Read more in Coal Tattoo
CHARLESTON, W.Va. -- U.S. Environmental Protection Agency officials have referred 79 pending coal-mine permits for more detailed reviews by EPA water quality experts and the federal Army Corps of Engineers.
EPA officials concluded that all of the permits, as currently proposed raise "potentially significant water quality and environmental issues."
In a letter to the corps, EPA assistant administrator Peter S. Silva wrote that the permits "have not yet adequately demonstrated that anticipated adverse environmental and water quality impacts have been fully avoided and minimized as required" under the federal Clean Water Act.
The EPA announcement is the latest step in the Obama administration's plan to take "unprecedented steps to reduce environmental impacts" of mountaintop removal mining across the Appalachian region.
Since Obama took office, EPA scientists have been more closely reviewing Clean Water Act permits the corps proposed to issue to allow coal companies to bury streams with waste rock and dirt from mining operations.
The effort is focused on mountaintop removal, in which mine operators blow up hilltops to uncover valuable low-sulfur coal seams. In the process, leftover rock and dirt is dumped into nearby valleys, burying streams.
Government and outside scientists have become increasingly concerned that this type of mining is eliminating high-quality headwater streams and destroying ecologically rich Appalachian forests.
In all, the permits EPA wants to more closely review cover more than 60 square miles in West Virginia, Kentucky, Tennessee and Ohio, according to government permit data. The permits would bury or otherwise affect more than 170 miles of streams, including 14 miles of larger, perennial streams that flow year-round. The permits propose mining of nearly 300 million tons of coal.
Read more in Coal Tattoo
CHARLESTON, W.Va. -- U.S. Environmental Protection Agency officials have referred 79 pending coal-mine permits for more detailed reviews by EPA water quality experts and the federal Army Corps of Engineers.
EPA officials concluded that all of the permits, as currently proposed raise "potentially significant water quality and environmental issues."
In a letter to the corps, EPA assistant administrator Peter S. Silva wrote that the permits "have not yet adequately demonstrated that anticipated adverse environmental and water quality impacts have been fully avoided and minimized as required" under the federal Clean Water Act.
The EPA announcement is the latest step in the Obama administration's plan to take "unprecedented steps to reduce environmental impacts" of mountaintop removal mining across the Appalachian region.
Since Obama took office, EPA scientists have been more closely reviewing Clean Water Act permits the corps proposed to issue to allow coal companies to bury streams with waste rock and dirt from mining operations.
The effort is focused on mountaintop removal, in which mine operators blow up hilltops to uncover valuable low-sulfur coal seams. In the process, leftover rock and dirt is dumped into nearby valleys, burying streams.
Government and outside scientists have become increasingly concerned that this type of mining is eliminating high-quality headwater streams and destroying ecologically rich Appalachian forests.
In all, the permits EPA wants to more closely review cover more than 60 square miles in West Virginia, Kentucky, Tennessee and Ohio, according to government permit data. The permits would bury or otherwise affect more than 170 miles of streams, including 14 miles of larger, perennial streams that flow year-round. The permits propose mining of nearly 300 million tons of coal.
"We praise today's announcement and hope it is just one of many positive actions the Obama administration will take toward ending mountaintop removal," said Mary Anne Hitt, deputy director of the Sierra Club's Beyond Coal Campaign. "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."
Mining industry officials and coalfield political leaders have objected to EPA's more rigorous permit reviews, and the National Mining Association said Wednesday's announcement amounts to a "moratorium" on new permit approvals.
"EPA's answer of more delay and study is at cross-purposes with our nation's need for affordable energy, investments and secure jobs," said Hal Quinn, the mining group's president.
EPA officials emphasized that they have not rejected eventual approval of any of the permits, especially if mine operators propose changes to reduce the potential impacts.
In his letter to the corps, Silva said the further review "will allow the agencies, in coordination with mining companies, to evaluate practicable opportunities to, for example, reduce the size and number of valley fills, in order to minimize potential adverse environmental and water quality impacts.
"EPA is eager to work with the corps and companies to assess modifications to mining plans, include additional water quality and biological monitoring provisions, and take other appropriate steps to address anticipated water quality concerns associated with these projects," Silva wrote.
EPA's announcement finalizes a list of permits, announced in draft form three weeks ago, which will undergo coordinated reviews by EPA and the corps.
Under the announced plan, each permit is subject now to a 60-day review under "enhanced coordination procedures" put together by the Obama administration. Whenever "workload dictates or issue resolution warrants," either agency can seek a 15-day extension. If disagreements between EPA and the corps can't be resolved, the corps can choose to issue a permit without EPA approval. But it must first give EPA 10 days' notice. After that, EPA must either back off or initiate action to block the corps from issuing the permit in question.
Reach Ken Ward Jr. at kw...@wvgazette.com or 304-348-1702.
In West Virginia, mining companies are literally moving mountains to uncover valuable, low sulfur coal reserves.
Mountaintop removal has become the dominant form of surface mining in the state. Coal operators are blasting off hilltops, and dumping leftover rock and dirt into nearby valleys.
An untold amount of the state has been flattened, and hundreds of miles of streams have been buried. Find out more in this Special Report.
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This devastating practice, the nation’s
most destructive form of coal mining, poisons
drinking water, lays waste to wildlife
habitat, increases risk of flooding, and wipes
out entire communities.
In 2002, the Bush administration tried to
legalize mountaintop removal mining by
changing Clean Water Act rules.
The change, which overturned
a 25-year prohibition on using waste as fill
material, violates the protections of the Clean
Water Act.
http://www.sierraclub.org/coal/mtr/downloads/2009CWPAFactsheet.pdf
Mining companies are clear cutting thousands of acres of some of the world's most biologically diverse forests. They're filling local rivers and streams with blasted debris, polluting drinking water with toxic waste and sacrificing the safety and sanctity of countless communities.
Mountaintop removal mining is not just devastating the region's environment and quality of life. It is also steadily crushing the heart of Appalachia.
http://www.nrdc.org/energy/coal/mtr/
July 2004
Internal government documents initially obtained under the Freedom of Information Act reveal that senior Bush administration officials at the U.S. Department of the Interior intentionally disregarded extensive scientific studies conducted by five separate federal and state agencies over four years in preparation of an environmental impact statement (EIS) on mountaintop removal mining in Appalachia.
Scientists working for various federal agencies have documented a wide range of enormously destructive environmental impacts from this mining technique.
http://www.ucsusa.org/scientific_integrity/abuses_of_science/case_studies_and_evidence/mountaintop-removal-mining.html
Destroying Appalachian Streams
" Of all the environmental problems caused by mountaintop projects — decapitated peaks, deforestation, the significant carbon footprint — scientists have found that valley fills do the most damage because they destroy headwater streams and surrounding forests, which are crucial to the workings of mountain ecosystems."
http://e360.yale.edu/content/feature.msp?id=2172