Tagged: mountaintop removal

Call it a battle of the researchers. Scientists who have both affirmed and denied connections between mountaintop removal coal mining and serious health problems have intensified their efforts to bring public attention to their work recently. Today, a commission of scientists released an analysis of some of the recent research, and concluded that there should be a moratorium on mountaintop removal.

Over the past few years, researchers have found links between surface coal mining and maladies like asthma, COPD, birth defects and cancer. The coal industry has largely dismissed the results of those studies, arguing that the researchers are biased and the findings aren’t scientifically sound. Now, the Center for Health, Environment and Justice has formed an independent commission to review the current research and offer recommendations.

A federal appeals court says the Environmental Protection Agency didn’t overstep its authority when it vetoed a permit for a coal mine in West Virginia.

The Army Corps of Engineers issued a water pollution permit to Arch Coal in 2007 for the Spruce Number One Mine, a 2300-acre mine in Logan County, West Virginia. It would have been the largest mountaintop removal mine in Appalachia. But four years later, the EPA vetoed the permit—only the 13th time its exercised its veto power since 1972.

An appeals court has ruled in favor of environmental groups that argued the streamlined permit the government used to permit mountaintop removal mines wasn’t protective of the environment.

The decision was issued today by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit. It finds that the U.S. Army Corps’ issuance of the streamlined “Nationwide 21” permit is in violation of the Clean Water Act and the National Environmental Policy Act.

A new health study in Eastern Kentucky has found that residents in a county where surface mining is prevalent have a higher instance of illness than residents in two control counties.

Congressman John Yarmuth of Louisville has reintroduced a bill that would put a moratorium on mountaintop removal coal mining until the practice’s health effects can be better understood.

The Appalachian Community Health Emergency Act—or ACHE—was first introduced last summer, but died when it was referred to committee. Now, Yarmuth and New York Congresswoman Louise Slaughter are reintroducing the legislation.