Mountaintop Removal

The Environmental Protection Agency has taken the first step in revoking a permit issued to Arch Coal Inc., based in St. Louis, Missouri. The permit was for the Mingo Logan Coal’s Spruce No.1 mine. This permit would allow Arch to use mountaintop removal practices to be used and for the fill material to be placed in valleys.

Mountaintop removal is a method of coal mining in which the forests on the mountain are cut down and the surface of the mine is blasted away with dynamite. The debris left over from the blasting is then placed into valleys and often disrupts what is left of the habitat around that area. Often streams are buried and hydrology is changed in that area. The clear cutting and blasting destroy the natural environment as well as effect human health downstream or in areas located near blasting sites. “Families and communities near mining sites may suffer from airborne dust and debris, contamination of their drinking water supplies, and flooding from broken slurry impoundments,” (Appalachian Voices). Mountaintop removal often damages homes as well as decreased property value up to 90%.

Mountaintop removal is popular in areas of West Virginia, Virginia, Kentucky, and Tennessee. This topic is important to me because I was born and raised in Charleston, West Virginia. Even as close as 17 miles outside of the capital city of Charleston the water is polluted by coal companies and they are not held liable for the clean up or the health problems caused by underground slurry injections.

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers has the power to issue permits, but the EPA has veto power of all permits. This is the first instance in which the EPA has revoked a permit so that it can review the permits and decide whether the environmental impact of mountaintop removal is too destructive. The EPA is in the works of regulating carbon dioxide which coal mining and processing expels under the authority of the Clean Air Act. This is important especially to our campus because we are one of 60 college campuses that have a coal fired power plant on campus. My dorm room freshman year had a great view; it was located right across the street and seeing the smoke stack everyday. The Sierra Club has set up a campaign to try to make students active in the fight against coal power especially because of our location in coal country.

The position of the Obama Administration is the polar opposite of the Bush Administrations regulations on mountaintop removal. The moratorium on permits imposed by the EPA is a step in the right direction to dealing with the devastation caused by mountaintop removal.