Mountain Justice
Stop Blowing Up Mountains for Coal
When all the trees have been
cut down,
when all the animals have been hunted,
when all the waters are polluted,
when all the air is unsafe to breathe,
only then will you discover you
cannot eat money.
-Cree prophecy
Dave Cooper in his essay, The Mountaintop Removal Road Show, asks this question, “How do you elevate a regional issue like mountaintop removal mining into an issue of national concern?” The purpose of this piece is to provide an accurate portrayal of how mountaintop removal mining has negatively impacted the people of Appalachia and the surrounding environment, while also aiming to educate and create advocates for the citizens of Appalachia.
In a region historically known for its deep mining of coal, Appalachia, and primarily Central Appalachia (WV, VA, TN, KY), has turned to the practice of mountaintop removal mining (MTR). It is a form of strip mining that was prevalent in the 1970’s.
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.
The waste from the mining operation is called overburden or valley fill and is dumped into nearby valleys, burying and/or polluting streams. It is estimated that over 500 mountaintops have been destroyed transforming 1.4 million acres. Over 2,000 miles of streams have been buried with debris. There are over 2,500 miles of polluted streams in Kentucky alone. (Mining Coal, Mounting Costs: The Life Cycle Consequences of Coal, Center for Health and the Global Environment, Harvard Medical School, January 2011.)
After the coal is washed, the excess water left over from this process is called coal slurry or sludge and is stored in open coal impoundments. Alternatively, sometimes the slurry is injected into abandoned underground mines. (Look What They’re Doing to Our Mountains, Foster, B.L. & Rich, C. Washingtonian, 43(12), 76-83, 112-116 (2008). 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. (www.ilovemountains.org) Mining Coal reports that MTR produces 130 million tons of waste annually and that there have been 53 reported spills between the years 1972-2008.
The Surface Mining Control and Reclamation Act (SMCRA) requires that the areas that have been mined in this manner be reclaimed or restored. The sites are required to be returned to the “approximate original contour” under Section 515(b)(3) of SMCRA. Many times this doesn’t happen and when it does it is not in any way similar to what the mountain appeared as prior to the blasting. Much of it looks like scrub grass with little or no forestation. The rich topsoil and nutrients went with the blasting. Reclamation efforts are not enough to prevent the flooding of communities due to soil erosion.
What does all this mean to those who live in the wake of mountaintop removal mining? It changes their lives in all the worst ways forever. The beauty of the place they have called home for generations is destroyed. The gorgeous mountains do not re-generate themselves. Flora and fauna indigenous to this part of the country are destroyed or impaired. Streams to fish and swim are polluted. Appalachia contains over 250 species of birds and over 75 species of mammals. Additionally, it is home to 58 species of reptiles and 76 amphibians. There are 55 species of salamanders and 21 are endemic to the region and known for nowhere else (www.discoverlife.org, J. Pickering, The Appalachians, pages 458-467 of Conservational International.
Drinking water contains so many harmful chemicals that it is unsafe to drink and bathe. Residents live with noise and dust from the blasting, cracked foundations and loss of well water from damaged water tables and pollutants (Research in Appalachia: What are the Impacts of Mining the Mountains?, The Clifford M. Lewis, S.J. Appalachian Institute at Wheeling Jesuit University). Soil erosion causes flooding and puts communities at risk. The quality of air is forever changed. Coal dust and its harmful particulates are released in the air where people live, work and play. Respiratory illnesses have increased. Children cannot play outside. Homes are covered in black coal dust. Roads become unsafe because of the continuous flow of coal truck traffic. Many an accident has occurred as a result of a truck driver speeding to get that one last load in by the end of the day or a driver falling asleep at the wheel. The excessive tonnage crumbles roads and renders them unsafe as well. This all occurs in the name of coal.
The impact on the health and life expectancy of those who live there are best summarized as follows:
These illnesses (chronic forms of heart, respiratory, and kidney disease, as well as lung cancer) are consistent with a hypothesis of exposure to water and air pollution from mining activities. There is evidence that the coal mining industry is a significant source of air and water pollution. Mortality in Appalachian Coal Mining Regions: The Value of Statistical Life Lost, Public Health Reports, July-August 2009, vol. 124, p.547.
At the core of the Clean Water Protection Act is the prevention of dumping mining waste into streams. Most mountaintop removal cannot proceed without the practice of dumping waste. To do otherwise, increase the company’s cost of removal and reduces its profits. The Other Side of the Light Switch, Mary Anne Hitt, Coal Country: Rising Up Against Mountaintop Removal Mining, p. 163. 2009. What happens to the steams is a result of dumping the valley fill as mentioned earlier. The valley fills lead to increased sedimentation in surface water runoff. The elevated amounts of sedimentation reduce the levels of oxygen for all the living organisms found in those streams. Bottom line, it alters the quality of the water. Bringing Down the Mountains: The Impact of Mountaintop Removal on Southern West Virginia Communities, p.120-122, Shirley Stewart Burns (2007). In 2000 a study showed that MTR had a “profound” negative effect on aquatic resources. Burns, p. 128.
A January 2010 study in Science magazine pointed out that groundwater samples from domestic supply wells have higher levels of mine-derived chemicals than well water from unmined areas. Mountaintop Mining Consequences, vol. 327, p. 148. The study further states that human health impacts may come from contact with steams or exposure to airborne toxins and dust.
In his New York Times opinion, author and activist, Silas House writes:
Over the past six years I’ve visited dozens of people who live at the edge of mountaintop removal sites. They bathe their children in water that has arsenic levels as high as 130 times what the E.P.A. deems safe to drink.
With these well-known and publicized facts, statistics and research, why don’t we end mountaintop removal mining and seek alternative fuel supplies? That is easier said than done. Coal accounts for approximately 50% of our electricity. It is a cheap product to extract and coal mining rakes in exorbitant amounts of revenue for coal companies. Coal has a stranglehold on the communities in which it is mined. To speak out against coal and/or MTR, is dangerous to one’s livelihood and safety. The coal industry equates coal to jobs, family, apple pie and the U.S.A.! If you are against MTR, you are against these very ideals. Sadly, some of the poorest counties in America reside in places where coal companies take out the most in profits. The late Judy Bonds, anti-MTR activist once asked, “If coal is so good, then why are us hillbillies so poor?”
To return to the question first posed by Dave Cooper, “How does one elevate a regional issue to a national one?” We must educate ourselves on the issue, acknowledge the harm and consequences if it is continued, and take action to bring about the end to mountaintop removal mining.
The reason we all need to fight for others, for those citizens of Appalachia and the land they call “home”, is best remembered in the words of Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., “Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.”
