Truth of MTR Revealed

750 miles of streams buried
For the first time ever a comprehensive study of Mountaintop Removal Coal Mining (MTR) was conducted by state and federal agencies. The disastrous effects of MTR were made readily apparent: hundreds of miles of disturbed streams, tens of thousands of disturbed acreage including valuable watershed ecosystems, and a decrease of thousands of MTR jobs.
Mountaintop removal is a form of surface strip mining, where coal reserves are accessed from the surface of the mountain rather than underground. In Appalachian mountains, coal is layered between other geologic layers so that it is usually several hundred feet from the mountain top. Traditional strip mining practices accessed a coal layer by cutting a swath into the side of the mountain, leaving excavated strips along contour lines. Today, the tops of mountains are blasted away with explosives until the seam of coal, a layer a couple to several feet thick, is exposed. Then the coal is mined.

Several destructive practices result from MTR.
First, the blasting process frequently causes noise and land stability problems for nearby home owners. Often, wayward rock can be sent flying from the blast to near by homes.
Second, removing several hundred feet of a mountaintop to access a coal seam is in itself destructive to the natural landscape. Although mine operators are required to return a disturbed environment to original contours, the laws of physics make it impossible to fully restore a mountainâs natural shape after so much material has been displaced.

Additionally, regardless of the shape of the post-mining landscape, restoring natural vegetation and habitat is difficult. This problem has plagued strip operations for decades. MTR introduces large disturbed surface areas that will likely never see a return to their natural vegetated condition.

Finally, and most significantly to West Virginia Rivers Coalition, is the practice of valley fills. A vast amount of soil and rock are removed from a mountain in order to access coal in the MTR process. Not all of the material can be returned to its original location after mining, therefore excess rock and soil are deposited into the valleys between mined mountains. This filling of valleys destroys aquatic environments from the smallest and most ecologically critical of headwaters to vibrant, flowing streams. The practice also creates valleys filled with unstable rock material that has caused significant flood problems to valley communities at times of heavy rains.

Why a Draft Environmental Impact Statement?
The Draft Environmental Impact Statement (DEIS) was issued by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (Corps), U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, U.S. Office of Surface Mining and West Virginiaâs Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) because of a lawsuit settlement arrived at in December, 1998.

The PEIS takes the form of a massive document.
Years of research are presented in approximately 5,000 pages or 30 pounds of bound material. The document is available on the web at http://www.epa.gov/region3/mtntop/
This massive document was generated to address outstanding environmental concerns about the mountaintop removal process. Ten citizens and West Virginia Highlands Conservancy brought suit against DEP and the Corps for issuing permits which violated water quality and reclamation rules and regulations. In December of 1998, plaintiffs dropped the case when federal officials agreed to be more diligent issuing permits and to conduct a detailed study of the environmental effects of MTR. Specifically, the study was to "consider developing agency policies, guidance, and coordinated agency decision-making processes to minimize, to the maximum extent practicable, the adverse environmental effects to waters of the United States and to fish and wildlife resources affected by mountaintop mining operations, and to environmental resources that could be affected by the size and location of excess spoil disposal sites in valley fills" (64 Federal Register 5778). The lawsuit settlement required the DEIS be completed in 2000. In April 2003 it was released to the public.

What did we learn from the DEIS?
Between 1985 and 2001, 2,639 new MTR permits were issued in West Virginia. Of those, 342 included 1,147 valley fills. The remaining 2,297 permits were issued without the need for valley fills (DEIS, III. K-30). Despite the small proportion of surface mining jobs that include valley fills, more than 214 miles of stream were buried under valley fills during the same time period in West Virginia alone. The study encompassed eastern Kentucky, eastern Tennessee, southwestern Virginia and southern West Virginia. Kentucky has the most widespread MTR operations and had buried 436 stream miles through 2001 (DEIS, III. K-49).
The impact to streams is far greater than the actual miles buried. The impact includes the entire watershed: upstream the aquatic ecosystem is removed, downstream the aquatic ecosystem is altered and human communities are threatened by unstable fills at times of flooding. The DEIS reports that acreage of filled valleys measured 25,178 acres between 1985 and 2001 (DEIS, III. K-33) and the impacted upstream watershed area totaled 111,479 acres in West Virginia. The DEIS did not measure impacted acreage or mileage downstream of valley fills.
The DEIS estimates that West Virginia has a remaining 49 years of coal production, a figure that doubles predictions frequently made by industry. There are 2,800 million short tons of coal reserves accessible by surface operations (DEIS, III. O-1). In the studyâs sample year of 1998, West Virginiaâs 73 surface mines produced 48,572 thousand short tons (DEIS, III. N-4). Southern West Virginia was the only portion of the study area to experience higher production in 1998 than 1989 (DEIS, III. N-1). Southern West Virginia accounted for 74 percent of West Virginiaâs production and four counties (Boone, Logan, Mingo and Kanawha) are responsible for 47 percent of the total (DEIS, III. N-6).
Although production remains strong in southern West Virginia in comparison to neighboring areas, less of the stateâs citizens are employed by mining. Surface mining in southern West Virginia decreased by 1,303 jobs in the decade preceding 1998. Surface mining employment rates in southern West Virginia counties range from 11 percent in Mingo and 8.6 percent in Boone to 0.6 percent in Kanawha, 0.5 percent in Raleigh and 0.3 percent in Wyoming County (DEIS, III. Q-12&13).
The bigger economic picture of MTR in West Virginia is in lost value from lost environments. The DEIS concludes that "tourism, in particular, has been identified as one of the stateâs target industries" and that mining activities "threaten this valued environment through effects such as diminished scenic viewsheds and degraded water quality (DEIS, III. T-4)." Additionally, the DEIS measured lost agricultural land of nearly 20 percent between 1950 and 1976. In 2001, five percent was reverted to agricultural coverage, but the new acreage was forest land converted to pasture or grassland through mining reclamation (DEIS, III. R-2). Harvest-able timber continues to decrease with each mine permit issued.
To summarize the DEIS statistics, MTR is responsible for hundreds of miles of disturbed streams, tens of thousands of disturbed acreage including valuable watershed ecosystems, and a decrease of thousands of MTR jobs. Yet coal production remains relatively strong in southern West Virginia with the largest percentage of surface mines requiring valley fills.
How has the DEIS served the study of MTR?
The study documents environmental degradation, including increased miles of buried streams but, itâs recommendations do not propose specific actions which would minimize those losses.
Neither the coal industry, coal field citizens nor environmentalists think the DEIS proposals will resolve the controversy surrounding the practice of MTR. The DEIS has strayed from its intended purpose and was replaced with the primary goal of streamlining the permitting process, rather than minimizing environmental impacts.

Specific recommendations made by the DEIS include:
Combining the permitting processes of the Surface Mining Control and Reclamation Act (SMCRA) and the Clean Water Act (CWA) for streamlining. This move would undermine the CWA and give the Office of Surface Mining greater authority over protecting our waters.

Giving the Corps discretion over issuing a general Nationwide Permit (NWP 21) or a more stringent Individual Permit (IP). The CWA requires that an IP apply for actions causing more than minimal impact to the waters of the Unites States. Valley fills cannot be considered to cause minimal impact. Yet, the Corps has consistantly issued nationwides for MTR mining.

Eliminating a current prohibition on the use of NWP 21 permits for valley fills over 250 acres despite early DEIS reports that valley fill size should be limited to smaller acreage.

Accepting the proposed rule to allow excess spoil to be dumped directly into streams thus removing the effectiveness of the present 100 foot buffer zone for perennial and intermittent streams.

None of these recommendations address the intent of the DEIS, as published in the Federal Register, to "minimize, to the maximum extent practicable, the adverse environmental effects to the waters of the United States· by mountaintop mining operations, and· excess spoil disposal sites in valley fills."

Thus far, litigation kept some MTR operations at bay through a portion of the time that this DEIS was being compiled, but today no prohibition exists and permits are being issued that impact larger watersheds and bury more stream miles. In May, 2003, DEP issued an exemption from the buffer zone rule to White Flame Energy. The mine will bury approximately one mile of perennial and intermittent streams and unknown ephemeral streams.
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The DEIS documents detrimental harm to our waters. Effective use of those findings in directing the permitting process is essential for the protection of those waters. Public comments on the DEIS will be accepted through January 6, 2004 to John Forren, U.S. EPA (3EA30), 1650 Arch Street, Philadelphia, PA 19103. To learn more about WVRCâs comments, request to be included in our web-based action alert emails by sending your e-mail address with a message asking to be added to the action alerts. Send your request to WV Rivers