March 18, 2009
Bulldozers, Explosives Raze Mountains as West Virginia Groups Ask Obama Administration for Relief
Special to Huntingtonnews.net
Nellis, WV (HNN) — New mountaintop removal coal mining has begun in West Virginia just one month after a controversial court decision opened the floodgates on new permits, and West Virginians are pleading with the Obama Administration to protect their mountains, streams and communities.
“The fate of my hometown is in the Obama Administration’s hands,” said Julian Martin, a Charleston resident whose childhood home of Nellis is threatened by mining. “The Obama administration must act swiftly so that other towns and the land and waters that support our way of life don’t suffer a similar fate,” added Martin, a member of the West Virginia Highlands Conservancy.
On Friday, February 13 a three-judge panel from the U.S. Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals overturned a lower court’s ruling favorable to the Highlands Conservancy, the Ohio Valley Environmental Coalition and Coal River Mountain Watch. The judges’ ruling would permit mining companies to conduct devastating mountaintop removal coal mining without acting to minimize stream destruction or conducting adequate environmental reviews.
According to eye witnesses and industry sources, mining operations that had been stalled while awaiting a decision in the legal challenge have now started at the Frasure Creek Mining, LLC, Falcon Mine near Van, West Virginia and at the Loadout LLC, Nellis Mine, near Nellis, West Virginia. Both mines are located in Boone County, West Virginia.
“Our members feel a sense of urgency like never before. Unless the Obama Administration steps in to protect coalfield communities and retrain coal workers, the coal industry is going to take all it can, leaving us poisoned water, abandoned towns and a toxic future,” said Jim Foster, a retired underground miner and member of the Ohio Valley Environmental Coalition, whose home in Van is below another expanding mountaintop removal operation.
The ruling could unleash bulldozers and explosives on huge swaths of the central Appalachian Mountains, as more than 90 new mountaintop removal coal mining operations had been blocked by the lower court’s ruling. The Obama Administration – and the White House Council on Environmental Quality, in particular – has the power to stop this mining.
Just this week, citizens from across the nation are in Washington, D.C. to ask federal officials to stop mountaintop removal coal mining. Residents from Appalachia who are living with the impacts of mountaintop removal coal mining are taking their concerns directly to their public officials in order to express the severity of their situation.
“Our communities, streams, and mountains get no protection from either West Virginia or federal regulatory agencies,” said Vernon Haltom, co-director of Coal River Mountain Watch. “The West Virginia Department of Environmental Protection has repeatedly proven it has neither the capacity nor the willingness to enforce laws and regulations. Coal companies destroy first and negotiate later, and there are no effective penalties to deter them from doing as they please.”
Mountaintop removal mining is a highly destructive form of coal mining that has already damaged or destroyed nearly 2,000 miles of streams and threatens to destroy 1.4 million acres of land by 2020. The mining poisons drinking water, lays waste to wildlife habitat, increases the risk of flooding and wipes out entire communities.
Share This Story:
Make HNN Your Homepage (IE Users Only)
Bulldozers, Explosives Raze Mountains as West Virginia Groups Ask Obama Administration for Relief
Special to Huntingtonnews.net
Nellis, WV (HNN) — New mountaintop removal coal mining has begun in West Virginia just one month after a controversial court decision opened the floodgates on new permits, and West Virginians are pleading with the Obama Administration to protect their mountains, streams and communities.
“The fate of my hometown is in the Obama Administration’s hands,” said Julian Martin, a Charleston resident whose childhood home of Nellis is threatened by mining. “The Obama administration must act swiftly so that other towns and the land and waters that support our way of life don’t suffer a similar fate,” added Martin, a member of the West Virginia Highlands Conservancy.
On Friday, February 13 a three-judge panel from the U.S. Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals overturned a lower court’s ruling favorable to the Highlands Conservancy, the Ohio Valley Environmental Coalition and Coal River Mountain Watch. The judges’ ruling would permit mining companies to conduct devastating mountaintop removal coal mining without acting to minimize stream destruction or conducting adequate environmental reviews.
According to eye witnesses and industry sources, mining operations that had been stalled while awaiting a decision in the legal challenge have now started at the Frasure Creek Mining, LLC, Falcon Mine near Van, West Virginia and at the Loadout LLC, Nellis Mine, near Nellis, West Virginia. Both mines are located in Boone County, West Virginia.
“Our members feel a sense of urgency like never before. Unless the Obama Administration steps in to protect coalfield communities and retrain coal workers, the coal industry is going to take all it can, leaving us poisoned water, abandoned towns and a toxic future,” said Jim Foster, a retired underground miner and member of the Ohio Valley Environmental Coalition, whose home in Van is below another expanding mountaintop removal operation.
The ruling could unleash bulldozers and explosives on huge swaths of the central Appalachian Mountains, as more than 90 new mountaintop removal coal mining operations had been blocked by the lower court’s ruling. The Obama Administration – and the White House Council on Environmental Quality, in particular – has the power to stop this mining.
Just this week, citizens from across the nation are in Washington, D.C. to ask federal officials to stop mountaintop removal coal mining. Residents from Appalachia who are living with the impacts of mountaintop removal coal mining are taking their concerns directly to their public officials in order to express the severity of their situation.
“Our communities, streams, and mountains get no protection from either West Virginia or federal regulatory agencies,” said Vernon Haltom, co-director of Coal River Mountain Watch. “The West Virginia Department of Environmental Protection has repeatedly proven it has neither the capacity nor the willingness to enforce laws and regulations. Coal companies destroy first and negotiate later, and there are no effective penalties to deter them from doing as they please.”
Mountaintop removal mining is a highly destructive form of coal mining that has already damaged or destroyed nearly 2,000 miles of streams and threatens to destroy 1.4 million acres of land by 2020. The mining poisons drinking water, lays waste to wildlife habitat, increases the risk of flooding and wipes out entire communities.
Share This Story:
Make HNN Your Homepage (IE Users Only)
