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Center in the Media
News Archive
(Listing with summaries)
2009-2010
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News Archive
(Headlines only)
2009 -2010
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Appalachian Center in the Media: 2009 - 2010

The Appalachian's Center's work has been featured in hundreds of news stories and editorials in national, regional, and local newspapers. Recent articles include those below (see archives for older articles).  In addition, Joe Lovett has appeared on Sixty Minutes, Bill Moyers' NOW, the BBC, and in Sasha Waters' award-winning documentary, Razing Appalachia, which aired on the PBS feature Independent Lens.

National and Regional Articles:  (click here for State Articles)

State Articles:

Since the Center’s inception in 2001, its work has been extensively covered by West Virginia's largest newspaper, the Charleston Gazette. Please visit their archives for a comprehensive look at the Appalachian Center and the issues it confronts. Of special interest in the Charleston Gazette is Mining the Mountains, a comprehensive and ongoing series of stories on mountaintop removal mining that frequently feature the Center’s work.

  • Despite EPA deal, Massey water violations more frequent   Coal Tattoo, Charleston Gazette, January 11, 2010

  • Environmental groups threaten to file suit against Massey Energy   Environmental groups claim the coal company is not complying with the Clean Water Act at its surface mines, but Massey denies the charge.  WV Public Radio, January 11, 2010

  • Pa., W.Va. Address Salt Problems Differently  As West Virginia legislators strategize about controlling salt levels in West Virginia streams, the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection is taking a very different approach to the same problem.  The State Journal, Jan.8, 2010

  • Hobet deal cuts stream impacts, preserves jobs  The Hobet permit allows Patriot to continue mining, and use of its huge dragline machine, at the Hobet 21 mountaintop-removal complex along the Boone-Lincoln county border.  The Charleston Gazette, Jan.5, 2010

  • Dunkard Creek Residents Blame Agencies for September Fish Kill   West Virginia and Pennsylvania residents of the Dunkard Creek watershed took environmental officials to task at a Dec. 3 community meeting about the death this fall of the creek’s fish and mussels. The State Journal, December 4, 2009

  • Compliance orders reveal attempt to suspend water standards in Dunkard Creek The West Virginia Department of Environmental Protection gave Consol Energy permission on three occasions to release more chloride into Dunkard Creek than the law allowed.  WV Public Radio, September 28, 2009

  • 30-mile fish kill at Dunkard Creek: DEP delayed action on pollution problems over the last decade Three weeks ago, fish started dying in Dunkard Creek, a scenic stream that winds along the West Virginia-Pennsylvania border in Monongalia County.  Charleston Gazette, September 26, 2009

  • State report: Dangerous levels of selenium in water, fish near coal mines  State regulators have found dangerous levels of selenium in water and fish near coal mines in Eastern Kentucky, but they have not put restrictions on the mineral, environmental groups charged Tuesday.  Lexington Herald-Leader, September 1, 2009

  • Groups say state ignored selenium studies in issuing E. Ky. mining permit  State regulators ignored studies that revealed high levels of selenium in fish and waterways in Eastern Kentucky when they issued a blanket permit for hundreds of coal-mining operations in July, environmental groups alleged Tuesday.  Courrier-Journal, September 1, 2009

  • Judge: WVDEP coal deals don’t block citizen lawsuits  Judge Copenhaver, in this ruling issued today, concluded that private deals between coal companies and the West Virginia Department of Environmental Protection do not block citizens from filing their own enforcement lawsuits under the Clean Water Act.  Charleston Gazette, August 18, 2009

  • Mine operators not restoring mountains, OSM report finds   Coal operators in Southern West Virginia are not restoring large strip-mining sites to their "approximate original contour," despite a state policy change meant to require such reclamation, according to a previously unpublished federal government report.  Charleston Gazette, July 25, 2009

  • EPA takeover sought for state's water program   DEP "continues to overlook egregious violations" of water pollution limits at industrial facilities, including repeated mercury violations by the PPG Industries chlor-alkali plant in Natrium, Marshall County.  Charleston Gazette, June 17, 2009

  • Obama mining plan draws criticism from both sides  Obama administration officials on Thursday outlined their plans to try to reduce environmental damage from mountaintop removal, but stopped short of actions coal industry critics say are needed to curb destruction of Appalachian hills, forests and streams.   Charleston Gazette, June 12, 2009

  • Board adds conditions to Fayette mine permit  The state Surface Mine Board on Tuesday upheld the renewal of a CONSOL Energy strip mine permit where company officials had not fixed reclamation problems and water quality violations.  Charleston Gazette, June 9, 2009

  • W.Va. high court OKs Massey silo near elementary school  Massey Energy can build a new coal silo next to a Raleigh County elementary school, despite permit maps that show the construction site is outside the company's mining boundary, according to a state Supreme Court ruling issued Tuesday.  Charleston Gazette, June 9, 2009

  • DEP helping PPG out of citizen mercury suit  West Virginia regulators are working on a deal with PPG Industries to help the company avoid a citizen group lawsuit over repeated water pollution violations of mercury limits at its Marshall County chlorine plant, officials said.  Charleston Gazette, May 20, 2009

  • W.Va. residents appeal renewal of Fayette mining permit  A Fayette County strip mine that has repeatedly exceeded water pollution limits and not fixed other violations should not have its permit renewed, citizen groups say in an appeal to the state Surface Mine Board.  Charleston Gazette, April 16, 2009

  • Mountaintop removal: Powellton permit appealed  Charleston Gazette, April 16, 2009

  • Goodwin blocks Corps from issuing streamlined mountaintop removal permits  Federal regulators may not approve new mountaintop removal operations through a streamlined permitting process until they further study the impacts of the proposed mining, a federal judge ruled this morning.  Charleston Gazette, March 31, 2009

  • EPA's mountaintop removal actions -- what do they mean?  Joe Lovett, executive director of the Appalachian Center for the Economy and the Environment in Lewisburg, has filed lawsuits on behalf of citizens that have targeted mountaintop removal mining for more than a decade. In an interview, he tells us what he thinks the EPA’s actions do and do not mean.  WV Public Radio, March 25, 2009.

  • Corps escalates mountaintop removal mining fight; Agency reinstates permit in Kentucky  U.S. Army Corps of Engineers officials on Wednesday escalated a fight with the Environmental Protection Agency over the regulation of mountaintop removal coal mining. Charleston Gazette, March 25, 2009

  • Stalling on selenium?  In early December, U.S. District Judge Robert C. Chambers declined to hold Apogee Coal Co. in contempt of court for continuing to stall the cleanup of selenium pollution from a mountaintop removal mine in Logan County.  Charleston Gazette, February 18, 2009.

  • Crowd at Ansted DEP meeting opposes permit  In their ongoing quest to protect Gauley Mountain and the surrounding communities, many interested individuals and groups participated in an informal conference by the state Department of Environmental Protection Thursday in Ansted.  Register-Herald, February 13, 2009

  • Ruling requires DEP to improve mine treatment  CHARLESTON, W.Va. -- State officials must improve treatment of acid mine drainage from abandoned coal mines across West Virginia so that discharges comply with water pollution limits, under a federal court ruling issued this week.  Charleston Gazette, January 16, 2009.

  • W.Va. coal-ash dams seldom inspected, DEP says  CHARLESTON, W.Va. -- Most of the coal-ash impoundments in West Virginia haven't been examined by a state dam safety inspector for at least five years, according to data released by the state Department of Environmental Protection. Charleston Gazette, January 9, 2009.

  • Sago families look to Obama  Peggy Cohen's youngest son, Hunter, was only 2 years old when the Sago Mine blew up. Today, he still blows kisses whenever the family goes by his grandfather's grave. Charleston Gazette, January 2, 2009.


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