Mountaintop removal mining is destroying forests and polluting streams across the Appalachian coalfields, according to a new EPA report. Chris Dorst

By Ken Ward Jr.
Staff writer CHARLESTON, W.Va. — Federal government scientists say a “growing body of evidence” shows that mountaintop removal coal mining is destroying Appalachian forests and dangerously polluting vital headwater streams. In a new report, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency outlines the results of dozens of scientific papers published over the last decade about the controversial mining practice. While EPA scientists focused on direct damage to streams that are buried and on pollution downstream from valley fills, the 119-page report also warns that damage to ecologically important forests is greater than some routinely cited statistics suggest. Last week, EPA published the study by the agency’s Office of Research and Development in conjunction with the issuance of new water quality guidance intended to reduce mining’s adverse impacts on aquatic life. “The people of Appalachia shouldn’t have to choose between a clean, healthy environment in which to raise their families and the jobs they need to support them,” said EPA Administrator Lisa P. Jackson. “Getting this right is important to Americans who rely on affordable coal to power homes and businesses, as well as coal communities that count on jobs and a livable environment, both during mining and after coal companies move to other sites.” The EPA study, which amounts to a literature review, backs up a peer-reviewed paper published earlier this year in the prestigious journal Science. That paper concluded that mountaintop removal was having “pervasive and irreversible” environmental impacts that current reclamation practices are unable to repair. In mountaintop removal, coal operators use explosives to blast apart hilltops and uncover valuable, low-sulfur coal reserves. Leftover rock and dirt is dumped into nearby valleys, burying streams. Previous EPA studies have projected that 1,200 miles of streams would be lost to valley fills and associated mining activities from 1992 to 2002. The new EPA report cautions such numbers “is a useful beginning, but not does address the loss of other headwater ecosystems.” The report cites potential loss of springs, seeps and wet areas that may occur outside the stream channel and in smaller watersheds not included in previous studies. In other documents, EPA describes the headwater streams lost to mining as “like the capillaries within our circulatory system.” “They are the largest network of waterbodies within our ecosystem and provide the most basic and fundamental building blocks to the remainder or the aquatic and human environment,” EPA said in a decision document outlining its reasons for seeking to block the largest mountaintop removal permit in West Virginia history. …

EPA study confirms damage from strip mining via Apocadocs