One obstacle to effective climate change legislation to literally save people and environment is the eco segmentation of artificially isolating issues. Mountaintop removal mining (MTR) is a good example.
There are many reasons to ban MTR mining, including how it kills and sickens people, contaminates the environment, destroys ecosystems, kills and pollutes streams, harms culture, destroys ancestral lands and increases poverty.
What is often ignored is that the MTR environmental disasters don't stop at the state boundary lines but are linked to everyone just like the bones of our body are connected. For example, the MTR process itself increases CO2 emissions that defeat climate change measures to decrease greenhouse gas emissions.
A related issue is sustainability. The practice of eliminating externalities from the costs of policies simply delays the inevitable loss of lives and health while increasing ultimate remedial costs. MTR is killing streams and polluting water sources while this nation faces water shortages that will worsen. MTR also destroys native plants that might just hold the cure for diseases.
A couple years ago, I wrote a diary on the process of MTR mining and the impacts suffered in Appalachia caused by each step of the process, from clear-cutting forests to the impossibility of restoring the mountaintops.
MTR is also an environmental justice issue because many in America don't seem to mind the war zone in Appalachia as long as our government sticks death, illness and destruction onto others. For example, the North Carolina Senate voted to ban industrial-sized wind turbines from their mountaintops to protect aesthetic views in a state where outdoor tourism is important. However, North Carolina is the "largest state consumer of mountaintop removal coal, buying half of its coal from affected mountaintop removal sites."
This disconnect between the inhumanity of our national MTR policy and what is acceptable environmental policies in other states is huge. The fact that MTR is not yet banned makes me wonder if MTR issues should highlight the insanity of segmenting environmental issues into isolated boxes to give the appearance of localized impacts only that somehow the rest of the nation may avoid at least until their community is selected as the next site for even worse unhealthy air, polluted waterways, unsafe drinking water and waste disposal.
1. Clear-Cutting Forests
The first step in MTR mining is to clear-cut native hardwood forests and remove all of the topsoil and vegetation from the mountaintop. In addition to the carbon impacts of using coal, the MTR mining process increases CO2 emissions. When the mining companies kill "America's own little miniature rain forest," they are also killing the "world's most diverse temperate hardwood forest" that functions as the "carbon sinks and lungs of the East Coast:"
According to a rough estimate by West Virginia University bio-geochemist William Peterjohn, the deforestation could add as much as 138 million tons of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere -- and that's not even counting the even-larger CO2 emissions from burning the coal.
The EPA reported in 2003 that 7% or 400,000 acres of "rich and diverse temperate forest" had been killed during 1985-2001. In 2006, it was estimated that another 100,000 acres had been killed since that EPA report. An EPA report states that if there are no restrictions, "2,200 square miles of Appalachian forests — an area twice the size of Rhode Island— will be eliminated by 2012."
These are not ordinary forests. The Southern Appalachian Mountains are an ancient, topographically diverse range that provides high levels of biodiversity "unparalleled in the temperate zone." This means that MTR is destroying native plants that have been used by the communities for health care and those regional plants for which it might be yet unknown how they can be used as new treatments for illness or disease. Eliminating biodiversity is one way we continue to shoot ourselves in the foot.
2. Blasting 500-1,000 Feet Of Mountaintop Away
After the native hardwood forests are killed, the mining companies use explosives to now kill the mountaintops of chains formed millions of years ago by blowing apart as much as 500-1,000 feet of the mountaintop. Each day, coal companies use "over 4 million pounds of explosives" to bomb away the mountaintops or "more explosive power than the Hiroshima atomic bomb." Layer after layer of rocks are bombed until the mountaintop is gone, leaving a pile of toxic waste of soil and explosives mixed together like a super-charged food blender or processor.
3. Valley Fills Or Dumping Toxic Waste Into Streams and Valleys
Gigantic dragline machines then scoop up the blasted pieces of the former mountaintop in order to have easy access to the seams of coal. In order to save money, the mining companies then dump this toxic waste into streams as their free waste disposal method. The resulting water quality impacts are not restricted to the area because the region is also the headwaters of our drinking water supplies for many US cities.
During 1985-2001, 6,700 valley fills were approved for central Appalachia. The EPA estimated that during these 16 years, more than 1,200 miles of valley streams had been "impacted" by valley fills and more than 700 miles of streams had been killed, buried entirely. Notice that the EPA distinguished between streams that were buried alive and streams that were otherwise "impacted." Government studies show that streams not buried by mining waste "carry high levels of silt and toxic chemicals." Federal studies "found substantially higher levels of selenium, a mineral that is toxic to fish in high doses -- in rivers near the mines. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service estimated that as many as 244 species, including several that are endangered, were being affected by the loss of forest and aquatic habitats."
4. Coal Slurry Time
After the coal is removed, it needs to be processed before it is shipped out to America. The coal is washed and treated to remove debris and the blasting residues. The excess toxic water that includes chemicals used in processing and the black, gooey goop from this process is called coal slurry or sludge, which the mining companies store in open impoundments. According to the Sludge Safety Project, "sludge contains carcinogenic chemicals used to process coal. It also contains toxic heavy metals that are present in coal, such as arsenic, mercury, chromium, cadmium, boron, selenium, and nickel." Bill Moyers noted that "it's estimated there's over one-hundred and ten billion gallons amassed in active West Virginia impoundments." This toxic goop is stored in open pool impoundments located on top of the flattened mountains and in some cases, the goop is pumped into abandoned underground mines, which means the goop may be released into groundwater basins. "Regulators in a handful of Appalachian states that let coal companies inject slurry into abandoned mines say they're confident the practice is safe, but an Associated Press survey shows they lack scientific data to answer citizens who believe aquifers, water wells and their own health are at risk."
President Obama should be applauded for placing a temporary hold on MTR projects by ordering a review of 79 permits to determine the impacts of MTR toxic debris on water quality. However, Sen. Rockefeller has already objected, and wants the EPA to nix the permit reviews.
Legacy of Coal is a newly-launched diary series inspired by the panels at Netroots Nation. We hope to publicize the issues around coal use and mining, including MTR, the damage to less-politically-powerful areas of our country, and the general impact of energy and economic policy. Of course, this leads to the broader issues of climate change, health care, and human rights. While none of us can know everything about these issues, it is by working together we can make a difference. If you would like to guest-host, please contact jlms_qkwATxmissionDOTcom. This diary series is dedicated to our country's coal miners and the people waiting for them to come home.