http://www.scientificamerican.com/blog/post.cfm?id=mountaintop-removal-mining-epa-says-2010-01-08"On the heels of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency announcement that it would allow a proposed coal mine involving mountaintop removal to go forward, 12 environmental scientists have published a review of the practice that condemns it in no uncertain terms. "Mining permits are being issued despite the preponderance of scientific evidence that impacts are pervasive and irreversible and that mitigation cannot compensate for losses," the scientists wrote in the January 8 issue of Science. "Regulators should no longer ignore rigorous science."
The group of ecologists, hydrologists and engineers call for a moratorium on the practice as a result of their comprehensive review of the data on its impacts until "new methods can be subjected to rigorous peer review and shown to remedy these problems."
The litany of problems—both to the environment and human health—caused by a practice that involves blasting the top off a mountain to get at the coal beneath it more easily include: heavy metals, sulfuric acid and other mine contaminants in waterways and drinking-water wells; deformed fish carrying toxic levels of selenium found in 73 of 78 streams affected by mountaintop mining; entire streams filled in by blasted mountain rock; and forests cleared to get at the mountaintop beneath them. Add to that the fact that this form of mining has increased exponentially in the past 30 years, supplying roughly 10 percent of U.S. coal, and you have a recipe for much of the environmental devastation visible across northern Appalachia.
The tree planting and other attempted fixes after mining is complete (mitigation efforts initiated by the coal industry) aren't doing the job either: one study found that even 15 years after a mountaintop was leveled, trees had not regrown in the area, possibly because of the poor soils left afterwards. And even the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers has testified that they "do not know of a successful stream creation project in conjunction with ."
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As an aside, Ben Sollee and Daniel Martin Moore have made a CD, coming out in mid-February with an aim of shedding light on the mountaintop removal issue. Here is a radio interview with Ben Sollee on the CD and on mountaintop mining:
http://www.theweeklyfeed.org/2010/01/12/ben-sollee-interview/-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
It seems clear that "mitigation efforts" are a failure, and it's time for us to decide as a nation how we want to procure our resources, as well as what resources we want to procure. I advocate moving away from all mountaintop removal mining, and moving toward conservation and more renewable energy sources. As with most issues, it's not black and white, but I think this one comes out fairly clear.
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