EPA Guidance on Mining Endangers Environment

April 18th, 2010 - Barbara Feiner

Thursday is Earth Day!

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has issued a guidance designed to strengthen requirements for Appalachian mountaintop removal and other surface coal mining projects.

The agency’s stated goal is prevention of significant and irreversible damage to Appalachian watersheds at risk from mining activity.

It’s too little, too late. The practice of mountaintop removal to access eco-filthy coal must be banned altogether.

Waste & Water Quality

Even the EPA admits that a growing body of scientific literature shows significant damage to local streams that are polluted with runoff from mountaintop removal.

As the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) notes:

“Just one mountaintop removal mine can lay bare up to 10 square miles and pour hundreds of millions of tons of waste material into as many as a dozen ‘valley fills’—some of which are 1,000 feet wide and a mile long.”

This waste can significantly compromise water quality, often causing permanent damage to ecosystems and rendering streams unfit for swimming, fishing and drinking. It’s estimated that almost 2,000 miles of Appalachian headwater streams have been buried by mountaintop coal mining.

Salt Levels Kill Fish

A new EPA report establishes a scientific benchmark for unacceptable levels of conductivity (a measure of water pollution from mining practices). The EPA says its new parameters are intended to protect 95% of aquatic life and freshwater streams in central Appalachia.

And the other 5% (assuming the EPA is even close to being right)?

Runoff from dumped mining materials raises salinity level, turning fresh water into salty water. When this happens, living organisms must struggle to survive.

As with any federal guidance, EPA will solicit public comments; however, the guidance will be effective immediately on an interim basis. EPA will decide whether to modify the guidance after consideration of public comments and further technical review.

How You Can Help

Please sign the NRDC’s petition, which asks Congress to pass the Appalachia Restoration Act (S. 696). It would end mountaintop-removal mining and prevent coal companies from dumping waste into streams.

The bill is also supported by the Sierra Club and Earthjustice—and, not surprisingly, opposed by the National Mining Association.

For Your Organic Bookshelf

Big Coal: The Dirty Secret Behind America’s Energy Future

Photo: nrdc_media | Creative Commons

Tags: Appalachia, coal, environment, fish, mountaintop mining, Political Action, pollution
Posted in The Environment | 4 Comments »

Mountaintop Mining Poisons Fish Supply

April 5th, 2010 - Barbara Feiner

Mountaintop mining involves blasting off the top of a mountain so excess rock can be pushed to a neighboring valley. This allows miners to more easily reach coal.

The eco-obnoxious practice, which has doubled in the last 8 years, has buried more than 1,000 miles of Appalachian streams over the last 20 years.

Now, residents in states like West Virginia, Virginia and Kentucky are finding huge numbers of dead and deformed fish, a result of toxic selenium that leaches into rivers and streams.

High selenium levels threaten fish survival and reproduction, and contaminated fish have offspring with serious birth defects—from crooked spines to deformed heads. Ultimately, the fish population could be wiped out.

Selenium pollution affects fish first, so they serve as a barometer for future damage to ecosystems and human health.

“Once in the aquatic environment, waterborne selenium can enter the food chain and reach levels that are toxic to fish and wildlife,” says Dennis Lemly, PhD, a research professor of biology at Wake Forest University in Winston-Salem, NC.

“The threat is expanding as use of this destructive process expands,” he adds. “Once these ecosystems are polluted, damage to the environment is permanent.”

Taking It to Washington, DC

Dr. Lemly, who supports tougher regulations on the disposal of coal waste, was part of a 12-member team of ecologists and engineers who provided the first comprehensive analysis of damage caused by mountaintop removal mining. He and his colleagues shared their scientific findings in February with representatives from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and the President’s Council on Environmental Quality.

Dr. Lemly has studied West Virginia’s Mud River Reservoir, which was polluted with selenium released from a mountaintop mining operation. Between 50% and 60% of young fish were deformed because of high selenium concentrations.

Not Fit for Human Consumption

Selenium levels in fish caught in some of West Virginia’s rivers are more than twice what is considered safe for human consumption.

Humans need to absorb certain amounts of selenium daily, but extremely high concentrations can cause reproductive failure and birth defects.

“I specialize in fish, but that is only one part of the overall picture,” Dr. Lemly says. “Public health is also an issue with mountaintop removal mining.”

For Your Organic Bookshelf: Coal Country: Rising Up Against Mountaintop Removal Mining

Photo: nrdc_media | Creative Commons

Tags: Appalachia, coal, environment, fish, Kentucky, mountaintop mining, pollution, selenium, Virginia, West Virginia
Posted in The Environment | 15 Comments »