Mountaintop removal involves clear cutting native hardwood forests, using dynamite to blast away as much as 800-1000 feet of mountaintop, and then dumping the waste into nearby valleys, usually burying streams. While the environmental devastation caused by this practice is heart breaking, families and communities near these mining sites are forced to contend with continual blasting from mining operations that can take place up to 300 feet from their homes at any time of day. People living and working near mining sites suffer from airborne dust and debris, floods that have left hundreds dead and thousands homeless, and must deal with contamination of their drinking water supplies. Ridge tops are flattened with bulldozers and dynamite, clearing all vegetation and, at times, forcing residents to move. The law requires mining companies to reclaim and replant the land, but the process always produces excess debris.
Mountaintop removal is recognized, even by the government agencies that regulate it, as one of the most environmentally devastating practices allowed under U.S. law. According to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency: “The impact of mountaintop removal on nearby communities is devastating. Dynamite blasts needed to splinter rock strata are so strong they crack the foundations and walls of houses. Mining dries up an average of 100 wells a year and contaminates water in others. In many coalfield communities, the purity and availability of drinking water are keen concerns.”So why did the Bush administration issue a regulation last Friday that would enshrine the coal mining practice of mountaintop removal? The new rule allows the practice to continue and expand, with only the vague and unenforceable limitation that mine operators minimize the debris and cause the least environmental harm, although those terms are not clearly defined. The regulation would explicitly state that the buffer zone rule does not apply for hundreds of miles of streams and valleys.
The Office of Surface Mining in the Interior Department drafted the rule, which will be subject to a 60-day comment period and could be revised, although officials indicated that it will not be substantially changed unless significant pressure is brought to bear by the public. The regulation is the culmination of six and a half years of work by the administration to make it easier for mining companies to dig more coal to meet growing energy demands.
"This is a parting gift to the coal industry from this administration," said Joe Lovett, executive director of the Appalachian Center for the Economy and the Environment in Lewisburg, W.Va. "What is at stake is the future of Appalachia. This is an attempt to make legal what has long been illegal."
Everyone should submit on-line comments saying this type of disregard for our mountains, environment, and the people who live in this area is inexcusable. To get a link to where you can submit on-line comments go to http://www.osmre.gov/news/082107.pdf
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You can also send a letter to your local paper via http://salsa.democracyinaction.org/o/1879/t/2986/letter/?letter_KEY=810.
Even though it does take some work, I do encourage everyone to make the effort, because they become part of the rulemaking effort. By having these comments as part of the official record, when group sues because the agency did not consider public input, this becomes part of the evidence to support overturning the bad rule. Letters to the papers don't mean anything in court.
I hope eventually a non-profit will set up a website form that simplifies the comment process and I will post that as soon as it is available.
Can't these people sue to keep their neighborhoods safe?
http://www.pbs.org/moyers/journal/09072007/watch3.html
Here's the grassroots, Christian organization trying to stop mountain top removal:
http://www.christiansforthemountains.org/index.html