{"id":505788,"date":"2010-04-02T15:39:53","date_gmt":"2010-04-02T19:39:53","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.greenrightnow.com\/?p=10389"},"modified":"2010-04-02T15:39:53","modified_gmt":"2010-04-02T19:39:53","slug":"hope-for-appalachia-end-of-an-era-of-mountaintop-removal","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/505788","title":{"rendered":"Hope for Appalachia; end of an era of mountaintop removal"},"content":{"rendered":"

Green Right Now Reports<\/strong><\/p>\n

Groups fighting for a safer, cleaner, more livable Appalachia praised the EPA’s move Thursday to restrict pollution<\/a> from mountaintop removal coal operations in Central Appalachia.<\/p>\n

\"Hobet<\/p>\n

Hobet mountaintop removal site (Photo: Vivian Stockman, ilovemountains.org)<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

The Alliance for Appalachia, representing 13 groups concerned about detrimental coal practices in the region, posted grateful remarks<\/a> from several members, such as this from a Tennessee-based group:<\/p>\n

Our 13,000 members are pleased that their pleas and prayers are being heard – the grandmothers and grandchildren I work with are seeing a new spark of hope today,\u201d said Ann League of Statewide Organizing for Community Empowerment in Tennessee.<\/em><\/p>\n

But while many were elated to see the EPA on their side, activists say that Congress must solidify safeguards by passing the pending Clean Water Protection Act (HR 1310) and the Appalachia Restoration Act (S 696).<\/p>\n

The EPA’s new guidance on mountaintop removal (MTR) aims to save valleys from being filled in with the waste from these operations, a practice that is degrading water quality and ecological systems across Appalachia. Mountaintop mining employs large machines to blast open coal seams in the tops of mountains, which produces millions of tons of dirt and rock waste that is cleared away from the mining site, unloaded into nearby valleys, destroying habitat and poisoning streams.<\/p>\n

Studies now show that the toxic stew is contaminating water sheds and drinking water supplies, the EPA reports.<\/p>\n

Government studies done in the late 1990s and early 2000s, predicted that this form of strip mining had buried more than 1,200 miles of streams and would by this time (end of the first decade of the 21st Century) have caused the loss of more than 1.4 million acres of forest — an area the size of Delaware.<\/p>\n

Under the new EPA new guidance, “very few” if any of the valley fill permits that coal companies have applied for will be approved because they likely won’t be able to meet the stricter standards, said EPA chief Lisa Jackson.<\/p>\n

The release of the new guidelines prompted one coal association spokesman to say that the stricter EPA rules — which must undergo a public comment period before being finalized — could be the end of an era<\/a> for mountaintop mining.<\/p>\n

But environmental activists called it an important first step. And, Appalachian watchdog groups like\u00a0 AppalachianVoices<\/a> say this guidance by the federal agency needs to be made permanent by Congress.<\/p>\n

“…we expect Congress to follow the Obama Administration\u2019s lead by passing legislation that will permanently protect our homes and communities from mining waste. The Clean Water Protection Act (H.R. 1310) currently has 167 bipartisan cosponsors in the House of Representatives, and the Appalachia Restoration act (S. 696) has 10 bipartisan cosponsors in the Senate.\u00a0 Change in Appalachia is now inevitable, and the time for Congress to pass this legislation is now!”<\/p>\n