The Myth of Mountaintop Removal Mining
Big Coal says it's a tough choice: we can have prosperity and jobs or a pristine environment, but not both. That's a Big Lie
CNN correspondent Soledad O'Brien's recent piece on mountaintop removal (MTR) in the Appalachian mountains has the troubling title, "Steady job or healthy environment: what [sic] would you choose?"
How about we choose both?
In any case, MTR does not, despite industry claims, deliver employment to offset its environmental damage. It's simply a win-win for Big Coal and its political supporters, and a lose-lose for ordinary people who live in mining areas. Whatever the industry would have you believe, basing an economy on coal is not a sustainable development plan. A study by the Appalachian Regional Commission noted the effects of mining on employment in Central Appalachia:
"As employment in Central Appalachia's mining sector has declined over time...many counties that were already typically experiencing relatively poor and tenuous economic circumstances...have been unable to successfully adapt to changing economic conditions."
Michael Hendryx and Melissa M Ahern found similar results when they investigated the region: "The heaviest coal mining areas of Appalachia had the poorest socio-economic conditions."
In addition to the negative impact on employment, mountaintop removal has terrible effects on the land. Rob Goodwin of Coal River Mountain Watch recently said of the land around Southern Appalachia:
"Southern Appalachia is unique. Because there were no glaciers here, the topsoil is some of the oldest in the world and that's why there are ramps, ginseng and molly moochers [morels], among other valuable species. What you are doing here on this mine site is destroying the 10,000-year-old species that, regardless of what you do, will not grow back."
The health toll is also steep, as several academic studies have indicated. This week, West Virginia's junior senator, Joe Manchin, was bashing the EPA at a constituent breakfast in Huntington. The Senate now has before it the House plan, the so-called Clean Water Cooperative Federalism Act of 2011 (HR 2018), which would restrict the EPA's ability to veto permits issued by the Army Corps of Engineers. Janet Keating, executive director of Ohio Valley Environmental Coalition, attended and referred Manchin to what he'd said on CNN, that there is no clear evidence of human health impacts from MTR. She then handed him copies of the 18 studies showing or suggesting health impacts. Manchin told Keating that at the time the CNN show was taped, these studies were not available.
Huh? I had copies of those studies. Surely a US Senator and former governor has as much access to published information as I do?
The health and economic problems caused by coal may explain why we're not buying the attacks on the EPA. A majority of voters in four Appalachian states want their water protected and disapprove of mountaintop mining. The same day Manchin was in Huntington, Lake Research Partners and Bellwether Research & Consulting released the results (pdf) of a poll commissioned by Appalachian Mountain Advocates, Earthjustice and the Sierra Club. Of 1,315 people interviewed in Kentucky, West Virginia, Tennessee and Virginia, "Three-quarters support fully enforcing – and even increasing protections in – the Clean Water Act to safeguard streams, rivers and lakes in their states from mountaintop removal coal mining … Just 8% of voters oppose it. Support for this proposal is far-reaching, encompassing solid majorities of Democrats (86%), independents (76%), Republicans (71%) and Tea Party supporters (67%)."
The reaction to the poll from Jason Hayes, the communications director for the American Coal Council?
"They're doing a numbers job. They need to frighten people. They need more membership dollars … It's all very frightening if you don't understand what's going on."
What's going in is that this is an industry that spends money for fancy websites to "dispel myths" – for instance, by telling you that "reclamation" returns the mountainsides to th