APRIL 2, 2009 ISSUE
Victory for Appalachian Voices
EPA Halts Mountaintop Removal Coal Mining Permits
The Hobet Mine is a mountaintop removal surface coal mine in West Virginia that supplies coal to Duke Power, North Carolina’s largest electricity supplier. Photo by Vivian Stockman
Environmentalists are still celebrating a decision by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) last week to suspend and review permits for two new mountaintop removal coal mining operations in West Virginia and Kentucky. The EPA said it also intends to review other requests for mining permits, putting between 150 to 200 coal mine permit applications on hold.
Many believe the decision is a sign that the Obama Administration could take a major stand against mountaintop removal.
The EPA sent two letters to the Army Corps of Engineers regarding the decision on the two permits. The Army Corps of Engineers is responsible for issuing Clean Water Act permits for proposed surface coal mining operations that impact streams, wetlands and other waters. The Clean Water Act requires the EPA to review proposed permits and provide comments to the Corps to ensure that proposed permits fully protect water quality.
In its letters, the EPA stated that the two coal mines would likely cause water quality problems in streams and significant degradation to streams buried by mining activities and that the proposed steps to offset these impacts are inadequate, according to a March 24 press release. The EPA has recommended specific actions to further avoid and reduce these harmful impacts and to improve mitigation, the release said.
“We knew that there was a decision at hand, and we knew that the EPA was leaning towards reigning in mountaintop removal in some way,” said Matt Wasson, interim director and director of programs for Appalachian Voices, a Boone-based organization working to combat environmental problems facing the Central and Southern Appalachian Mountains.
“[The EPA decision] is very significant, and I think everybody knows it,” Wasson said.
Two weeks ago, more than 150 people from across Appalachia and the country gathered in the nation’s capital for the 4th annual End Mountaintop Removal Week in Washington, including Wasson and several representatives from Appalachian Voices. In addition to meeting with legislators, several members of the group met with high-level members of the EPA, Wasson said.
The EPA and Army Corps of Engineers have been butting heads over the issue of mountaintop removal permits for years, but under the Bush Administration, top EPA officials conducted “little meaningful review of these permits,” Wasson said. Recently, the White House’s Council on Environmental Quality was called on to arbitrate between the Corps and the EPA. Wasson said that Week in Washington representatives set up a meeting with members of the Council on Environmental Quality and made a strong appeal to them.
“It’s pretty clear that the council came down on the side of the EPA,” Wasson said.
A day after the EPA announced its decision, West Virginia Gov. Joe Manchin and coal industry representatives headed to Washington to discuss the decision with the EPA and government leaders.
This aerial photograph depicts a mountaintop removal mine near Rawl, West Virginia. Photo by Kent Kessinger
After meeting with White House and EPA officials, Manchin’s office released the following statement: “We had a very productive meeting during which I shared our concerns about the potential impact of those letters,” Manchin said. “I told them we are looking for a balance between the environment and the economy, and they assured me that they will work with us to find that balance.”
In a March 24 release, National Mining Association President and CEO Hal Quinn said, “Jeopardizing coal mining activity throughout Appalachia will put more than 77,000 high-wage mining jobs at risk at a time when our nation is already battered by a deepening recession.
“This action is incomprehensible at a time when the country is losing 600,000 jobs every month and households are struggling just to meet basic needs,” Quinn continued. “EPA is holding up lawful permits for operations that are responsible for providing affordable coal-based electricity for 77 million households throughout the East.”
Since Appalachian Voices formed in 1998, mountaintop removal has remained one of the organization’s core issues. In 2003, App Voices became more directly involved in the issue by focusing energy and resources toward federal legislation to address the issue.
“That meant that we had to organize on this nationally,” Wasson said.
In 2006, the organization held the first Week in Washington event and launched ILoveMountains.org, the online center for the national effort to end mountaintop removal.
The recent EPA decision is limited in that it only addresses a handful of permits currently, “but it’s far more significant in that it signaled a shift in that they were going to bring a serious scientific review back,” Wasson said. The ramifications of this shift have the potential to affect decisions by other governmental bodies, including Congress.
“Laws still have to be passed,” he said. “There’s not a chance that we’re going to let up until federal legislation has passed.”
At the federal level, bills have been introduced in the House and Senate that address the harmful impacts of mountaintop removal. The House bill has 139 co-sponsors, “a very good number to be working with this early in the session,” Wasson said.
In North Carolina, House Bill 340, The Appalachian Mountains Preservation Act, would prohibit electric public utilities operating coal-fired generating units located in North Carolina from purchasing or using coal extracted through mountaintop removal. N.C. Sen. Steve Goss introduced a similar bill in the Senate.
Similar bills have been introduced in other states, but Wasson feels the bill has the best chance of passing in North Carolina.
“We feel like it’s do-able. It’s possible,” he said. Wasson said the state’s energy companies have made it a high priority to fight this bill.
“Beating that is a tall order, but we fully intend to,” he said.
For more information about Appalachian Voices, call 828-262-1500 or click to www.appvoices.org.
What Is Mountaintop Removal Mining?
Mountaintop removal is a form of surface coal mining in which the tops of mountains are removed, exposing seams of coal. Mountaintop removal can involve removing 500 feet or more of the summit to reach buried coal seams. The earth from the mountaintop is then dumped into neighboring valleys.
The practice is considered much safer and more efficient than underground coal mining, but the environmental impacts of surface and mountaintop removal coal mining are far more substantial.
According to the National Mining Association, the U.S. has produced more than 1 billion tons of coal annually for each of the last 14 years. Approximately two-thirds of today's coal production results from surface, rather than underground, mining.
Mountaintop removal—or mountaintop mining, as the association refers to the practice—in Appalachia accounts for about 10 percent of all coal mined in the U.S. and is roughly 40 percent of the coal mined in West Virginia and Kentucky.
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