Mountaintop Removal

[theHandpuppet]

Though I'd share some of my links to sites related to mountaintop removal and how mining effects our Appalachian home:

Appalachian Voices: http://appvoices.org/?/frontpage/

iLoveMountains: http://ilovemountains.org/

Earth Justice: http://earthjustice.org/our_work/campaigns/stop-mountaintop-removal-mining

[theHandpuppet]

1. Agencies Dodge Responsibility for Human Cost of Mountaintop-Removal Coal Mining

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/mary-anne-hitt/agencies-dodge-responsibi_b_4965735.html

Agencies Dodge Responsibility for Human Cost of Mountaintop-Removal Coal Mining
Mary Anne Hitt
Director, Sierra Club's Beyond Coal Campaign

This week, we got some disappointing news - a judge ruled that the Army Corps of Engineers isn't responsible for considering the health effects of coal pollution when it issues permits to fill valleys with rubble from mountaintop-removal coal mines. As Appalachian residents continue to suffer every year from well-documented health problems linked to mountaintop removal, this decision highlights a deadly loophole that requires long-overdue action from the White House and Congress.

Responsibility is a tricky thing. In our daily lives we work to be conscientious of our bills, our taxes, our family lives and a myriad of other duties that come up every day. But what happens when say, no one in the house takes responsibility for the dirty dishes? They keep piling up and things get pretty nasty.

Now, instead of dishes, think about what happens when no one chooses to take responsibility for the terrible effects coal pollution has on public health. From soot and smog to asthma, cancer and heart attacks, things go from nasty to life-threatening.

That's exactly what's happening right now in Kentucky where a court ruled (PDF) in essence that the Army Corps doesn't need to consider the health problems caused by mountaintop-removal coal mining because the Corps is only responsible for issuing permits that allow stream destruction associated with the mining, not the mining operation itself, even though the Corps admits that the mining operation could not go forward without the permit it issued. The crux of this ruling is that no one is currently taking responsibility for mining pollution that poses a serious threat to our health, waterways and communities.... MORE

[theHandpuppet]

2. Mountaintop Mining and Environmental Justice

Please note that the link I'm providing here is for a pdf:
http://digitalscholarship.unlv.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1005&context=jhdrp

Journal of Health Disparities Research and Practice
Volume 4, Number 3, Spring 2011, pp.
©2011 Center for Health Disparities Research
School of Community Health Sciences
University of Nevada, Las Vegas

Poverty and Mortality Disparities in Central Appalachia:
Mountaintop Mining and Environmental Justice
Michael Hendryx, PhD, West Virginia University

ABSTRACT
Objectives. This study investigated the associations between poverty rates,
Appalachian mountaintop coal mining, and age-adjusted total mortality rates to
determine if persons exposed to this form of mining experience greater poverty and
higher death rates compared to other types of mining or other areas of Appalachia.

Methods. Mortality rates, poverty rates, Appalachian designation and mining
activity were examined for counties in Kentucky, Tennessee, Virginia and West Virginia
(N=403). Linear least squares models tested for annual group differences from
2000-2007 in total and child poverty, and total mortality, based on mining type and
Appalachian location. Nested linear models accounting for state-level effects were used
to determine whether mountaintop mining and poverty were associated with mortality
rates controlling for other risks.

Results. Mountaintop mining areas had significantly higher mortality rates, total
poverty rates and child poverty rates every year compared to other referent counties
of these states. Both poverty and mountaintop mining were independently associated
with age-adjusted mortality rates in nested models.

Conclusions. Persons living in MTM areas experience persistently elevated
poverty and mortality rates. Higher mortality is independently associated with
both poverty and MTM, the latter effect suggestive of a possible environmental
contribution from mining activities. Efforts to reduce longstanding health
disparities in Appalachia must focus on those areas where disparities are
concentrated: the Appalachian coalfields.... MORE at link provided above.

[Petrushka]

3. Here's one that I recently posted in the West Virginia forum: What Our Coal Addiction Has Done....

http://www.businessinsider.com/west-virginia-coal-mining-2014-2?op=1#ixzz2tJvJ0Q52

[Petrushka]

4. "Reclamation"?

http://www.ohvec.org/galleries/reclamation/

[theHandpuppet]

6. I have to tell you...

Seeing those photos literally made me sick to my stomach. Future generations will curse us for what we have done.

[carolinayellowdog]

5. 151 miles of Virginia streams destroyed

This issue tends to be on the margins of Virginians' awareness because it is in a remote corner of the state. But for the local people it is a continuous struggle against despoilers of the mountains. Here's a Virginia Conservation Network report. Excerpt:

Mountaintop removal and other forms of coal strip mining have destroyed 156,000 acres in Southwest Virginia.2 An EPA report found that 151 miles of streams in Virginia were destroyed—either buried or mined-over—between 1992 and 2002,3 and more than 67 mountains have been destroyed to date.4 While mines can cover thousands of acres, the impacts on humans and wildlife extend far beyond.

Human Impacts: Residents of the coalfields suffer from dramatically elevated occurrences of birth defects, premature death, and health problems such as cancer, heart, lung, and kidney diseases.5 Far from being an economic boon, strip mining is closely associated with economic distress. The Appalachian Regional Commission found that “current and persistent economic distress within the Central Appalachian Region has been associated with employment in the mining industry, particularly coal mining.6” Residents also must endure frequent blasting, contaminated drinking water, severe flooding, and the outright destruction of mountains and creeks that have been integral to the local way of life for generations. Finally, mountaintop removal compromises the region’s future by diminishing its desirability as a place to locate small businesses or less destructive industries.

[Petrushka]

7. A.C.H.E. -- Appalachian Communities Health Emergency Act

The Appalachian Communities Health Emergency Act is the first law ever proposed that would end the human rights/human health disaster that is Mountaintop Removal in Appalachia.

http://www.citizenscoalcouncil.org/?page_id=2590

[theHandpuppet]

8. 10th Annual Mountain Justice Summer Camp

http://mountainjustice.org/

10th Annual Mountain Justice Summer Camp
Wileys Last Resort
on Pine Mountain near Whitesburg, Kentucky
June 14-22, 2014

Our Mountain Justice Summer camp will feature nine days of workshops, trainings, learning about coal mining and mountaintop removal and Appalachian history and culture. Our Summer Camp site overlooks a huge mountaintop removal mine on nearby Black Mountain.

Evenings will feature music, films, bonfires and dancing with mountain and traditional Appalachian music

Food is lovingly cooked by our dedicated crew – all meals and tent camping are included in your registration

Sliding scale, no one is turned away for lack of ability to pay

[Petrushka]

9. America the Beautiful? --- Willie Nelson

&feature=youtu.be

[theHandpuppet]

10. Supreme Court Rejects Coal Industry Lawsuit

This news was posted to LBN but in case anyone missed it....

EcoWatch
Supreme Court Rejects Coal Industry Lawsuit, Defends EPA Veto of Mountaintop Removal Mine
March 24, 2014 12:41 pm

Today the U.S. Supreme Court denied the coal mining industry’s request to hear a case against the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) for vetoing part of a permit for one of the largest and most harmful mountaintop removal coal mines in West Virginia’s history, the Spruce No. 1 mine. By declining to take the case the Supreme Court refused to reverse the lower court’s ruling that the EPA has full authority to protect clean water whenever necessary to prevent unacceptable environmental harm.

In October 1999, the Spruce No. 1 Mine became the subject of the first significant federal court decision on mountaintop removal mining, won by individual community members and the West Virginia Highlands Conservancy (represented by Appalachian Mountain Advocates and Public Justice). That case initiated years of controversy and litigation over this proposed mine. In the meantime, the science accumulated showing how devastating this type of mining is for local waters and communities.

In Jan. 2011, the EPA decided to veto the Spruce No. 1 Mine permit based on robust science showing the irreparable harm that would occur if the mining company were allowed to permanently bury and pollute natural headwater streams with mining waste. The permit would have allowed the Mingo Logan coal company to bury and destroy more than six miles of pristine mountain streams under mining waste dumps created from the destruction of more than 2,000 acres of land, releasing harmful pollutants into downstream waters that sustain local communities and wildlife. Appalachian citizen groups have been fighting to save the streams that would be destroyed by the Spruce Mine for more than a decade—as one of the largest, most harmful mountaintop removal mines ever proposed.

“The Spruce No. 1 mine is one of the largest and most destructive mountaintop removal mines ever proposed in Appalachia,” said Trip Van Noppen, president of Earthjustice. ”EPA’s decision to veto the dumping of waste from this mine was a decision to prevent the most extreme impacts of the most radical type of strip mining—the worst of the worst. The Clean Water Act, enacted with wide bipartisan and public support, gave EPA broad authority to step in and stop this type of wholesale destruction and pollution of U.S. waters. The Supreme Court refusal to hear industry’s baseless case confirms that the EPA has the clear legal authority to prevent the dumping of waste whenever it would cause unacceptable harm to communities and the environment.” MORE

LBN thread: http://www.democraticunderground.com/1014763706

[theHandpuppet]

11. DEP slammed for approval of strip mine near Kanawha forest

The Charleston Gazette
Friday, May 2, 2014
DEP slammed for approval of strip mine near Kanawha forest
By Ken Ward Jr., Staff writer

Local citizen groups are criticizing the West Virginia Department of Environmental Protection for approving a new strip-mining permit located near Kanawha State Forest.

“We don’t go to KSF to hear explosions, breath blasting dust and see our mountains torn apart,” said Chad Cordell, a leader of the Kanawha Forest Coalition, a group that opposes the permit sought by Keystone Industries. “To the people of the Kanawha Valley who are still recovering from the contamination of our drinking water by coal-cleaning chemicals, this mine will have further negative impact on our quality of life and well-being.”

Late Thursday afternoon, DEP officials issued a news release announcing that they had given final approval to Keystone’s request for a 414-acre permit to strip mine opposite Middlelick Branch from Kanawha State Forest’s northeastern boundary.

Over the years, it’s been rare for the DEP to issue a news release to announced approval of a mining permit, even a controversial one. - See more at: http://www.wvgazette.com/article/20140502/GZ01/140509821/1419#sthash.Tpxec0T3.dpuf

[theHandpuppet]

12. The Human Cost of Coal

ilovemountains.org
The Human Cost of Coal
Mountaintop Removal's Effect on Health and the Economy

There’s a common saying in Appalachia: what we do to the land, we do to the people. Recently, 21 peer-reviewed scientific studies have confirmed the truth of those words. Not only has mountaintop removal permanently destroyed more than 500 Appalachian mountains, but people living near the destruction are 50% more likely to die of cancer and 42% more likely to be born with birth defects compared with other people in Appalachia.

Data used in these studies are presented in the interactive map at this link: http://ilovemountains.org/the-human-cost

[theHandpuppet]

13. Appeals court upholds EPA’s mountaintop removal crackdown

The Charleston Gazette
Charleston, WV
Friday, July 11, 2014

Appeals court upholds EPA’s mountaintop removal crackdown
By Ken Ward Jr., Staff writer

In a significant victory for the Obama administration’s coal policies, a federal appeals court on Friday upheld U.S. Environmental Protection Agency initiatives aimed at reducing water pollution from mountaintop removal mining operations.

A panel from the U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia ruled that the EPA was within its authority to set up a process to coordinate with the Army Corps of Engineers on reviews of Clean Water Act permits for mining operations.

The three-judge panel also said EPA guidance aimed at reducing conductivity pollution from large-scale surface mines was not a final agency rule and, therefore, not subject — at least at this point — to legal challenge.

“[The] EPA is pleased that the Court of Appeals agreed with our position in this case,” agency press secretary Liz Purchia said in a prepared statement. “We are committed to consistently using our authority under the Clean Water Act to protect the health and environment of Appalachian communities.”

- See more at: http://www.wvgazette.com/article/20140711/GZ01/140719857/1419#sthash.diLSnLyD.dpuf

[theHandpuppet]

14. Today’s court decision and what it means for Appalachia

Appalachian Voices
Today’s court decision and what it means for Appalachia
Posted by Thom Kay
July 11, 2014 at 6:11 pm

Today was a big day for those fighting to end mountaintop removal coal mining in Appalachia.

A federal appeals court has reaffirmed the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s authority to coordinate with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers when reviewing Clean Water Act permits for mountaintop removal mines. The court also ruled that the EPA’s guidance on conductivity is not a final rule and therefore is not subject to legal challenge.

In 2009, the EPA and the Army Corps of Engineers began an Enhanced Coordination Process for permitting valley fills associated with large-scale mountaintop removal mining. The process encouraged improved coordination between the two agencies and greater scrutiny of the environmental impacts of each valley fill permit before them.

But as you probably know, the environmental impacts of valley fills are inherently damaging. Just last week, a major study from the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) found that headwater streams beneath valley fills in southern West Virginia had two-thirds fewer fish than normal streams. Keep in mind that those Appalachian streams are the headwater streams for the drinking water of millions of Americans. Appalachian Voices was also curious about the potential economic impacts of coal pollution and found that there are a lot more jobs supported by the sportfishing industry in Appalachia than surface coal mining jobs — about seven times as many....

MORE at http://appvoices.org/2014/07/11/todays-decision-and-what-it-means-for-appalachia/

[theHandpuppet]

15. MAP -- Mountaintop Removal Mining and Life Expectancy Chart

Bookmark it!

https://maps.google.com/gallery/details?id=z_6xxpWaIDwg.kcHFmArf7Cm0&hl=en

[theHandpuppet]

16. Moving Mountains Tragedy 2014: Stunning Court Denial of Appalachian Health Crisis

Moving Mountains Tragedy 2014: Stunning Court Denial of Appalachian Health Crisis
Jeff Biggers, Journalist/Historian
08/22/2014

In a breathtaking but largely overlooked ruling this week, a federal judge agreed that the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers may disregard studies on the health impacts of mountaintop removal mining in its permitting process, only two weeks after Goldman Prize Award-winning activist Maria Gunnoe wrote an impassioned plea to President Obama to renew withdrawn funding for US Geological Survey research on strip mining operations and redouble federal action to address the decades-old humanitarian disaster.

The prophetic call for immediate federal action by Gunnoe, a community organizer for the West Virginia-based Ohio Valley Environmental Coalition and a long-time witness to the tragedy of mountaintop removal, has never been so timely. "Appalachian citizens are the casualties of a silent "war on people" who live where coal is extracted," Gunnoe wrote the president. "Citizens of all ages are dying for the coal industry's bottom line." Gunnoe concluded:

We all must recognize and resolve these mountaintop-removal-caused health problems and end the onslaught of pollution on people. Ending mountaintop removal could be as simple as passing HR 526: the Appalachian Community Health Emergency Act, or possibly even an Executive Order. The ACHE Act will place a moratorium on all new mountaintop removal permits. This bill, when passed, will immediately improve the lives and health of the people who live with these impacts daily...

..."Our state politicians display a willful ignorance of some 24 peer-reviewed scientific reports about mountaintop removal's human health effects," Gunnoe wrote. "Studies show a correlation between living near a mountaintop removal site and significantly increased rates of cancer, birth defects and premature deaths. We believe they'd have a much harder time ignoring studies put out by the USGS."....

MORE at http://www.huffingtonpost.com/jeff-biggers/moving-mountains-tragedy_b_5700980.html

[theHandpuppet]

17. EPA wins another round on Spruce Mine veto

The Charleston Gazette
Tuesday, September 30, 2014
EPA wins another round on Spruce Mine veto
By Ken Ward Jr., Staff writer

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency on Tuesday won another major legal victory in the long saga of one of the largest mountaintop removal mining permits in West Virginia history.

U.S. District Judge Amy Berman Jackson concluded that the agency’s veto of a Clean Water Act permit for Arch Coal’s Spruce No. 1 Mine in Logan County was “reasonable, supported by the record, and based on considerations within EPA’s purview.”

In a 50-page opinion, the judge ruled with EPA on the merits of the agency’s January 2011 decision to use its water pollution oversight authority to rescind a permit that had been previously issued to Arch Coal by the federal Army Corps of Engineers.

The EPA veto has been the subject of much criticism from coal company officials and coalfield political leaders, who argued it was unfair to revoke a previously approved permit, and said the move was part of a broader Obama administration effort to destroy the mining industry....

- See more at: http://www.wvgazette.com/article/20140930/GZ01/140939918/1419#sthash.CxwNBG2m.dpuf