Archive for April, 2009
Encouraging news from our friends in Virginia at Southern Appalachian Mountain Stewards:
Contact:
Kathy Selvage (276) 523-4380, (276) 219-2721
Adam Wells (276) 523-4380, (804) 240-4372
samsva@gmail.com
www.samsva.org
Community delivers letter to DMME urging denial of Ison Rock Ridge permit with over 300 signatures.
Concerned residents delivered a letter addressed to Jackie Davis at the Virginia Department of Mines, Minerals and Energy office requesting that the Department deny the proposed mountaintop removal permit on Ison Rock Ridge near the town of Appalachia in Wise County, Virginia. The letter, which was accompanied by the signatures of over 300 potentially impacted community members, was based on an earlier EPA directive to the US Army Corps of Engineers to deny the ‘nationwide 21’ permit for surface mining operations on Ison Rock Ridge.
“These signatures represent the overwhelming community opposition to strip mining on Ison Rock Ridge.” Said Larry Bush, retired mine federal mine inspector and chairman of the board for Southern Appalachian Mountain Stewards. “These signatures came from our friends and neighbors here in the coal camps”, said Bush.
After presenting their letter to DMME, the group displayed two certificates. One, a “Certificate of Appreciation” the other, a “Certificate of Failure to Protect Communities and Follow Science”. A spokesperson from the group informed DMME that one of the two awards would be given once DMME makes a decision on the pending permit. A ruling from DMME is expected within the next week. It is their hope to award the “Certificate of Appreciation”
Residents of the town of Appalachia, Andover, Inman, Derby and other nearby communities fear that strip mining on Ison Rock Ridge would seriously degrade their quality of life and put their family’s safety at risk. Portions of the proposed permit are within town limits. The EPA’s letter to the Army Corps cites that the cumulative impacts of prior surface mining operations in the Powell River watershed render the ecosystems unable to absorb any more damages from sedimentation and heavy metal run-off.
“The EPA has created a clear mandate.” Said Derby resident Bob Mullins who worked to gather over 100 of the signatures from his neighbors. ” Now it’s DMME’s turn to show that they will follow the science laid out by the EPA and listen to the voices from the community. I hope that DMME will deny this permit.”
The Ison Rock Ridge permit covers nearly 1,300 acres and would destroy three miles of streams and fill nine lush valleys with more than 11 million cubic yards of rock and dirt. The massive mountaintop removal coal mine would surround the community of Derby, bringing destruction within a half mile of the historic district. Other nearby affected communities include Andover, Inman, and Osaka and the Town of Appalachia.
Another letter, also signed by community members, was delivered to the EPA this morning thanking the Agency for taking action to protect the communities threatened by strip mining on Ison Rock Ridge. This letter was delivered at a meeting, hosted by the Power Past Coal project, between the EPA and 6 delegates from across the county representing different stages of the coal ‘life cycle’. This meeting is a part of the final events of the “100 days of action to power past coal”.
Attached is a media advisory for this event as well as both letters from the community.
“What we’re doing today is just one more step to prove to DMME that this permit should not be granted.” Said retired coal miner Pete Ramey, President of Southern Appalachian Mountain Stewards. “We hope to soon be able to send a thank you letter to DMME like the one delivered today to EPA.”
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Congressman Ben Chandler
U.S. HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES – KENTUCKY’S 6TH DISTRICT
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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: April 27, 2009
Contact: Jennifer Krimm (202) 225-4706
www.chandler.house.gov
Chandler Responds to Stream Buffer Zone Action by Secretary Salazar
WASHINGTON (April 27, 2009)—
“I have been fighting to maintain the Stream Buffer Zone rule for a long time now which prevents mine spoil and waste from being dumped within 100 feet of our streams. I commend Secretary Salazar for taking this major action to protect our environment. I have made my opposition to the change in the rule clear through correspondence with EPA Administrator Johnson in November and have attempted to draw greater attention to this issue through my work on the Interior and Environment Subcommittee, including conducting a fly-over with Chairman Dicks last summer. I am confident Kentucky can work to maintain its low-cost energy advantage while protecting the environment.”
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WASHINGTON, D.C. – Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar today announced his determination that the mountaintop coal mining “stream buffer zone rule” issued by the Bush Administration is legally defective. Salazar directed the United States Department of Justice (DOJ) to file a pleading with the U.S. District Court in Washington D.C. requesting that the rule be vacated due to this deficiency and remanded to the Department of the Interior for further action.
“In its last weeks in office, the Bush Administration pushed through a rule that allows coal mine operators to dump mountaintop fill into streambeds if it’s found to be the cheapest and most convenient disposal option,” said Secretary Salazar. “We must responsibly develop our coal supplies to help us achieve energy independence, but we cannot do so without appropriately assessing the impact such development might have on local communities and natural habitat and the species it supports.”
Under the Bush rule, coal mine operators are able to dispose of excess mountaintop spoil in perennial and intermittent streams and within 100 feet of those streams whenever alternative options are deemed "not reasonably possible." Disposal into streambeds is permissible when alternatives are considered "unreasonable," which occurs under the Bush rule whenever the cost of pursuing an alternative "is substantially greater” than normal costs.
The Bush rule replaced a rule that had been on the books since the Reagan era rule of 1983. The Reagan era rule provides greater protection for communities and habitat by allowing the dumping of overburden within 100 feet of a perennial or intermittent stream only upon finding that such activities “will not adversely affect the water quantity or quality or other environmental resources of the stream. Two lawsuits were filed immediately after the Bush rule was published.
“The so-called ‘stream buffer zone rule’ simply doesn’t pass muster with respect to adequately protecting water quality and stream habitat that communities rely on in coal country,” added Salazar.
If the court accepts the United States’ request and vacates and remands the rule, the 1983 rule will continue to remain in force in all of the states that have delegated authority under the Surface Mining Control and Reclamation Act (SMCRA). (Only two states, Washington and Tennessee, do not have delegated authority under SMCRA.)
OSM expects to issue guidance to states regarding application of the 1983 rule. Also, OSM expects to solicit comment on the potential development of a comprehensive new stream buffer zone rule that would update the 1983 rule, address ambiguities and fill interpretational gaps, while implementing the statutory requirements set forth in the Surface Mining Control and Reclamation Act and ensuring that SMCRA requirements are coordinated with Clean Water Act obligations that are administered by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and the Environmental Protection Agency.
Secretary Salazar Remarks on Mountaintop Mining Rule
Date: April 27, 2009
Contact: Frank Quimby (DOI), 202-208-6416
Peter Mali (OSM), 202-208-2565
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An expert on Appalachia comes to the heart of coal country and calls for the end of surface mining. UK professor Ron Eller made those comments during the keynote speech at the East Kentucky Leadership Awards Ceremony in Hazard.
“We must begin, I think, by abolishing surface mining. Including the radically destructive practice of mountain top removal,” says Dr. Eller.
Pulitzer nominated author Ron Eller called surface mining “cheap” in his speech and said it was not necessary for the coal industry.
“Ultimately however, in the long run, we will have move away from an extractive economy, especially one based upon coal,” says Dr. Eller.
Many in the audience, which included several lawmakers, strongly disagreed with those comments. Aside from the controversial remarks, seven people were recognized for their hard work in the mountains.
“We see some of these TV programs that really sort of make me mad, because obviously we’ve got problems here we’ve got problems other places in Kentucky,” says Governor Steve Beshear.
read the whole article here:
http://www.wkyt.com/wymtnews/headlines/43600512.html
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This is a really beautiful letter from Bo Webb to Senator Robert Byrd of West Virginia.
Dear Sen. Byrd: Restoring mountains could be your greatest legacy
Dear Sen. Byrd, I write you today as a grandfather, and as a deep admirer of your inimitable contribution to our beloved state of West Virginia. As the son of a coal miner, I will always value your work to ensure economic investment and proper safety in our coalfields.
Soon, as you know, as the colorful peepers of red bush and wake robins pull from the clinch of winter, I will take my granddaughter’s hand and roam our Clay Branch hollows in search of ramps. This has been a 150-year tradition in my family in the Coal River mountain range, as I am sure it was for your family along Wolf Creek.
This year, though, instead of that pungent smell of wild ramps and the blossoms of spring, my granddaughter will be exposed to the sickening haze of ammonium nitrate and diesel oil, and the after shower of silica dust that blankets our hollow like a plague. Our ancestral mountain in the Peachtree community is being destroyed for a mountaintop removal operation.
In your wonderful book last year, Letter to a New President: Commonsense Lessons for Our Next Leader, you wrote that we should never turn our backs on the lessons of our coal-mining fathers. My father, like others in my family, first started working in the mines at age 11. But it is the grave of my Uncle Clyde Williams, who died in the mine at Leevale here on Coal River Mountain at age 17, that also hovers in my mind as I walk these hills, gather herbs and berries, and hunt and fish with my grandchildren.
I want my children and grandchildren to have the right to dream and flourish as great contributors to our state in West Virginia. I don’t want them to feel compelled to leave our state to look for employment or to realize their dreams. I want them to know that the rule of law protects them, their families and our mountains.
You, more than any other person in our state, understand this. When you went to Washington, D.C., for the first time to represent West Virginia, more than 130,000 union coal miners proudly toted their lunch pails and went to their jobs in the underground mines in our state. And you, as our voice in Washington, proudly made sure their safety and security were priorities to the rest of the country. Today, only 20,000 West Virginia coal miners make up those ranks. In many respects, strip mining and mountaintop removal operations have robbed my generation and my children of a chance to maintain our great Appalachian heritage, our beloved mountains and vibrant streams, and above all, any diverse economic development in our community.
In responding to the recent EPA decision to scrutinize mountaintop removal permits more closely last week, you wrote: “Every job in West Virginia matters. Everyone involved must act swiftly in concert and cooperation to remedy any problems that threaten coal jobs and the people who live in the local communities where coal is mined.”
Sen. Byrd, as a grandfather, I write to you: If our grandchildren are going to have any jobs and future at all in West Virginia, we must get beyond the stranglehold of mountaintop removal coal operations and find a way to bring new jobs and life to our mountain communities.
This could be your greatest legacy, among many, Sen. Byrd. Your public role in co-sponsoring the Appalachian Mountain Restoration Act (S.696) to defend the health and safety of our communities and putting an end to mountaintop removal and its destruction of our local economies, would place our state back on track for responsible mining, more coal mining employment, and a step toward a diversified economy that includes loans and investment in manufacturing of renewable energy products, such as wind turbine and solar panels, and high-technology operations.
In your powerful Letter to a New President, you wrote: “What determines the quality of American democracy is the use we make of our power. We have institutions in place to help this country avoid the misuse of our power. Those institutions are Congress, the courts and public opinion. The more we cut off true debate and the exchange of ideas, and let those in power use emotion, misdirection and the manipulation of truth to whip the nation into action, the more likely we are to make dangerous mistakes in how we use our power. A representative democracy only works when the people are involved. We need them.”
We need you now more than ever, Sen. Byrd, to bring new jobs, and restore a new sense of democracy to the coalfields of West Virginia.
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Many thanks to the Charleston Gazette for their report. Below is an excerpt:
CHARLESTON, W.Va. — Blair Mountain — site of the historic 1921 coal-mining labor battle — has been named to the National Register of Historic Places, state officials and advocates for the designation said Monday.
The designation, made by the Keeper of the National Register, includes a 10-mile stretch of Logan County ridges where thousands of miners fought federal troops as part of a United Mine Workers organizing fight. The designation covers about 1,600 acres, along a fairly narrow strip that runs northwest from near the town of Blair.
Labor historians and environmental activists have sought the designation for years, with those efforts increasing more recently as part of the fight over mountaintop removal coal mining.
“This is a major victory,” said Bill Price, a Sierra Club staffer who worked on the project. “We are just thrilled at the Keeper’s decision and of the recognition it gives to labor history in Southern West Virginia.”
But the designation does not block mining, and according to state officials could not have been made unless land-owning companies in the area agreed to it.
“It’s an honorary listing, principally, that recognizes the area’s historical significance,” said Susan Pierce, director of historic preservation for the state Division of Culture and History.
For more information, read the entire article and visit the Coal Tattoo Blog.
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Environmental Protection Agency Intervenes to Block A&G Coal’s Ison Rock Ridge Mine
Community members applaud decision to protect streams, residents
Contacts: Oliver Bernstein, Sierra Club, 512.477.2152
Kathy Selvage, Southern Appalachian Mountain Stewards 276.523.4380 or 276.328.1223
Appalachia, Virginia — In a victory for community members and for clean water, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) this week directed the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to revoke the “nationwide 21” mining permit for A&G Coal’s massive Ison Rock Ridge mountaintop removal coal mine in Southwest Virginia. The news comes only weeks after a delegation of Appalachian coalfield residents met with the EPA in Washington, D.C. urging the Agency to take quick action to protect their communities from the ravages of mountaintop removal coal mining. The bold move is the latest clear signal that the Obama Administration is taking action on mountaintop removal coal mining and supports clean energy solutions and green jobs. Southern Appalachian Mountain Stewards (SAMS), a community organization based in Wise County, Virgina, and the Sierra Club have worked for two years to oppose strip mining on Ison Rock Ridge.
“This is a great day! I am hopeful it means the beginning of the end of the wholesale destruction of the Appalachian mountains, its watersheds, its streams, its people, and its soul,” said Kathy Selvage, vice president of SAMS.
The Army Corps had been relying on a cookie-cutter “nationwide” permit for the Ison Rock Ridge mine, but the EPA cites Clean Water Act concerns in its recommendation that the Army Corps revoke the permit for this mine. By dumping its mining waste into valleys and waterways, the Ison Rock Ridge mountaintop removal coal mining operation would be extremely destructive. Residents are also concerned with the proximity of the proposed mine to their homes, as portions of the permit are within the corporate limits of the town of Appalachia and surround several other nearby communities.
“I’m so relieved and grateful the EPA has taken this action.” said Gary Bowman, whose home is only hundreds of feet away from a proposed sediment pond for the permit. “We were stuck between a rock and a hard place with this permit and are so happy that we will be able to stay in our home.”
The company that operates the Ison Rock Ridge site, A&G Coal, is known for its role in the August 20, 2004 tragedy in which a boulder from an A&G strip mine rolled down a hillside and crashed into a family’s Wise County home below, killing a sleeping three-year-old child in his bedroom.
“The days of reckless, unchecked destruction of Appalachian mountains are numbered,” said Mary Anne Hitt, Deputy Director of the Sierra Club Beyond Coal Campaign. “There is much more work to do, but President Obama’s EPA has taken bold action on mountaintop removal coal mining, and we applaud their intervention.”
The Ison Rock Ridge permit in Wise County, Virginia, covers nearly 1,300 acres and would destroy three miles of streams and fill nine lush valleys with more than 11 million cubic yards of rock and dirt. The massive mountaintop removal coal mine would surround the community of Derby, bringing destruction within a half mile of the historic district, eliminating the community’s tourism appeal. Other nearby affected communities include Andover, Inman, and Osaka and the Town of Appalachia.
“I’m walking on air,” said Derby resident Bob Mullins, who recently returned from a meeting with the White House Council on Environmental Quality. “I feel like we’ve finally accomplished something. This is a great victory to start with and now it’s time to get our friends and neighbors together to continue fighting for the cause and building this movement that is truly gaining momentum.”
Mountaintop removal mining is a destructive form of coal mining that has already contaminated or destroyed nearly 2,000 miles of streams. The mining poisons drinking water, lays waste to wildlife habitat, increases the risk of flooding and wipes out entire communities. For more information, visit www.sierraclub.org/MTR or www.samsva.org.
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