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This article originally provided by
The
Herald-Dispatch
CHARLESTON, W.VA. – Senator Jon Blair Hunter (D-Monongalia)
earlier this week introduced legislation that would effectively end
the practice of burying thousand of miles of streams under the
rubble created by mountaintop removal coal mining.
“I introduced Senate Bill 588 because I fervently believe that God
did not intend for us to destroy the mountains, the streams, the
forests and His people in order to mine coal,” Sen. Hunter said.
In mountaintop removal, coal companies blast hundreds of feet off
the tops of mountains in order to mine thin seams of coal. Rubble
from the former mountaintops is pushed into “valley fills,” burying
streams in nearby valleys under hundreds of millions of tons of
mining waste. According to the U.S. Office of Surface Mining, 1,208
miles of streams in Appalachia were destroyed from 1992 to 2002, and
regulators approved 1,603 more valley fills between 2001 and 2005
that will destroy 535 more miles of streams.
“Senator Hunter's bill would stop mountain top removal operators
from continuing to use West Virginia's mountain streams as giant
garbage cans to dispose of billions of tons of mining waste,” said
Joe Lovett executive director of the Appalachian Center for the
Economy and the Environment. “West Virginians overwhelmingly oppose
mountaintop removal, and I hope that the Manchin administration and
others in the Legislature will stand with Senator Hunter to stop the
permanent destruction of a huge swath of one of the oldest mountain
ranges in the world. It is time for the madness of mountaintop
removal to come to an end, and Senator Hunter's bill is an important
step in that direction.”
“For years, the legislature has refused to even consider the
catastrophic environmental impact of mountaintop removal coal
mining. This bill is long-past due,” said Don Garvin, legislative
coordinator for the West Virginia Environmental Council.
“This bill is a good start. We need to do something to protect our
streams,” said Mike Maynor, a former coal truck driver from Dorothy,
in Raleigh County. “We also need to protect our homes from more
flooding, such as the floods that damaged my home in 2001.” Maynor
lives downstream from a valley fill, in an area where coal companies
have asked for 15 new valley fills.
“People everywhere who care about West Virginia’s future should be
so grateful to Senator Hunter for having the courage to introduce
this bill,” said Janice Nease, co-director of Coal River Mountain
Watch. “People trying to live with the effects of the blasting,
people watching our mountains and streams destroyed forever—all of
us are extremely grateful to Senator Hunter.”
“Many state legislators must know in their hearts that mountaintop
removal coal mining is a national disgrace. They must know this is
the worst environmental destruction going on in North America,” said
Raleigh County resident Chuck Nelson, a former deep miner and a
volunteer with OVEC, the Ohio Valley Environmental Coalition. “I’m
so glad this legislation has finally been introduced.”
“The thousands of headwater streams being buried under valley fills
are the life blood of our mountains and our mountain communities. If
coal is to be mined, it should be done in a manner that doesn't
destroy the water that we all depend on and the communities that
have existed for generations along these streams,” said Cindy Rank,
of the West Virginia Highlands Conservancy. “Surely there are other
Senators who can stand beside Jon Hunter in support of Senate Bill
588. It is the right thing to do for the future of West Virginia.”
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