COURTS HEARING MOUNTAINTOP REMOVAL DISPUTE - Company Says "We Live Here Too"

(09/19/2005)

Massey Coal is promoting a new slogan for mining in WV - "We live here too." Federal appeals judges are scheduled to hear oral arguments today in a disputed decision to bar streamlined permitting for waste disposal at mountaintop-removal coal mines in West Virginia. Hundreds of miles of West Virginia streams have been filled with debris from mining operations. A July 2004 ruling by US District Judge Joseph Goodwin revoked eleven permits that had been issued by the US Army Corps of Engineers after a lawsuit filed by the Ohio Valley Environmental Coalition. Goodwin ruled the corps had violated the federal Clean Water Act when it approved the permits under a streamlined process called the Nationwide Permit 21, meant only for activities that cause minor environmental damage. The Ohio Valley Environmental Council says "ravaging the mountains and filling the state's streams" far exceeds minor damage. West Virginia coal operations have been turning to mountaintop removal mining to extract thinner seams, a much less expensive way of mining. The high-efficiency process involves blasting the mountaintop to uncover coal seams. Leftover rock and dirt is deposited into nearby valleys, burying streams. Such operations have greatly diminished the number of miners needed to extract coal. In fact, only four or five employees are needed to operate the drag-line used in mountaintop removal.

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