In West Virginia, coal companies are pumping coal sludge (the toxic byproduct of washing coal) underground, poisoning the well water for thousands in our state. The Sludge Safety Project, a collaboration of Coal River Mountain Watch, the Ohio Valley Environmental Coalition and mountain communities, is pushing for a law to ban underground coal sludge injection and protect our waters.
Update: Challenging Permits on Coal River Mountain
We continue to challenge the mountaintop removal mining permits on Coal River Mountain:
•CRMW co-director Debbie Jarrell, Citizen Enforcement Project Coordinator Rob Goodwin, and other local residents are appealing the Department of Environmental Protection (DEP)'s decision to approve the Collins Fork permit, a 250-acre strip mining permit on Coal River Mountain that was approved in October. They are arguing that DEP failed to properly evaluate the cumulative effects of strip mining in the watershed of the Clear Fork of the Coal River, including the impact on human health. DEP also refused to grant CRMW an inspection of the permit prior to the permit hearing and the agency also blatantly disregarded a clear statute requiring the hearing on the permit to be held within 3 weeks after the end of the comment period; instead the hearing was held 3 years later. The hearing for the permit appeal was originally scheduled for January 11 but has been postponed until February 14.
•We just filed a complaint with the West Virginia Department of Environmental Protection over the Eagle II permit, the largest mountaintop removal permit on Coal River Mountain, covering 2,000 acres. This permit was granted in 2008 and has not yet been started. According to federal law, any permit which does not start within 3 years of being issued is automatically terminated. Eagle II is one example of what appears to be Alpha/Massey's strategy of getting permits for areas that they have no immediate intention to mine before they are faced with stricter regulations and more science clearly proving the irreversible impacts of mountaintop removal. We are still awaiting DEP's response to this complaint.
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Stand With These Three Appalachian Communities And Help Stop Mountaintop Removal Mining
My name is Donna Branham, and I live in Mingo County, West Virginia. I’ve seen first-hand the results of mountaintop removal mining, an extremely destructive form of coal mining that entails blowing up mountains, removing the tops, and dumping the rubble into streams, filling entire valleys and waterways. My family’s homeplace was destroyed by it, and the ruthlessness of the coal mining industry. Our drinking water was contaminated, and blasting shook our house and our community every day. We also dealt with extreme dust pollution and noise pollution, and flyrock, or large boulders that the explosion spits out through the air. I’m so thankful that people like you are getting involved in this fight. I’ve been in this for 20 years, and for so long, I felt like I stood alone. One voice doesn’t go very far. Many voices do. I am asking you to join this chorus of voices so that we are heard by our nation’s leaders.
Please take action now and help stop mountaintop removal mining.
Donna’s story is not unique—there are families across Appalachia who are living with the same injustice. Across this ancient mountain range, coal companies are blowing up mountains, burying streams, and contaminating waters—forever altering in the most extreme way possible our nation’s landscape and contaminating drinking water supplies for local communities.
The health impacts of this radically destructive form of mining are staggering. No one can survive without clean water, and scientific research shows that people living near mountaintop removal mines face greater threats to their health and their lives. Cancer rates are two times higher in areas of mountaintop removal mining; babies born near mountaintop removal mining are 26 percent more likely to be born with birth defects as well. How long will we let this go on?
President Obama and his administration have shown a strong commitment to the law and science by vetoing one of the largest mountaintop removal mines ever proposed, Spruce No. 1 Mine in West Virginia. But coal companies and their lobbyists are pushing for more than 100 new mountaintop removal mining permits, seeking permission to blow more mountains up and destroy more mountain streams in even more communities. When so many local communities are facing the same level of devastation, one permit denied is just not enough.
If the Obama administration issues more unlawful and harmful permits, violating the very purpose of the Clean Water Act to protect the integrity of our nation’s waters, coal companies could fill over 300 more valleys, level over 30,000 more mountain acres, destroy over 100 miles of streams, and pollute many more local waterways. The stakes could not be higher.
It’s not too late to stop more harmful mining permits from going forward. Please tell the Obama administration now to stop these mines.
Read about three permits in particular that must be denied immediately: HERE
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