Desks and playground equipment, covered with a thin film of chemical-laden coal dust, sit just 225 feet from a coal silo. Overhead looms the Massey Energy Shumate impoundment, an embankment holding back 2.8 billion gallons of toxic liquid coal waste. Welcome to Marsh Fork Elementary School.
Ed Wiley’s granddaughter, Kayla, attended this school nestled in the Coal River Valley near Sundial, W.Va. Kayla inspired Wiley’s campaign, Pennies of Promise, to raise the $8.6 million needed to build the children a new school in a safe location.
Today, that mission is a success. Gov. Joe Manchin held a press conference on Friday to announce that Massey Energy and the Raleigh County School Board would supply the final $1.5 million needed to complete the necessary funding for a new school, matching a $2.5 million grant by the Annenberg Foundation announced on Thursday. Add this to the $10,400 raised by Pennies of Promise, $1 million from the Raleigh School Board, the $1 million promised by Massey energy, and the $2.6 million granted by the School Building Authority.
“The whole movement made this happen, the communities, all the kids collecting pennies across the country,” said local resident Judy Bonds. “This is a victory for everyone.”
Nearly five years ago, Kayla’s school called Wiley to come pick her up because she was ill. The trend continued for three successive days. On the third day, Wiley flipped through the school’s sign-out registry and noticed that several children were sent home each day. As they drove home that day, Kayla turned to Ed, tears in her eyes, and said, “Gramps, these coal mines are making us kids sick.” That moment changed everything for Wiley.
In 2006, Dr. Scott Simonton, the vice chair of West Virginia’s Environmental Quality Board, conducted an independent study at the school, sampling dust and particulate matter from various classrooms. Analysis of the data confirmed that the school’s environment was potentially unhealthy.
“My concern about the school is that dust levels not only appear to exceed human health reference levels, but that the dust is largely made up of coal,” said Dr. Simonton. “Coal dust contains silica, trace metals, and polynuclear aromatic hydrocarbons (PAH), many of which are known human carcinogens. Inhalation of coal dust is known to cause adverse health effects in humans, however, studies of coal dust toxicity are understandably mostly of adult populations. Children are particularly at risk from dust exposure in general, so it is reasonable to assume that coal dust creates an even greater risk for children than it does adult.”
The 380-foot-high dam that looms over the school, holding back an 8-acre lake of coal slurry, has been another long-standing concern. According to a report by the Office of Surface Mining and Reclamation, if the Shumate impoundment were to fail, a wall of sludge more than 20 feet high would tear down the valley below. The sludge would reach the community of Edwight a half-mile downstream within five minutes. Marsh Fork Elementary—located several hundred feet away from the base of the dam—would have far less.
The Shumate impoundment is listed by the state’s Department of Environmental Protection (WVDEP) as a Class C dam. According to the agency, these classes of impoundments “are those dams located where failure may cause a loss of human life or serious damage to homes, industrial and commercial buildings, important public utilities, primary highways or main haul roads.” Mine Safety and Health Administration officials have cited the dam for safety violations on multiple occasions.
For years, Wiley and other community members pleaded with local and state officials to build the Marsh Fork children a new, and safer, school. He founded the Pennies of Promise organization. According to Pennies of Promise, “In the absence of help from our elected officials, we have looked to each other for support as we are raising the funds necessary to build a new school in the community ourselves.”
Frustrated with the lack of support, in 2006, Wiley hoisted the Pennies of Promise flag and walked the 455 miles from Charleston, W.Va., to Washington D.C., to urge Sen. Robert C. Byrd to help. Senator Byrd met with Wiley and even issued a press statement, commending Wiley saying, “I admire the determination and dedication that Ed and Debbie Wiley have shown, the Bible teaches that if we have faith of a mustard seed, we can move mountains. I believe that the Wileys have that faith.” But ulitmately, Sen Byrd did not take action.
Wiley and and the community pressed on in their efforts to raise funding for the new school, reaching out to other schools and continuing to push the issue with their local, state and federal government officials. Wiley even reached out to other schools, such as the Washington Heights Expeditionary Learning School (WHEELS) in New York, who joined the fight and started their own penny jar for Marsh Fork Elementary.
And in 2010, their determination has finally made all the difference.
“There are a lot of people to thank,” Wiley said. “Nobody gave up. But the battle is not over, there a still a few schools just down the road here that are in jeopardy. We need to get a bill passed so you cannot have this kind of activity.”
Please keep western Kentucky in your thoughts and prayers today.
One miner has been found dead, while another is missing after a mine roof collapsed Wednesday night at 10pm. The accident occurred at Alliance Resource Partners’ Dotiki Mine in Webster County, and rescue efforts are underway.
The Dotiki mine has received 2,973 citations over the past five years and was cited 649 times in 2009. Massey’s Upper Big Branch mine, which took the lives of 29 miners on April 5, received 458 citations in 2009.
Congressman Nick Rahall, Chairman of the Natural Resources Committee and long time leader in protecting miner safety, represents the district where the Upper Big Branch accident occurred. He recently said, “there is still much more that must be done to protect those who enter the mines each day working to support their families.”
You have been instrumental in the recent victories to protect Appalachian communities from the permitting of new mountaintop removal mines. While there’s much that still needs to be done to end mountaintop removal permanently, today we ask you to help protect those communities in a different way.
Learn more about the Dotiki Mine accident from Jeff Biggers and/or the Herald-Leader.
Learn more about Alliance’s dismal safety record from Coal Tattoo.
On Sunday, a memorial service was held for the 29 miners who were killed earlier this month in the explosion at Massey Energy’s Upper Big Branch Mine in Raleigh County, West Virginia.
The loss of these courageous men is a terrible tragedy, and as President Obama said in his eulogy, “Our task, here on Earth, is to save lives from being lost in another such tragedy.”
We agree. Mining — whether surface or underground — is an extremely dangerous occupation. More than 300 people have died mining coal in the United States in the past 10 years. Every day, three people die from black lung disease as a result of having worked in coal mines.
Yet the inherent dangers of coal mining are exacerbated by companies like Massey Energy, whose corner-cutting mentality has led to unsafe working conditions at the Upper Big Branch Mine and other facilities. Massey is also the number one producer of mountaintop removal coal in the country and, in 2008, was assessed the largest penalty in the history of the Clean Water Act.
Congressman Nick Rahall, Chairman of the Natural Resources Committee and long time leader in protecting miner safety, represents the district where the accident occurred. He recently said, “this mining catastrophe shows us that there is still much more that must be done to protect those who enter the mines each day working to support their families.”
You have been instrumental in the recent victories to protect Appalachian communities from the permitting of new mountaintop removal mines. While there’s much that still needs to be done to end mountaintop removal permanently, today we ask you to help protect those communities in a different way.
Lorelei Scarbro, a community organizer with Coal River Mountain Watch, whose husband died of black lung and whose has family that works at the Upper Big Branch Mine, will hand deliver the letter of support to his office.
Please join Lorelei in supporting Congressman Rahall’s stance on miner safety. Safe working conditions are just another aspect of protecting the people of Appalachia from the impacts of irresponsible coal mining.
A month ago, before the nation’s attention was drawn to the tragedies at the Upper Big Branch Mine in West Virginia and the oil rig off the Louisiana coast, the EPA issued a blockbuster announcement about a strict new guidance for the permitting of mountaintop removal mines in Appalachia. The announcement left many people – reporters, politicians and the general public alike – confused whether or not the EPA had just put an end to mountaintop removal. The announcement generated headlines ranging from a fairly modest “E.P.A. to Limit Water Pollution From Mining” in the New York Times to “New regulations will put an end to mountaintop mining?” in the Guardian.
Certainly at the press conference EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson used some strong language:
“Coal communities should not have to sacrifice their environment or their health or their economic future to mountaintop mining. They deserve the full protection of our clean water laws.”
On a recent trip through eastern Kentucky, set up by our good friends at Kentuckians for the Commonwealth, the answer to whether mountaintop removal in Appalachia has come to an end was abundantly obvious.
The photo to the right of a new active mountaintop removal mine looming above Route 23 in Pike County, Kentucky, tells the story.
To the extent that some in the media overstated the impact of EPA’s new guidance, they can be forgiven. During the press conference, Jackson herself said, “You’re talking about no or very few valley fills that are going to meet standards like this.”
Valley fills are the typical disposal sites for the waste that is generated when coal companies blow the tops off mountains to access thin seams of coal. As community activist Judy Bonds of the organization Coal River Mountain Watch describes it, “A valley fill is an upside down mountain turned inside out.” Most – but not all – mountaintop removal mines require valley fills.
But Jackson was also very clear that this was not a blanket ban on mountaintop removal permitting and that the guidance would not apply to permits that had already been granted. The standards Jackson said would lead to “no or very few valley fills” establish limits on the permissible level of stream water conductivity. Conductivity is a measure of salt – and an indicator of metals including toxic and heavy metals – in water. Remember the experiment where you put salt in a glass of water to make it conduct electricity and light a bulb?
A plethora of recent scientific research has shown that conductivity higher than about five times the normal level downstream from valley fills is associated with severe impairment of the ecological communities in Appalachian headwater streams. The photo to the right that I took below a valley fill in Magoffin County, Kentucky, illustrates the trouble these standards create for coal companies. According to a huge compilation of scientific studies that the EPA simultaneously released with their guidance, conductivity levels below Appalachian valley fills average around 10 times normal levels. The bright orange water coming out of this valley fill indicates enormously high levels of iron, which in turn suggests both high conductivity levels and high levels of toxic and heavy metals regulated under the Clean Water Act.
To be sure, EPA’s move is a big first step that provides immediate protection to Appalachian families threatened with new mountaintop removal permits above their homes. It’s a tourniquet that will stop the hemorrhaging, but here are five reasons why this guidance doesn’t immediately or permanently put an end to mountaintop removal:
EPA’s action will not affect permits that have already been issued. Moreover, an excellent piece of reporting by Charleston Gazette reporter Ken Ward revealed that those existing permits will allow some companies to continue mountaintop removal operations without a hitch for the next couple of years.
Not all mountaintop removal mines require valley fills and coal companies are already using loopholes by which they can obliterate miles of streams without the need to obtain a valley fill permit. The million or so acres of wholesale destruction that coal companies drove through a narrow loophole in the Surface Mine Control and Reclamation Act since 1977 is testament to their skill and creativity at exploiting loopholes.
Some valley fills will still be allowed under this guidance and the EPA even provided a set of “best practices” by which companies have already proven they can be successful in profitably operating Appalachian surface mines in a manner consistent with the new guidance. Moreover, there are a number of recent cases where coal companies went ahead and constructed valley fills without even bothering to obtain a permit.
While the guidance takes effect immediately, it is a preliminary document released in response to calls from coal state legislators and coal companies for greater clarity on how EPA was basing it’s decision whether to grant a valley fill permit for an Appalachian surface mine. The EPA plans to initiate an extended public comment period before the guidelines will be finalized.
An agency guidance document is different from a formal rule and can be easily overturned by a new administration. Even if this guidance proves to be effective in curtailing mountaintop removal, environmental and community advocates still need to ask what happens when a hypothetical President Palin enters the White House in January of 2013 or 2017.
There are any number of laws and regulations that affect surface mining, and so there is no single mechanism to ensure mountaintop removal is stopped permanently. But the first and most important step is for Congress to pass a strong law that prohibits the dumping of mine waste into streams.
In 2002, Representative Frank Pallone of New Jersey introduced just such a law called the Clean Water Protection Act (H.R. 1310). Pallone, together with Republican Cristopher Shays, introduced this bipartisan bill in response to the Bush Administration’s catastrophic “fill rule,” which made it easier to permit mountaintop removal mining and for coal companies anywhere to dump waste into streams. Since then, people and organizations across Appalachia have supported Pallone’s bill by carrying a simple message to universities, church groups and Rotary Clubs across America: they’re blowing up our mountains and there oughtta be a law!
Over the past eight years, the nationwide organizing efforts led by groups in Appalachia have generated a remarkable 170 co-sponsors of the Clean Water Protection Act – more than almost any other bill before Congress. Unfortunately, the bill continues to be held up in the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee, with West Virginia Congressman Nick Rahall recently claiming credit in a West Virginia newspaper for bottling it up.
If Rahall’s contention is true, it’s a powerful testament to the level of influence he has accumulated, given that the bill has more cosponsors than any other of the 323 bills currently before the Transportation and Infrastructure Committee. More importantly, Rahall does not actually have the power to prevent the bill from being heard except through his influence over Chairman James Oberstar of Minnesota, who is the only one with the actual power to decide whether the bill is brought up in his committee.
It’s particularly unfortunate that House Democratic leaders and committee chairs like Oberstar would give Rahall so much power over national policy, given how poorly his own constituents have fared under his leadership. After 33 years in office, Rahall’s district ranked 434th out of all 435 Congressional districts in Gallup’s recently-released 2009 well-being index rankings (see map below).
The only district that ranked lower was Hal Roger’s neighboring district in eastern Kentucky. Notably, Rogers’ is the only district that has suffered more destruction from mountaintop removal mining than Rahall’s.
A big question in the wake of the tragedy at Massey Energy’s Upper Big Branch mine is whether the obescience of coal state legislators toward the coal industry will change after the disaster. Traditionally, the pandering of Congressman Rahall and Senator Rockefeller toward Big Coal has been almost embarrassing to watch – kind of like witnessing an overly-exuberant public display of affection on a park bench. But when it comes to the safety of the guys in the hardhats, these gentlemen strike a very different tune.
Given that the same company, Massey Energy, is by far the largest operator of mountaintop removal mines, was assessed the largest penalty in the history of the Clean Water Act, and has a record of environmental violations to which their horrible safety record pales in comparison, these legislators have a unique opportunity to lead their constituents in a new direction. And Senator Byrd of West Virginia has paved the way.
One of the most under-reported elements of EPA’s announcement was that Administrator Jackson specifically mentioned the EPA had worked with Senator Byrd to develop their new guidelines. She would not have said that without explicit approval from Senator Byrd. While Byrd has not explicitly called for an end to mountaintop removal or co-sponsored legislation to do that, his leadership in promoting a more thoughtful and reasonable view on climate and the future of coal in his state represents a sea change from the public statements of statewide elected officials over the past few decades. Rahall and Rockefeller would serve their constituents and their country far better if they followed Byrd’s lead.
Is Passing a Law in this Polarized Congress Realistic?
More important than the enormous number of cosponsors that legislation to stop mountaintop removal enjoys is the fact that the support is bipartisan. Immediately following the EPA’s announcement, Senator Lamar Alexander, Republican of Tennessee, said in a press release:
“The new EPA guidelines are useful in stopping some inappropriate coal mining in Appalachia but Congress still needs to pass the Cardin-Alexander legislation that would effectively end mountaintop removal mining.”
Alexander, together with Senator Ben Cardin of Maryland, introduced the Appalachia Restoration Act (S. 696) last year, a Senate companion to the Clean Water Protection Act designed to eliminate mountaintop removal (or at least permanently curtail it – we’ll see what the final language says after mark-up). That bill got a boost the same week of the EPA announcement when coal-state Senator Sherrod Brown of Ohio announced he would become the 11th co-sponsor of the bill.
Whether the Senate bill can survive the committee mark-up process in a form that Appalachian citizens groups can support remains to be seen, however. The Nashville Tennessean recently published an editorial that gave voice to the concerns many coalfield citizens have about forms of mining that may not be covered by the Senate bill, particularly cross-ridge mining. Cross-ridge is a type of mountaintop removal mining that requires little or no valley fill and is based on the assumption that a mountain can be put back more or less how it was after it’s been blown up – kind of like putting Humpty Dumpty back together again.
The photo to the right illustrates one of many problems with the theory that mountains can be put back together without causing major ecological degradation. While the type of mining shown in the photo would not be classified by state agencies as mountaintop removal (only part of the ridgeline has been removed and there is no valley fill at the headwaters of this stream), the impact of this mining on water quality is indistinguishable from the impact shown in the previous photo below a valley fill.
Some insiders have also expressed concern that EPA’s strict new guidance will take the wind out the sails of the campaign to pass a law, but from the perspective of Appalachian groups that have been working to ban mountaintop removal for decades, that concern is misplaced. The citizens of Appalachia have led this fight from the beginning, and have a much more vested interest in making these protections permanent than any group in Washington DC.
It may be that some big environmental groups that have only recently made mountaintop removal a priority will move on to other priorities once the Administrative decisions are played out – and make no mistake that the contributions of those groups over the past few years in pressuring the Obama Administration to take action were exceedingly welcome and timely. But it was not the Big Greens that made mountaintop removal a national issue or whose organizing in communities across America has generated such broad bipartisan support of the Clean Water Protection Act and Appalachia Restoration Act.
The people of Appalachia aren’t sitting around waiting for beltway insiders to tell them whether or how to pass a law, they’re just doing it. The legislative effort is led by the Alliance for Appalachia, an alliance of thirteen local and regional organizations that formed several years ago with the mission of ending mountaintop removal and bringing a prosperous new economy to the Appalachian coalfields that is based on sustainable industries.
It’s the Alliance for Appalachia that represents by far the greatest number of people impacted by mountaintop removal mining, and the alliance is composed of some organizations that have been fighting Appalachian strip mining for decades. The battle to end mountaintop removal will not be over until the Alliance for Appalachia says it is and I’m confident that that won’t happen until, at a minimum, President Obama signs a law banning the practice.
So What’s Next?
There is a window of opportunity right now to pass a strong law that will rein in mountaintop removal permanently. Also, with coal demand down dramatically due to the recession, now is the time to begin replacing demand for mountaintop removal coal with aggressive energy efficiency and renewable energy policies in states like North Carolina, Georgia and Virginia that are most dependent on this source of coal.
From a local perspective, more delays, half-measures and uncertainty about the future of mountaintop removal will only lead to a myopic approach to rebuilding the Appalachian economy and bringing new jobs and new industries to the region.
And from a global perspective, at a time when America is finally getting serious about addressing climate change and moving toward a 21st century energy future built around renewable energy, isn’t it absurd that we’re still fighting to stop the wholesale destruction of the most biologically diverse forests and streams on the continent in order to mine climate-destroying coal? Can we really address climate change if we can’t even stop mountaintop removal?
For people around the country that want to see mountaintop removal end – and that should be anyone concerned about climate change, human rights or endangered species – a great place to start is by telling your Senators and Representatives that the time to pass legislation to end mountaintop removal is now. There are plenty of tools on the web to make it easy.
Let’s keep up the momentum, pass a strong law, and relegate mountaintop removal to its rightful place as just another tragic episode in American history books.
John Ruth leads the impromptu auction for the Vespa
The coordinating committee for the Larry Gibson Earth Day event and fundraiser
View more pics from the event
By Tricia Feeney
On Earth Day in Boone, N.C., Keeper of the Mountains Larry Gibson spoke at Appalachian State University and to a downtown gathering at The Greenhouse about the destruction caused by mountaintop removal.
Appalachian Voices and the Appalachian Institute for Renewable Energy teamed up with local volunteers, student group ASU Sustainable Energy Society, and a West Virginia-based Ohio Valley Environmental Coalition for a truly grassroots effort to honor Larry on Earth Day. The coalition effort was a success! Together, we collected enough donations to install a security system at Larry’s homeplace on Kayford Mountain, W. Va.
Larry is a leader in the movement to end mountaintop removal. He started organizing to protect his homeplace in 1985 and successfully protected 50 acres, which now sit like an island in the middle of a 7,000-acre mountaintop removal site. Larry has dedicated his life to ending mountaintop removal and protecting Appalachian mountains. From his educational park, a rare spot where people can witness mountaintop removal first-hand, Larry has empowered thousands upon thousands of people to take action and defend Appalachian land and heritage. Because of his activism, Larry and his family have suffered escalating levels of violence.
To help raise funds, a drawing was held for a new Vespa Scooter. The winner of the Vespa was a local man, Ray Moltz of Blowing Rock, N.C., who immediately gave the keys to Larry. He then asked the crowd to participate in an auction for the new scooter, with the proceeds going to Larry’s cause. Another man, John Ruth, volunteered to be the auctioneer, and after a lively bidding “war,” over $800 more was raised from the highest bidder!
Appalachian Voices and AIRE – along with online donations, local volunteers, and ally organizations – successfully raised the needed $10,000 to keep Kayford Mountain and Larry Gibson safe! The Earth Day Spirit was definitely alive in Boone on April 22.
Thank you to everyone who came out to support Larry, and to those who contributed to make this grassroots effort a success!
If you are ever in Boone, Please Support the Restaurants that donated food for the event.
President Obama will deliver a eulogy at a memorial service in Beckley, West Virginia today for the miners lost at Upper Big Branch. The event begins at 3:30pm and will be available live on C-SPAN and online via local WV stations.
The White House has released several excerpts of the President’s planned eulogy.
We cannot bring back the 29 men we lost. They are with the Lord now. Our task, here on Earth, is to save lives from being lost in another such tragedy. To do what must be done, individually and collectively, to assure safe conditions underground. To treat our miners the way they treat each other – like family. For we are all family. We are Americans.
Another study – this one from Than Hitt and Dr. Michael Hendryx – shows a high correlation between coal mining and certain types of cancers. It also outlines what a loss of ecologic integrity can mean for human health. You can purchase the study here, as well as see the abstract and preview. The image below shows a respiratory cancer cluster, focused on southwestern West Virginia.
Conclusions
It is intuitive that ecological integrity and human health are intrinsically linked (e.g., Rapport, 1999; Di Giulio and Benson, 2002; Tabor, 2002). However, global analyses have shown weak or statistically insigni?cant relations between ecological integrity and human health (Sieswerda et al., 2001; Huynen et al., 2004). In contrast, our analysis demonstrated a signi?cant association between ecological disintegrity and human cancer mortality in West Virginia, USA. We detected signi?cant in?uences of known socioeconomic risk factors (smoking, poverty, and urbanization) on cancer mortality, but these factors did not account for the observed integrity–cancer relationship. Nor could we explain our observations as a statistical effect of spatial autocorrelation within the study area. Instead, our study demonstrated that the ecological integrity of streams was signi?cantly related to public health in nearby areas. Although the macroinvertebrate data evaluated in this study were collected to assess the quality of aquatic life, our study revealed that these assessments may also contribute an improved understanding of human health and safety.
The Center for Biological Diversity (CBD) filed an Endangered Species Act listing petition today for a staggeringly tragic 404 southeastern aquatic, riparian, and wetland species. Of the 404, mountaintop removal coal mining is specifically responsible for threatening 30.
According to the CBD, over 28 percent of southeastern fishes, more than 48 percent of our crayfishes, and beyond 70 percent of our mussels are in danger of extinction. It will take at least two and a half years for a species to be listed, so, thankfully, this petition is getting the ball rolling on the process.
The best way to start a Monday is with good news, and this week we have that in triplicate.
Last week, three new co-sponsors signed on to H.R. 1310, the Clean Water Protection Act, a historic bill to protect our water and bring an end to the harmful effects of mountaintop removal mining valley fills. Representatives John Adler (D-NJ), Stephen Lynch (D-MA) and Martin Heinrich (D-NM) all signed on as co-sponsors, bringing the total number of representatives supporting the bill to 170.
Rep. John Adler is a 1st term Democrat from New Jersey 3rd District, and is the 168th member of the U.S. House of Representatives (including Rep. Pallone) to cosponsor the Clean Water Protection Act (HR1310). Rep. Adler serves on the Financial Services, and Veterans Affairs committee’s.
Rep. Stephen Lynch is a 5th term Democrat from Massachusetts 9th District and the 169th cosponsor of the Clean Water Protection Act. Rep. Lynch serves on the Financial Services committee, and the Oversight and Government Reform committee where he is the chairman of the Federal Workforce, Postal Service, and the District of Columbia subcommittee.
Thanks to the hard work of our terrific activists in MA, and NJ including the “Jersey Girls!”
Rep. Martin Heinrich is a 1st term Democrat from New Mexico’s 1st District, and signed on as the 170th cosponsor. Mr. Heinrich serves on the Armed Services, and Natural Resources committees.
Thanks go out to all of the great activists in the Albuquerque area!
To date, the Clean Water Protection Act has full delegations from MA (9), DC (1), CT (5), MA (10), VT (1), NH (2), ME (2), HI (2), and RI (2).
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Rep. John Adler is a 1st term Democrat from New Jersey 3rd District, and is the 168th member of the U.S. House of Representatives (including Rep. Pallone) to cosponsor the Clean Water Protection Act (HR1310). Rep. Adler serves on the Financial Services, and Veterans Affairs committee’s.
Rep. Stephen Lynch is a 5th term Democrat from Massachusetts 9th District and the 169th cosponsor of the Clean Water Protection Act. Rep. Lynch serves on the Financial Services committee, and the Oversight and Government Reform committee where he is the chairman of the Federal Workforce, Postal Service, and the District of Columbia subcommittee.
Rep. Martin Heinrich is a 1st term Democrat from New Mexico’s 1st District, and signed on as the 170th cosponsor. Mr. Heinrich serves on the Armed Services, and Natural Resources committees.