Judge Rules For the Rivers and Streams of West Virginia

The science has been in for some time now, that the surface mining of coal, particularly the large-scale plundering that is mountaintop removal, increases conductivity in adjacent streams. As of today, a federal judge has ruled that increased conductivity resulting from mountaintop removal is damaging streams in West Virginia.

            Citing what he said was “extensive scientific evidence,” U.S. District Judge Robert C. Chambers ruled that mines owned by Alpha Natural Resources in Boone and Nicholas counties have “caused or materially contributed to a significant adverse impact” to streams near to the mountaintop mines. The judge said that the discharge from the mines had altered the chemistry of the streams and left them “unquestionably biologically impaired,” with the abundance of aquatic life “profoundly reduced.”

            The case, brought by the Ohio Valley Environmental Coalition, the West Virginia Highlands Conservancy and the Sierra Club, was heard in the U.S. District Court in Huntington, West Virginia and augured on the increased conductivity of stream water that is caused by the surface mining of coal, particularly mountaintop removal.

As the term implies, conductivity is the ability of an electrical current to pass through water. Water that has high conductivity usually contains inorganic dissolved solids, such as chlorides, nitrates, sulfates, and phosphates, as well as sodium, magnesium, calcium, iron, and aluminum. Most stream water will have these substances at some level, but when any one of them, or several of them, increase enough to significantly raise water’s conductivity beyond a certain point, it’s usually bad for the organisms in that body of water.

            Aqueous conductivity is measured in microsiemens per cubic centimeter (uS/cm2). The conductivity of a typical healthy stream will be between 150 and 500 uS/cm2. Conductivity over 500 uS/cm2 will lead to ecological impairment and a loss of biological diversity. High conductivity will also mean that the water in the stream is not fit for human consumption.

            There is some good science associating mountaintop mining with increasing conductivity in nearby streams. Also, Ken Ward at the Charleston Gazette has much more about this story. Needless to say, this sort of ruling should have happened decades ago, before hundreds of mountains were sacrificed for the coal companies, but this is still good news.