The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency seems to be making up for lost time when it comes to enforcing the Clean Water Act. That includes closing the door on mountaintop coal mining, also known rather delicately as mountaintop removal. In reality there is nothing delicate about it. The practice involves blowing hundreds of mountains to smithereens in Appalachia, one of the richest ecosystems in North America, not to mention burying hundreds of miles of pristine streams and creating vast lagoons of toxic coal ash sludge. Sort of gives the lie to that “clean coal” gimmick, right?
It is seriously hard to believe that 21st century America can’t think of a more sustainable way to harvest fuel, but there you have it – at least for now. As reported by Ken Ward’s blog Coal Tattoo in the West Virginia Gazette (by way of Brad Johnson at Think Progress), the EPA is moving aggressively to veto the permit of Spruce No. 1 Mine, the largest mountaintop removal coal mine in West Virginia, finding “significant and irreversible damage” under the Clean Water Act.