -- has been turned into a heritage site. The shopkeeper raved about the natural beauty of the area -- his own "little Appalachia," he claimed. He told me to take a hike after I visited the museum. As the coal mine brochure hailed, "Arigna is situated in a picturesque valley with breathtaking scenery and unspoiled landscape."
Unspoiled landscape.
My grandparent's 150-year-old ancestral homestead in the Shawnee National Forest in southern Illinois was strip mined 10 years ago this month and has been turned into a leveled graveyard of foreign grasslands.
Over 1.5 million acres of hardwood deciduous forests, and over 500 mountains that would have been celebrated as a national park in any other region in the world, have been wiped out in Appalachia from mountaintop removal, the devastated ruins flatted into monuments of destruction.
I told the Irish shopkeeper he needed to visit Appalachia to believe it.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/jeff-biggers/letter-from-europe-foreig_b_245992.html
Sunday, July 26, 2009
The flattening of Wise, Va.
Comment: Look at the following comment, "The terrible truth, it seems, is that those in charge do not care" which is Mt. Top Removal that has destroy communities, rivers, air and land! This is legal mining ! Virginia will treat uranium mining the same way, only news from our county will be positive comments about uranium mining. Virginia will turn her back on her people in our county, just as Virginia has turned her back on our families in Wise County. Virginia loves business over life! Demand Virginia to ban uranium mining and Mt. Top Removal!
Posted by Peebles on 23 Jul 2009
Coal is in the blood of the people of Wise County, Virginia.
With a population of around 41,000, the coal industry has provided steady income for an otherwise remote part of Appalachia. Situated in the southwest corner of the Commonwealth, the county boasts several small, tight-knit communities, a functional public school system, two colleges, and a thriving sense of mountainous spirit that hallmarks Appalachian living.
It is not far fetched to argue that the socioeconomic landscape of Wise County would be drastically different without the coal industry’s presence there. The bituminous rock has served as the stovepipe economic model of Southwest Virginia, Kentucky, and West Virginia since the industrial revolution, and has brought intense development and employment to the region. Nowhere else on earth has coal played such a crucial role in the evolution of a region, and nowhere else do people’s very blood ooze the stuff. It is a cultural icon.
But coal is destroying Southwest Virginia, the Appalachian Mountains, and threatening the planet itself. At the epicenter of this environmental catastrophe lies Wise, a county that is crumbling under the heavy hand of King Coal. While Dominion works to construct a brand-new power plant in the region, fueled by dirty, antiquated coal, mining corporations have worked to systemically level the region through the practice of mountaintop removal mining.
The result is not a pretty one.
It is not far fetched to argue that the socioeconomic landscape of Wise County would be drastically different without the coal industry’s presence there. The bituminous rock has served as the stovepipe economic model of Southwest Virginia, Kentucky, and West Virginia since the industrial revolution, and has brought intense development and employment to the region. Nowhere else on earth has coal played such a crucial role in the evolution of a region, and nowhere else do people’s very blood ooze the stuff. It is a cultural icon.
But coal is destroying Southwest Virginia, the Appalachian Mountains, and threatening the planet itself. At the epicenter of this environmental catastrophe lies Wise, a county that is crumbling under the heavy hand of King Coal. While Dominion works to construct a brand-new power plant in the region, fueled by dirty, antiquated coal, mining corporations have worked to systemically level the region through the practice of mountaintop removal mining.
The result is not a pretty one.
Several mountains have already been leveled in Virginia, some of which are in Wise, while millions of tons of rock, dirt, and toxic material are shoved into neighboring valleys, preventing streams from flowing and contaminating valuable, fresh water.
Sludge ponds, a result of the extremely water-intense washing process, contain billions of gallons of useless, dangerous slurry, filled with heavy metals such as nickel, cadmium, lead, and arsenic.
The fragile walls that hold back these industrial cesspools are typically made of fill material, and are prone to failure (as they have several times in recent decades).
Mountaintop removal represents a triple threat to Appalachia, as mountains are destroyed, streams are interred beneath tons of rock and filth, and toxic contamination threatens the health of every community in the region.
Wise County has become a battlefield for the fight against mountaintop removal, and even as federal regulators crack down on the practice, the coal industry continues to push for continued, and expanded MTR operations in Wise.
Ison Rock Ridge extends into the town of Appalachia and is dotted with several communities on either side of the elongated mountain.
Ison Rock Ridge extends into the town of Appalachia and is dotted with several communities on either side of the elongated mountain.
Most recently, big coal has tapped Ison Rock as the next notch on its long line of broken mountains that now significantly mar the landscape of Southwest Virginia.
Nearby communities have been hesitant, at best, to embrace the new project, as the mountain looms over several towns and villages, and threatens to create a shower of rock and dust, a byproduct of the blasting process used to get at the coal, that is unwelcome by any standard.
Already, large stones and increased logging activity have spurred a public outcry, so much that the developer has been forced to revise the permit several times and the coal-friendly government has worked to suppress any public concern over the project.
“This permit application is currently in its 9th revision- and this round the permit has changed dramatically. Federal and State law require that public comment be accepted for all permits, but the state agency in charge has denied our request to have a public hearing on this latest revision that creates an essentially new mine plan.” – Samsva.org
Southern Appalachian Mountain Stewards (SAMS) has expended significant energy in trying to ensure that Ison Rock’s permitting process is forbidden from proceeding in this unethical fashion.
“This permit application is currently in its 9th revision- and this round the permit has changed dramatically. Federal and State law require that public comment be accepted for all permits, but the state agency in charge has denied our request to have a public hearing on this latest revision that creates an essentially new mine plan.” – Samsva.org
Southern Appalachian Mountain Stewards (SAMS) has expended significant energy in trying to ensure that Ison Rock’s permitting process is forbidden from proceeding in this unethical fashion.
The organization has asked individuals to call Governor Kaine and implore him to put a stop to the destructive practice of strip mining our mountains.
Folks who have lived on the slopes of Ison Rock for years are now threatened by the dangers of massive blasting nearby, unseating thousands of tons of rock, a practice that no one should live near.
Mountaintop removal mining threatens a way of life that, while formed around coal, has stretched far beyond the industry’s exploitation of a most finite of resources.
Mountaintop removal mining threatens a way of life that, while formed around coal, has stretched far beyond the industry’s exploitation of a most finite of resources.
Appalachia represents a way of thinking – slow, deliberate, and respectful – an existence that does not mesh with the continued obliteration of the region.
If this permit is allowed to move forward, more deaths will come at the hands of the coal industry and MTR.
The terrible truth, it seems, is that those in charge do not care.
http://www.chesapeakeclimate.org/blog/?p=1728
If this permit is allowed to move forward, more deaths will come at the hands of the coal industry and MTR.
The terrible truth, it seems, is that those in charge do not care.
http://www.chesapeakeclimate.org/blog/?p=1728
Friday, July 24, 2009
Mountaintop Removal Coal Mining Stream Damage Could Take 1,000 Years to Fix
Comment: Mt. Top Removal is horrible and unethical! Open Pit Uranium mining, it is horrible. A Canadian uranium company will blow around 100-200 acres with two huge pits. This will ruin miles and miles around the areas closest to the mines. People have lived on a lot of this land for 5-7 generations and it will be ruin with dust, wells will have higher concentration of lead, cows will be poison, vegetation will be cover with uranium dust! Gretna and parts of Chatham will be no more. The Bannister will be running with water with higher concentration of lead, arsenic, and uranium with fish kills, bird kills, deer kills, or any animal that drinks the water. The water downstream with have the same problems and Virginia Beach people, watch out, your water will be ruin. Navy and Air Force, you will have to drink water from somewhere else!
by Matthew McDermott, New York, NY on 07.23.09
In case you needed anymore convincing that mountaintop removal coal mining -- and dumping the waste in the streams and valleys surrounding the mine afterwards -- is an environmental (and social) nightmare, check out a new piece in Yale Environment 360. It really does a good job portraying the devastation:
Runoff Contaminates Water With Heavy Metals
Author John McQuaid describes what has happened in Laurel Branch Hollow, West Virginia,
“There used to be pine trees, and it was a very pretty shaded area. There was a nice trail that went up the hollow and I used to take my granddaughter up there and we’d go ginsenging [harvesting ginseng roots, an Appalachian custom] on up the hill,” says Miller, whose grandfather built the family homestead in 1920. “She really misses not being able to do that. She said, ‘Can’t we go someplace else? There’s no hills to climb there.’”
The remaining length of Laurel Branch, running past the house into the river, has become a sluice for contamination: As rainwater runs down Hobet 21’s dismantled mountainsides and fills, it picks up minerals and pollutants that damage delicate stream chemistry for miles downstream. Laurel Branch and multiple valley fills like it feed the Mud River, which is heavily contaminated with selenium, a heavy metal that works its way up through the food chain in ever-greater concentrations. One study has associated it with deformities — including curved spines and two eyes on one side of the head – found in fish larvae in a downstream reservoir.
Damage Really Can't Be Repaired
Recently the Obama Administration acted to more strictly regulate mountaintop mining operations, but McQuaid points out that the damage caused by these may never be able to be fixed... except over perhaps a thousand years,
Mountaintop removal does damage on both vast and microscopic scales, from hydrological changes over hundreds of square miles to effects on the life cycles of the tiniest stream microbes. Overseeing the repair of such damage is beyond the capabilities of any government agency; the most serious impacts — to streams — may be all but impossible to fix.
Margaret Palmer, a biology professor at the University of Maryland, was part of a team of scientists that compiled a comprehensive database of 37,000 U.S. river and stream restoration projects. She found no record of any mining-related stream-building project that could be called ecologically successful.
“Can you create these streams de novo, from scratch? There’s no evidence,” says Palmer, who testified on behalf of West Virginia environmental groups in a suit faulting the Army Corps of Engineers’ stream management. “Over thousands of years, I think you could do it. You have to have erosion of the land, get the hydrology back. I’m a restoration ecologist — I hope it can be done. But given how much damage they’ve done, right now I don’t think so.”
For why this is and more on why coal companies' efforts to rehabilitate areas they've damaged have been ineffective, check out the original article: Mountaintop Mining Legacy: Destroying Appalachia's Streams
http://www.treehugger.com/files/2009/07/mountaintop-removal-coal-mining-stream-damage-1000-years-to-fix.php
by Matthew McDermott, New York, NY on 07.23.09
In case you needed anymore convincing that mountaintop removal coal mining -- and dumping the waste in the streams and valleys surrounding the mine afterwards -- is an environmental (and social) nightmare, check out a new piece in Yale Environment 360. It really does a good job portraying the devastation:
Runoff Contaminates Water With Heavy Metals
Author John McQuaid describes what has happened in Laurel Branch Hollow, West Virginia,
“There used to be pine trees, and it was a very pretty shaded area. There was a nice trail that went up the hollow and I used to take my granddaughter up there and we’d go ginsenging [harvesting ginseng roots, an Appalachian custom] on up the hill,” says Miller, whose grandfather built the family homestead in 1920. “She really misses not being able to do that. She said, ‘Can’t we go someplace else? There’s no hills to climb there.’”
The remaining length of Laurel Branch, running past the house into the river, has become a sluice for contamination: As rainwater runs down Hobet 21’s dismantled mountainsides and fills, it picks up minerals and pollutants that damage delicate stream chemistry for miles downstream. Laurel Branch and multiple valley fills like it feed the Mud River, which is heavily contaminated with selenium, a heavy metal that works its way up through the food chain in ever-greater concentrations. One study has associated it with deformities — including curved spines and two eyes on one side of the head – found in fish larvae in a downstream reservoir.
Damage Really Can't Be Repaired
Recently the Obama Administration acted to more strictly regulate mountaintop mining operations, but McQuaid points out that the damage caused by these may never be able to be fixed... except over perhaps a thousand years,
Mountaintop removal does damage on both vast and microscopic scales, from hydrological changes over hundreds of square miles to effects on the life cycles of the tiniest stream microbes. Overseeing the repair of such damage is beyond the capabilities of any government agency; the most serious impacts — to streams — may be all but impossible to fix.
Margaret Palmer, a biology professor at the University of Maryland, was part of a team of scientists that compiled a comprehensive database of 37,000 U.S. river and stream restoration projects. She found no record of any mining-related stream-building project that could be called ecologically successful.
“Can you create these streams de novo, from scratch? There’s no evidence,” says Palmer, who testified on behalf of West Virginia environmental groups in a suit faulting the Army Corps of Engineers’ stream management. “Over thousands of years, I think you could do it. You have to have erosion of the land, get the hydrology back. I’m a restoration ecologist — I hope it can be done. But given how much damage they’ve done, right now I don’t think so.”
For why this is and more on why coal companies' efforts to rehabilitate areas they've damaged have been ineffective, check out the original article: Mountaintop Mining Legacy: Destroying Appalachia's Streams
http://www.treehugger.com/files/2009/07/mountaintop-removal-coal-mining-stream-damage-1000-years-to-fix.php
Friday, June 26, 2009
Subcommittee Hearing on Mountaintop Removal
Comment: Mt. Top Removal is a legal form of mining! The federal allowed this to happen and still support this type of mining but is has ruin people's lives, land and air ! Uranium mining has also ruin people lives and the past uranium mining and milling ponds are still ruining people lives, 40 years later. So demand the gov't to stop mt. top removal and ban uranium mining and milling now!
Published by Matt Dernoga, June 26th, 2009
I’ve written a couple of columns on the atrocities of mountaintop removal, which can be found here and here. Of recent, media and actions surrounding mountaintop removal have escalated from climbing a dragline to a massive protest just a couple days ago.
How fitting then, there we have the first Senate subcommittee hearing ever on the environmental impacts of mountaintop removal mining. Even better than the Senator holding this hearing is Ben Cardin of Maryland(I live in Maryland). With this being too good to miss, and with me conveniently being in DC anyways because of climate bill-related activities, why not sit in on this firsthand? It turned out to be quite interesting, I want to highlight a few details from my attendance below.
The hearing was slated to begin at 3:30, so I thought I’d show up at 2:30 to get a good spot in line. It turns out it would’ve been better to arrive at 10:30! When I showed up there was a line of 50-75 people already, so I had to go all the way to the back, which made my chances of getting into the hearing room seem pretty poor. Most of the people in the line were mountaintop removal activists, however in front of me were 3 men that worked for the coal industry. Soon thereafter, a large group of pro-coal supporters with shirts reading “friends of coal” showed up. I would say the line grew by 30 or so people. These people appeared to be guided/led by coal industry lobbyists in suits.
Then at about 3:20 a staffer came out and declared that there was no way everyone was going to fit into the room, and people near the back of the line should go to the overflow room. Although some people around me left, I stayed in line a little longer just to see how discouraged the people in front of me got. When they let people in, I wasn’t anywheres near the front when the room filled up. However, when everyone in front of me asked if waiting would be a good idea, the staffer told them “very little chance any of you will get in”, and this caused everyone in front of me(a good 30-40 people) to leave. Suddenly I was at the front of the line, where I was told I stood no chance. About 15 minutes later someone left the hearing room, and I was in. Slick I know.
I missed the first panelist who must’ve gone pretty fast, but he next panel had 4 speakers on it. It included organizer Maria Gunnoe, who famously won the Goldman Environmental Award, and has a very great story. Others on the panel were Dr. Margaret Palmer who worked in the Chesapeake Environmental Laboratory University Maryland Center for Environmental Sciences, the Deputy Commissioner of the Tennessee Department of Environment and Conservation, and the cabinet secretary for West Virginia Department of Environmental Protection(DEP) Randy Hauffman.
The first speaker I heard was Randy Hauffman of DEP. Now, DEP basically works as hard to undermine environmental protection and laws in West Virginia as the Bush EPA did to undermine those nationwide. Hauffman was pretty vague and contradictory, saying on one hand people had the right to clean water and that government had an obligation to provide that right, and then talking about the need for mountaintop removal for mining jobs and economic growth. He also indicated he’d like the EPA to back off of West Virginia with the Clean Water Act since when it was passed it was delegated to the states to decide how to implement(or in DEP’s case, dodge).
Next was organizer Maria Gunnoe, who was by far the best speaker who really put a face to the issue, and made Hauffman’s arguments look like a joke(yeah I’m biased). Really though you could tell why Gunnoe was worthy of an award and was an environmental leader in her community. She spoke very boldly and didn’t hold anything back, talking about mountaintop removal mining as providing “temporary jobs and temporary energy”, and how people quite frankly can’t live around this kind of practice because of the blasting, the chokingly poor air quality, and the terrible floods. Also, since the soil is so messed up, there’s no filtration of stormwater runoff into the watersheds, which along with all the coal pollution and sludge makes the water pollution terrible. Gunnoe’s closing statement was the highlight, declaring that “the coal will run out, we’ll be left with no water, no air, no jobs, and no energy”. I looked over at the DEP guy and he looked like someone had just handed him a pink slip. Gunnoe got a standing ovation, and I felt compelled to join in the clapping.
After a short recess, Dr. Palmer was next and she discussed in further detail the impact on the water quality, and lent a very credible voice to the science around the issue. Palmer said what we all know except in greater detail than I can recall here. She said the environmental impacts are substantial and permanent, a very strong “I would certainly not let my children play in the streams”. When asked by Senator Cardin what could be done to restore the watersheds after mountaintop removal mining, Palmer said there was no scientific evidence the impacts on water quality could be reversed, except for geologic time passing(ouch).
I suppose I must’ve missed the testimony of the Tennessee Deputy Commissioner, since Cardin started questioning the panelists. A couple of noteworthy questions was Cardin asking the West Virginia regulator what could be done to preserve the headwaters and streams. Hauffman didn’t have much of an answer, and it pretty much summed up to ‘we’ve been doing better in managing this issue, we’re for science being the driver, solutions are sought, and more money for research is needed’. Basically, cutting through the bs the answer was “we can’t”. The ranking Republican member Lamar Alexander who was the only other Senator there asked the Tennessee Commissioner whether or not coal mining practices in Tennessee involved mountaintop removal. I’m not sure how true this is(perhaps I misheard), but the response was that this had not been done for the last 10-15 years. He was also asked whether or not Tennessee companies could dump mining waste into the valley fills, and he answered no.
The implied message was that a coal producing state of Tennessee could manage just fine without mountaintop removal, while West Virginia was saying it needed to continue doing it.
When the Commissioner was asked whether or not the Federal law should be changed and applied to all the states, the Tennessee Commissioner said yes.
The last noteworthy question was Cardin asking Hauffman from DEP what kind of economic development he was referring to when defending mountaintop removal. Hauffman was once again very dodgy and unconvincing, saying that they’ve been slow at redeveloping the areas they’ve mined, but are getting better, and will be working harder on both redevelopment and on restoring the land by planting trees. It wasn’t very confidence inspiring.
All in all, this was a good hearing with good questions, some insightful testimony, and I liked the fact that the activists got into the hearing room, and all the coal supporters got stuck in the overflow room where no one could see them. I’m also very appreciative of the fact that my Senator Ben Cardin is leading on this issue. He is very good on environmental and energy issues, and very smart. He’s also found a way to get bi-partisan support from Republican Lamar Alexander on his legislation to amend the Federal Water Pollution Control Act to prevent the dumping of “fill material”, otherwards known as mountain mining waste, into the streams and valleys below. This would be a big deal. I wish him the best, and I’m proud he’s a Maryland Senator.
http://itsgettinghotinhere.org/2009/06/26/subcommittee-hearing-on-mountaintop-removal/
Published by Matt Dernoga, June 26th, 2009
I’ve written a couple of columns on the atrocities of mountaintop removal, which can be found here and here. Of recent, media and actions surrounding mountaintop removal have escalated from climbing a dragline to a massive protest just a couple days ago.
How fitting then, there we have the first Senate subcommittee hearing ever on the environmental impacts of mountaintop removal mining. Even better than the Senator holding this hearing is Ben Cardin of Maryland(I live in Maryland). With this being too good to miss, and with me conveniently being in DC anyways because of climate bill-related activities, why not sit in on this firsthand? It turned out to be quite interesting, I want to highlight a few details from my attendance below.
The hearing was slated to begin at 3:30, so I thought I’d show up at 2:30 to get a good spot in line. It turns out it would’ve been better to arrive at 10:30! When I showed up there was a line of 50-75 people already, so I had to go all the way to the back, which made my chances of getting into the hearing room seem pretty poor. Most of the people in the line were mountaintop removal activists, however in front of me were 3 men that worked for the coal industry. Soon thereafter, a large group of pro-coal supporters with shirts reading “friends of coal” showed up. I would say the line grew by 30 or so people. These people appeared to be guided/led by coal industry lobbyists in suits.
Then at about 3:20 a staffer came out and declared that there was no way everyone was going to fit into the room, and people near the back of the line should go to the overflow room. Although some people around me left, I stayed in line a little longer just to see how discouraged the people in front of me got. When they let people in, I wasn’t anywheres near the front when the room filled up. However, when everyone in front of me asked if waiting would be a good idea, the staffer told them “very little chance any of you will get in”, and this caused everyone in front of me(a good 30-40 people) to leave. Suddenly I was at the front of the line, where I was told I stood no chance. About 15 minutes later someone left the hearing room, and I was in. Slick I know.
I missed the first panelist who must’ve gone pretty fast, but he next panel had 4 speakers on it. It included organizer Maria Gunnoe, who famously won the Goldman Environmental Award, and has a very great story. Others on the panel were Dr. Margaret Palmer who worked in the Chesapeake Environmental Laboratory University Maryland Center for Environmental Sciences, the Deputy Commissioner of the Tennessee Department of Environment and Conservation, and the cabinet secretary for West Virginia Department of Environmental Protection(DEP) Randy Hauffman.
The first speaker I heard was Randy Hauffman of DEP. Now, DEP basically works as hard to undermine environmental protection and laws in West Virginia as the Bush EPA did to undermine those nationwide. Hauffman was pretty vague and contradictory, saying on one hand people had the right to clean water and that government had an obligation to provide that right, and then talking about the need for mountaintop removal for mining jobs and economic growth. He also indicated he’d like the EPA to back off of West Virginia with the Clean Water Act since when it was passed it was delegated to the states to decide how to implement(or in DEP’s case, dodge).
Next was organizer Maria Gunnoe, who was by far the best speaker who really put a face to the issue, and made Hauffman’s arguments look like a joke(yeah I’m biased). Really though you could tell why Gunnoe was worthy of an award and was an environmental leader in her community. She spoke very boldly and didn’t hold anything back, talking about mountaintop removal mining as providing “temporary jobs and temporary energy”, and how people quite frankly can’t live around this kind of practice because of the blasting, the chokingly poor air quality, and the terrible floods. Also, since the soil is so messed up, there’s no filtration of stormwater runoff into the watersheds, which along with all the coal pollution and sludge makes the water pollution terrible. Gunnoe’s closing statement was the highlight, declaring that “the coal will run out, we’ll be left with no water, no air, no jobs, and no energy”. I looked over at the DEP guy and he looked like someone had just handed him a pink slip. Gunnoe got a standing ovation, and I felt compelled to join in the clapping.
After a short recess, Dr. Palmer was next and she discussed in further detail the impact on the water quality, and lent a very credible voice to the science around the issue. Palmer said what we all know except in greater detail than I can recall here. She said the environmental impacts are substantial and permanent, a very strong “I would certainly not let my children play in the streams”. When asked by Senator Cardin what could be done to restore the watersheds after mountaintop removal mining, Palmer said there was no scientific evidence the impacts on water quality could be reversed, except for geologic time passing(ouch).
I suppose I must’ve missed the testimony of the Tennessee Deputy Commissioner, since Cardin started questioning the panelists. A couple of noteworthy questions was Cardin asking the West Virginia regulator what could be done to preserve the headwaters and streams. Hauffman didn’t have much of an answer, and it pretty much summed up to ‘we’ve been doing better in managing this issue, we’re for science being the driver, solutions are sought, and more money for research is needed’. Basically, cutting through the bs the answer was “we can’t”. The ranking Republican member Lamar Alexander who was the only other Senator there asked the Tennessee Commissioner whether or not coal mining practices in Tennessee involved mountaintop removal. I’m not sure how true this is(perhaps I misheard), but the response was that this had not been done for the last 10-15 years. He was also asked whether or not Tennessee companies could dump mining waste into the valley fills, and he answered no.
The implied message was that a coal producing state of Tennessee could manage just fine without mountaintop removal, while West Virginia was saying it needed to continue doing it.
When the Commissioner was asked whether or not the Federal law should be changed and applied to all the states, the Tennessee Commissioner said yes.
The last noteworthy question was Cardin asking Hauffman from DEP what kind of economic development he was referring to when defending mountaintop removal. Hauffman was once again very dodgy and unconvincing, saying that they’ve been slow at redeveloping the areas they’ve mined, but are getting better, and will be working harder on both redevelopment and on restoring the land by planting trees. It wasn’t very confidence inspiring.
All in all, this was a good hearing with good questions, some insightful testimony, and I liked the fact that the activists got into the hearing room, and all the coal supporters got stuck in the overflow room where no one could see them. I’m also very appreciative of the fact that my Senator Ben Cardin is leading on this issue. He is very good on environmental and energy issues, and very smart. He’s also found a way to get bi-partisan support from Republican Lamar Alexander on his legislation to amend the Federal Water Pollution Control Act to prevent the dumping of “fill material”, otherwards known as mountain mining waste, into the streams and valleys below. This would be a big deal. I wish him the best, and I’m proud he’s a Maryland Senator.
http://itsgettinghotinhere.org/2009/06/26/subcommittee-hearing-on-mountaintop-removal/
Thursday, June 11, 2009
Obama Looks To End Expedited Mining Reviews
Comment: If you believe the story, you must believe in the Easter Bunny! The Administration of Change is the same old, same old, blow up the mountains for coal, blow up the Grand Canyon for Uranium!Obama Administration Wants To Eliminate Speedy Reviews For Mountaintop Mining
WASHINGTON, Jun. 11, 2009
(AP) The Obama administration wants tougher environmental reviews for coal companies that mine the Appalachians by blasting off mountaintops and discarding the rubble in stream valleys.
The administration plans to announce Thursday a proposal to eliminate the expedited reviews that have made it easier for mining companies to get approval for mountaintop mining.
The proposal is part of an agreement between three federal agencies that will lead to a series of changes to boost federal oversight and environmental screening of the practice.
Nancy Sutley, head of the White House Council on Environmental Quality, said in an interview with The Associated Press that the Interior Department, Environmental Protection Agency and Army Corps of Engineers will establish clear standards that will ensure the environment, economy and health of Appalachia are adequately protected.
Mining waste dumped into waterways can diminish water quality for fish and other aquatic organisms, and taint sources of drinking water.
"We need to give the right amount of scrutiny to these activities," Sutley said.
President Barack Obama, while campaigning for the White House, expressed concern about the mountaintop mining, saying at one point that it was tearing up the Appalachian Mountains.
His administration has already cast a more critical eye on the process than its predecessor, which was accused of granting permits with little scrutiny. In March, the EPA announced it would more take a closer look at about 150 mountaintop mining permits pending before the Army Corps of Engineers to ensure they will not harm streams and wetlands.
The agency objected to some projects but has said dozens would likely proceed.
Then in April, the Interior Department asked a federal judge to vacate a Bush rule that makes it easier to dump mining waste near waterways.
On Thursday, the Obama administration will take another step by proposing to eliminate a short cut in place since 1982 that allows mining companies proposing similar projects to get a general permit under the Clean Water Act, rather than being evaluated on a case-by-case basis.
About 30 percent of mountaintop removal projects are permitted under the general permit to discharge waste into streams, according to administration officials.
Mountaintop mines in West Virginia, Virginia, Kentucky and Tennessee produce nearly 130 million tons of coal each year, or about 14 percent of the coal that produces electricity. It also employs about 14,000 people with high-paying jobs.
The agreement to be announced Thursday will address those concerns, too, officials said, by having federal agencies work together to diversify and strengthen the regional economy, including the development of clean energy jobs.
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2009/06/11/ap/politics/main5080134.shtml
Saturday, April 25, 2009
UK professor calls for end to surface mining
April 24, 2009 06:32 EDT
HAZARD, Ky. (AP) -- A University of Kentucky professor and former head of the university's Appalachian Center says it's time to end surface coal mining.
Ron Eller spoke Thursday in Hazard, saying ending open-pit mining -- particularly mountaintop mining -- would be good for Kentucky's economy.
Eller told a group of about 250 people at the East Kentucky Leadership Conference the state needs to recognize declining coal reserves, political opposition to using coal to produce electricity and increasing regulation of carbon dioxide emissions.
He said surface mining also impedes tourism. (Well, county residents no more tourist for Southside)
Letcher County Judge-Executive Jim Ward told the Lexington Herald-Leader after the speech that quickly ending surface mining would be devastating to the region.
------
Information from: Lexington Herald-Leader, http://www.kentucky.com
http://www.wztv.com/template/inews_wire/wires.regional.ky/2eb6eaa7-www.fox17.com.shtml
HAZARD, Ky. (AP) -- A University of Kentucky professor and former head of the university's Appalachian Center says it's time to end surface coal mining.
Ron Eller spoke Thursday in Hazard, saying ending open-pit mining -- particularly mountaintop mining -- would be good for Kentucky's economy.
Eller told a group of about 250 people at the East Kentucky Leadership Conference the state needs to recognize declining coal reserves, political opposition to using coal to produce electricity and increasing regulation of carbon dioxide emissions.
He said surface mining also impedes tourism. (Well, county residents no more tourist for Southside)
Letcher County Judge-Executive Jim Ward told the Lexington Herald-Leader after the speech that quickly ending surface mining would be devastating to the region.
------
Information from: Lexington Herald-Leader, http://www.kentucky.com
http://www.wztv.com/template/inews_wire/wires.regional.ky/2eb6eaa7-www.fox17.com.shtml
Tuesday, April 21, 2009
NC House Committee to debate mountaintop mining ban
Julie Rose
Tuesday April 21, 2009
Today a committee of North Carolina lawmakers will debate a ban on importing coal that is mined from Appalachian mountaintops. Duke Energy strongly opposes the measure. WFAE's Julie Rose reports:
Mountaintop coal removal requires blowing up several hundred feet on the top of a mountain, and it can devastate communities like Peachtree, West Virginia where Bo Webb lives.
"I live beneath a mountaintop removal site and it's gotta stop," says Webb. "My family's health, our safety's at risk, they're destroying all of our communities in southern West Virginia for a lump of coal."
Webb joined several hundred protesters in Uptown Charlotte yesterday opposing Duke Energy's plans to build a new coal-fired unit and continue using coal mined from mountaintops. Duke Energy spokeswoman Marilyn Lineberger says about half of its coal comes from mountaintop removal, because it is low in sulfur as most of Duke's power plants require.
Under the Appalachian Mountains Preservation Act, North Carolina companies like Duke and Progress Energy would not be able to renew their mountaintop coal contracts once they expire.
Lineberger says Duke Energy only supports a federal solution to the problem of mountaintop removal - not a state ban.
"That would not stop the practice of mountaintop mining," says Lineberger. "All that would do is make our customers a captive audience for markets that we would have to go outside, investing millions and millions of dollars in retrofits."
Of the 50 states, North Carolina and Georgia are the two largest consumers of coal mined from mountaintops. A version of the ban has been introduced in both states.
Today's hearing is only the first of many hurdles the measure will have to clear before it would become law.
More info:
The Appalachian Mountains Preservation Act (HB 340) is sponsored by Rep. Pricey Harrison (D-Guilford). It will be heard by the House Standing Committee on Environment and Natural Resources Tuesday, April 21 at 12 p.m. in Room 643 of the Legislative Office Building, Raleigh.
http://www.wfae.org/wfae/1_87_316.cfm?action=display&id=4960
Tuesday April 21, 2009
Today a committee of North Carolina lawmakers will debate a ban on importing coal that is mined from Appalachian mountaintops. Duke Energy strongly opposes the measure. WFAE's Julie Rose reports:
Mountaintop coal removal requires blowing up several hundred feet on the top of a mountain, and it can devastate communities like Peachtree, West Virginia where Bo Webb lives.
"I live beneath a mountaintop removal site and it's gotta stop," says Webb. "My family's health, our safety's at risk, they're destroying all of our communities in southern West Virginia for a lump of coal."
Webb joined several hundred protesters in Uptown Charlotte yesterday opposing Duke Energy's plans to build a new coal-fired unit and continue using coal mined from mountaintops. Duke Energy spokeswoman Marilyn Lineberger says about half of its coal comes from mountaintop removal, because it is low in sulfur as most of Duke's power plants require.
Under the Appalachian Mountains Preservation Act, North Carolina companies like Duke and Progress Energy would not be able to renew their mountaintop coal contracts once they expire.
Lineberger says Duke Energy only supports a federal solution to the problem of mountaintop removal - not a state ban.
"That would not stop the practice of mountaintop mining," says Lineberger. "All that would do is make our customers a captive audience for markets that we would have to go outside, investing millions and millions of dollars in retrofits."
Of the 50 states, North Carolina and Georgia are the two largest consumers of coal mined from mountaintops. A version of the ban has been introduced in both states.
Today's hearing is only the first of many hurdles the measure will have to clear before it would become law.
More info:
The Appalachian Mountains Preservation Act (HB 340) is sponsored by Rep. Pricey Harrison (D-Guilford). It will be heard by the House Standing Committee on Environment and Natural Resources Tuesday, April 21 at 12 p.m. in Room 643 of the Legislative Office Building, Raleigh.
http://www.wfae.org/wfae/1_87_316.cfm?action=display&id=4960
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