[Dialogue] Emailing: An End To Mountaintop Removal Mining - CommonDreams.org.htm
Harry Wainwright
h-wainwright at charter.net
Mon Aug 11 19:52:44 EDT 2008
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Published on Monday, August 11, 2008 by Bristol Herald Courier (Virginia)
<http://www.tricities.com/tri/news/local/article/an_end_to_mountaintop_remov
al_mining/12545/>
An End To Mountaintop Removal Mining?
by Debra McCown
ABINGDON, Va. - Mountaintop removal could be ended by as early as next year,
said a leader in an environmental group working to halt the destructive
mining practices.
<http://www.commondreams.org/archive/wp-content/photos/0811_08.jpg> 0811 08
"Now there is an increasingly powerful and vocal national movement to stop
mountaintop removal," said Matt Wasson, an ecologist and director of
programs for Appalachian Voices. "I'm saying we're going to have it stopped
by the end of next year . the end of 2009."
"Mountaintop removal" is, to some, a controversial term. It refers to the
blasting away of mountain ridges to get to the coal underneath, a process
that evolved with technological advancements over the decades from
traditional contour mining.
What makes this type of mining cost-effective is a valley-fill permit, which
allows the overburden - dirt and rock removed to expose the coal - to be
dumped into adjacent valleys.
The practice has been criticized as degrading to the environment and
hazardous to nearby residents, who must endure the noise, dust and danger of
blasting on the mountains above their homes, as well as flooding when stream
courses are changed.
"Mountaintop removal mining is a national disgrace," said Aaron Isherwood,
staff attorney for the Sierra Club. "If the American people knew what was
happening in Appalachia, I feel certain that they would demand an end to
this practice."
Coal producers argue that their industry is one of the nation's most
regulated - and as long as they follow regulations, they should be allowed
to extract the fuel that fires half of the nation's electricity generation.
Wasson pins his hopes on two distinct possibilities - a pending U.S. 4th
Circuit Court of Appeals ruling on a West Virginia court case and the
election of a new U.S. president who will take office in January.
Other activists agree that both have the potential to put a stop to the
issuance of new permits for mountaintop removal mining.
"I think if we get a new president, It'll be stopped, and I guess we're
going to get a new president by next year," said Joe Lovett, director of the
Appalachian Center for the Economy and the Environment.
Legal ramifications
With a long list of plaintiffs and defendants, the West Virginia lawsuit
seeks to put a stop to valley-fill permits, which are issued by the U.S.
Army Corps of Engineers.
Central to the issue is the question of whether the discard from mining
should be considered waste under the 1977 Clean Water Act, which limits the
release of pollutants into streams.
"I don't know what will happen in the future," Lovett said. "I can tell you
we haven't had any significant permits issued since March 2007 because the
court found that the federal government was illegally issuing permits at
that time."
When a federal court in West Virginia issued an order rescinding permits in
question, the permits were sent back to the Corps. The Corps of Engineers
contested the ruling in the Richmond appellate court. The case also includes
an issue related to sediment discharge.
Lovett said three different decisions on valley fills have been overturned
by the 4th Circuit since 2000, "but we're much more optimistic this time."
He said if the appeals court upholds the decision, the federal government,
which he said loosened its regulations during the current administration,
would have to completely change its permitting processes.
"How can they approve the filling of hundreds and a couple thousand miles of
mountain streams in this region and say that's not significantly degrading
the water?" Lovett said. "All I can say is the Corps hasn't been doing its
job up until now."
He said in addition to the West Virginia case, which will also affect
Virginia, legal action also is under way in Kentucky, and the proposed Ison
Rock Ridge mining permit in Wise County, Va., is being watched closely as it
moves through the regulatory process, as is the court ruling expected soon
in a lawsuit over logging on the site.
Andrew Ames, spokesman for the U.S. Department of Justice's Environment and
Natural Resources Division, said the four permits remanded back to the Corps
were not stopped; they were just sent back for review.
"I wouldn't be able to comment on what we think the 4th Circuit's going to
rule, but that appeal and those four individual permits do not affect the
Army Corps' ability to issue further individual permits, and they have been
doing that," Ames said. "The plaintiffs again have filed suit over those,
and that is still in litigation."
Surface mining's future
Mark Taylor, chief of the energy resource section in the regulatory branch
for the Corps, said several valley-fill projects have been authorized by his
Huntington, W.Va., district since the West Virginia ruling.
"Have we issued any coal mining permits since the ruling? Yes, we have. Do
we feel it complies with the judge's ruling? Yes, we do," Taylor said. "In
the regulatory department, we follow the rules and regulations as passed on
to us by Congress and . the judges. . Whatever they decide is what we will
do. We are neither for projects nor against projects."
David Spears, policy manager for the Virginia Department of Mines, Minerals
and Energy, said even a ruling from the 4th Circuit favorable to the
plaintiffs would not stop all surface mining here.
"They would still be able to do traditional surface mining, which is what we
call contour surface mining, where they mine around the mountains and
reclaim the land when they're done," Spears said. "They put the material
back up into the mined area."
Barbara Altizer, executive director of the Eastern Coal Council, said if
surface mining were stopped, the effect would be catastrophic for the
region.
"It would be devastating, and not just to Southwest Virginia counties. It
would impact Washington County, it would impact the Tri-Cities area. The
coal dollar flows in lots of directions," she said. "There's so many things
that coal is used for."
She said coal has helped the entire nation to grow and prosper, and, along
with providing relatively inexpensive energy, it could be the key to future
energy independence with the help of technology.
She said the extraction of coal by surface mining also has tangible local
benefits.
"When you live in a mountainous region, sometimes you appreciate the flat
land," she said. "We've got airports. We've got housing developments. We've
got shopping centers [because of land flattened by mining]."
Jim Norvelle, spokesman for Dominion Virginia Power, which is building a new
coal-fired power plant in Wise County, said he would not speculate on the
future of valley-fill permits. But, he said, the plant will be able to use a
wide variety of fuels.
"One of the reasons we pushed so hard for circulating fluidized bed
clean-coal technology for this power station is its ability to burn a wide
variety of fuels," Norvelle said. "We will be able to design our fuel plan
around a wide range of coal, waste coal and biomass, and can make
adjustments as the market for those fuels changes."
Activists say that while opposition to mountaintop removal is reaching
critical mass, it will ultimately take action by a new administration in
Washington to clarify Clean Water Act regulations to define mine spoil as
waste or prohibit mountaintop removal outright.
"The next administration could clarify the federal regulations and make it
clear that mountaintop removal mining was never foreseen when the surface
mining
laws were passed and is not permitted under those laws," Lovett said.
"We can fight with agencies all we want, but it's going to take some will in
Washington to get things done."
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5 Comments so far
1.
joneden August 11th, 2008 2:31 pm
One of the reasons we are getting ourselves into such a bind is that
the Limits are erodible, and MTR is a great example. When the liquid
petroleum became short, we just started eating the mountains in the
Southeast and Boreal Forest in Alberta with plans to begin eating the
mountains in the West.
www.StudentsForTheEarth.org
2.
greenerthanthou <http://wagelaborer.blogspot.com/> August 11th,
2008 2:35 pm
Intrigued by the headline, I was disappointed by the body of this
article.
Until we switch to renewal energy, there is no way the courts or
coal-supporting Obama will stop mountain top removal.
The Green Party supports an end to carbon based fuel dependency. If
we continue to vote for the lesser evil, we'll continue to get more and more
evil. Remember that Robert Byrd is a Democrat.
3.
Little Brother August 11th, 2008 3:18 pm
An End To Mountaintop Removal Mining?
____________________________________
I assumed that this article might disclose that we have reached Peak
Mountaintop, and that mountaintop removal mining would end because there
are, or soon will be, no more mountaintops left- just stumps.
4.
patrickballotintegrity August 11th, 2008 3:20 pm
ask Cathy O'Brien about 'the little bird'
the highest ranking White House Whistle Blower ever.
5.
elmysterio August 11th, 2008 6:38 pm
"The coal dollar flows in lots of directions"
Yeah. it's all about money isn't it. Money money money. As if it's
the MOST important thing in the world. Makes me sick.
The thing about Mountaintop removal mining is that mountains DON'T
GROW BACK! Once you blow up the mountain, it's gone forever. hardly a
renewable resource.
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