EPA to delay 79 coal mining permits in 4 states

By TIM HUBER (AP) – 11 hours ago

CHARLESTON, W.Va. — President Barack Obama's administration put the brakes on 79 applications for surface coal mining permits in four states Wednesday, saying they would violate the Clean Water Act.

The action is the administration's latest attempt to curb environmental damage from a highly efficient but damaging mining practice known as mountaintop removal. Each permit likely would cause significant damage to water quality and the environment, the Environmental Protection Agency said in a statement.

The permits would allow mine operators to bury intermittent streams with excess material removed to expose coal seams. Environmental groups including the Sierra Club and the Rainforest Action Network want Obama to ban the practice, arguing it destroys ancient mountain peaks, fouls water and damages the culture of Appalachia.

The applications now go to the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, which will coordinate changes to reduce potential damage. The aim is to avoid environmental damage and meet the country's energy and economic needs, Peter Silva, EPA's assistant administrator for water, wrote in a letter to the corps.

The EPA wants the mine operators to build fewer, smaller so-called valley fills to dispose of debris, Silva said in the letter. The agency also wants the permits to require more environmental monitoring, more information about mining effects on various watersheds and reviews of proposed mitigation plans.

The coal industry estimates mountaintop mines in Appalachia produce 130 million tons of coal a year, most of which goes to generate electricity for 24.7 million customers in the East and South.

"Coal mining throughout Appalachia cannot reassure thousands of anxious workers and their families, and we cannot plan for the economic future of our operations absent a workable, transparent process that provides certainty," National Mining Association President Hal Quinn said in a statement.

"EPA's answer of more delay and study is at cross-purposes with our nation's need for affordable energy, investments and secure jobs."

The United Mine Workers labor union also criticized the delay.

"It is imperative that the process for approving or rejecting permits be clarified so that everyone can know what to expect," President Cecil Roberts said in a statement. "Dragging things out only adds unnecessary pressure to coal miners, their families and their communities and makes it much more difficult to meet America's energy and economic needs."

All 79 permits were on a preliminary list released by the EPA Sept. 11 and public comments submitted since then support the decision, Silva wrote in the letter. They cover applications for surface coal mines in West Virginia, Kentucky, Ohio and Tennessee. West Virginia and Kentucky rank second and third in U.S. coal production behind Wyoming.

"People all over West Virginia can't believe this is happening," West Virginia Coal Association President Bill Raney said in a statement. "They don't understand why Washington is willing to kill-off good paying jobs when our economy is still on the ropes and the unemployment rate is still unacceptably high."

Mary Anne Hitt, deputy director of the Sierra Club's Beyond Coal Campaign, praised the EPA and said the group hopes "it is just one of many positive actions the Obama administration will take toward ending mountaintop removal coal mining. An enhanced review of each of these pending permits will surely prove that this most destructive form of coal mining is incompatible with clean water."

Rainforest Action Network spokeswoman Nell Greenberg called the action an important step toward a mountaintop mining ban.

"It is clear which way the wind is blowing on mountaintop removal mining," she said in a statement.

The EPA said the 79 delayed permits represent the corps' current backlog of mountaintop mining permits, though the National Mining Association put that figure at 250.

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What is Mountaintop Removal?

Comment: Mt. Top Removal is ruining people lives, water, air, and land. Open Pit Uranium mining is not much different from Mt. Top Removal except uranium is radioactive! The Canadians will be blowing up hillsides in Virginia, will built a uranium mill with tailings ponds that will flood when Hurricanes bring heavy rains, will displace people off their lands for uranium and will ruin our lives, land, air and water!

Mountaintop removal is a relatively new type of coal mining that began in Appalachia in the 1970s as an extension of conventional strip mining techniques. Primarily, mountaintop removal is occurring in West Virginia, Kentucky, Virginia and Tennessee. Coal companies in Appalachia are increasingly using this method because it allows for almost complete recovery of coal seams while reducing the number of workers required to a fraction of what conventional methods require.

The US Environmental Protection Agency defines mountaintop removal as follows:

“Mountaintop removal/valley fill is a mining practice where the tops of mountains are removed, exposing the seams of coal. Mountaintop removal can involve removing 500 feet or more of the summit to get at buried seams of coal. The earth from the mountaintop is then dumped in the neighboring valleys.”

There are 6 main components of the mountaintop removal process:

CLEARING — Before mining can begin, all topsoil and vegetation must be removed. Because coal companies frequently are responding to short-term fluctuations in the price of coal, these trees are often not even used comercially in the rush to get the coal, but instead are burned or sometimes illegally dumped into valley fills.

BLASTING — Many Appalachian coal seams lie deep below the surface of the mountains. Accessing these seams through surface mining can require the removal of 500-800 feet or more of elevation. Blowing up this much mountain is accomplished by using millions of pounds of explosives.

DIGGING — Coal and debris is removed by using this piece of machinery, called a dragline. A dragline stands 22 stories high and can hold 24 compact cars in its bucket. These machines can cost up to $100 million, but are favored by coal companies because they displace the need for hundreds of jobs. .

DUMPING WASTE — The waste from the mining operation, also known as overburden or spoil, is dumped into nearby valleys, burying streams. According to an EPA environmental impact statement, more than 1,000 miles of Appalachian streams were permitted to be buried as of 2001.

PROCESSING — The coal is washed and treated before it is loaded on trains. The excess water left over from this process is called coal slurry or sludge and is stored in open coal impoundments. Coal sludge is a mix of water, coal dust, clay and toxic chemicals such as arsenic mercury, lead, copper, and chromium. Impoundments are held in place by mining debris, making them very unstable. .

RECLAMATION — While reclamation efforts such as stabilization and revegetation are required for mountaintop removal sites, in practice, state agencies that regulate mining are generous with granting waivers to coal companies. Most sites receive little more than a spraying of exotic grass seed, but even the best reclamation provides no comfort to nearby families and communities whose drinking water supplies have been polluted and whose homes will be threatened by floods for the hundred or thousands of years it will require to re-grow a forest on the mined site.

Get more information about coal mining and the incredible environmental damage it causes at I Love Mountains.org

We need more mainstream bloggers talking about this. I read and listen to progressive bloggers and radio hosts all the time and rarely is this discussed. Recently, Thom Hartman and Mike Malloy have been discussing climate change and mountain top removal to a certain extent, but not to the degree that they talk about torture, health care, etc. We have all the time in the world to figure out some of these issues of war and peace, if not health care, but once the mountains are gone, they are gone forever. You don’t get them back once they are bombed, and you don’t get the streams and rivers the debris fills back either. MTR is forever. Why isn’t this discussed more?

Progressive bloggers need to know that we have to counteract the disinformation campaigns still actively funded by Exxon and the Heritage Foundation and CEI and other right-wingers who are in the business of denial. Their campaigns of lies really, seriously need to be counteracted. I don’t see enough of that coming from the “left” or from the center either. We have to call these deniers and friends of coal and other sympathizers and anti-science people out and expose them for what they are.

http://www.civilianism.com/futurism/2009/drunken-coal-thugs-and-mountain-madness/