During Our Drought, Rancho Santa Fe Uses Water Like There's No Tomorrow

First off, apologies for the dearth of blogs from Environment in Context. Weekly, sometimes almost daily blog posts became infrequent, then nonexistent. Sorry. I imagine that I could give a number of excuses. What it boils down to mostly, if you ask anyone who blogs, is that blogging takes up way more time than what it might seem, and I just was feeling that I did not have enough time to write up good blogs. Sorry about the hiatus. I’ll try my best to send out at least a couple blogs a week. Now on to some serious blogging.

            Using data from 400 urban water agencies, State Water Resources Control Board issued a report on per capita water use for us folks here in California, as well as a conservation report. Both of these reports are requirements of the Emergency Water Conservation Regulation. The emergency regulation was adopted by the State Water Board in response to the severe drought that we are enduring here throughout the entire state.

            What emerges from the data on per capita water use is the incredible disparity in the amount of water that Californian’s use. At the lower end of per capita use are areas like East Los Angeles, where folks get by on about 48 gallons a day. This past May the municipality of Santa Cruz called for a 25 percent reduction in water use—or a limit of 60 gallons of water per person, per day. Santa Cruzans have been exceeding the limit, with each person using only 44.9 gallons per day.

            At the other extreme are the folks who live in the northern reaches of San Diego County, the Santa Fe Irrigation District, where folks use up 584.35 gallons of water a day, more than ten times the amount used by East Los Angelinos, Santa Cruzans, as well as the water use of people who live in Daly City, Palo Alto, Hayward, and a few other municipalities.

            Now it’s not that folks in East Los Angeles or Daly City don’t bath less frequently or that they aren’t as thirsty as other folks. Those differences are almost entirely from the differences in how much individuals water their landscaping. And the State Water Resources Control Board on its website where the data of this report can be found let us know that the use of water for landscaping will vary a lot because of things like climate and population density. People who live in places that are hot and dry will use more water for landscaping than people who live where it is cooler and rains more. High-density communities, where residents live in apartments or where real estate lot sizes are small, will use less water per person than where there are large estates. Water rates are a factor as well.

            But 584.35 gallons a day? That’s, well, a lot of water! Multiplying that out by the number of residents in the district, 19,386, that comes out to well over eleven million gallons of water a day. That’s enough to fill 17 Olympic swimming pools every day. These are folks who don’t live in a Palm Springs desert. Though dry, the climate of San Diego is mild. These folks just have large lots that they water a lot! Compare the bird’s eye view of Daly City and that of Rancho Santa Fe.

 

Daly City

Rancho Santa Fe, where they use lots and lots of water 

The houses in Daly City are tightly situated on streets, while the estates of Rancho Santa Fe sprawl over the landscape. And note how green those estates are. The Santa Fe Irrigation district also includes Solana Beach, a beach community of middle class houses and apartments. These residents, with their more modest water use, bring down the average of the Santa Fe Irrigation District. There must be some residents of Rancho Santa Fe who use A LOT more than 580 gallons a day.

            While this just seems so obviously wrong to me, the way this has been covered in the press also intrigues me. The story in the Los Angeles Times is pretty straightforward, giving readers the notable extremes of use, the factors involved in that water use, and overall water use trends. Two days ago, our local paper, the San Diego UT, had this to say about the disparity of usage, “The statistics ranged from a low of 85 gallons for the San Francisco Bay area to a high of 252 gallons for the Colorado River region.” This gives the reader the impression that the highest use was that of 252 gallons a day in the eastern part of our county. The article mentions that per capita use in parts of the county, Carlsbad and Olivenhain, ranged from 185 to 305 gallons a day, which is confusing when the reader has just read that the highest use was 252 gallons a day.  And nowhere in the article did it say that the folks here in Rancho Santa Fe district used about twice that amount of water.

            Now, two days later, the UT comes out with the rest of the story and the prodigal water use going on in our north county. I don’t know why it took them a couple extra days to get around to mentioning this. It’s important information. But having the two different articles could be confusing,  and before we go spending millions of dollars on projects to recycle water or on desalination plants, we need to know all the facts.

Nothing against the folks who live in Rancho Santa Fe, but perhaps the most affordable and easiest solution to our present problems presented to us by this long-standing drought is simply using water more equitably.

Trucking Water From West Virginia to Detroit

In an apparent show of solidarity, in an organized effort West Virginians are trucking in water to Detroit residents who have had their water shut off. West Virginia is of course where more than 16% of that state’s residents had their water poisoned by a coal industry related chemical spill.

            During West Virginia’s water crisis the Keeper of the Mountains Foundation delivered water to some of the 300,000 residents whose water was tainted by the toxic spill. Now they are trucking in water to thirsty Detroiters who have had their water cut off due to overdue bills.

            Activists in Detroit say that Detroit water bills have doubled in the last ten years, and about 50 percent of water accounts in what has been known as the Motor City are delinquent. Some complain that businesses such as golf courses with delinquent bills have not had their water shut off while residents have had their taps turned off. The crackdown on delinquent bills has been explained as part of Detroit’s efforts to get out of bankruptcy.

West Virginians ensure that Detroit's water glass is at least half full

Coal Miners Rally in Pittsburgh

Two days of public hearings began today in Pittsburgh on proposed rules by the EPA that would set more stringent standards for the emissions of CO2 from coal-burning power plants. These rules are being proposed to stave off global warming. Similar hearings were held earlier this week in Atlanta, Denver, and Washington, D.C., but these hearings in Pittsburgh, right in the middle of the coal-rich Appalachians, attracted a great deal of attention from the coal industry and its political supporters.

            Yesterday the coal industry held a rally. Called an affordable electricity and energy jobs rally, the gathering included Pennsylvania Governor Tom Corbett, West Virginia Governor Earl Ray Tomblin, and labor leaders. The rally was attended by hundreds of West Virginia coal miners.

            Tomblin, an unabashed supporter of the coal industry, spoke at the rally in support of the coal companies and against the proposed new power plant rules. Now, before going much further, let me give credit to Tomblin, who, as he spoke at this rally, did not deny the connection between burning coal and warming up the world. He did, however, have a pretty harsh critique of the Environmental Protection Agency. He described the proposed carbon rules as “unreasonable restrictions” and “ideological policies” that would eliminate jobs in the coal region. He also used a race-to-the-bottom argument that reducing the emissions of U.S. power plants would raise electricity rates and send manufacturers overseas to countries that don’t govern their power production so well or don’t govern it at all.

            I don’t claim that Tomblin or other politicians’ concern for jobs is insincere. It is nonetheless interesting to me how well their concern for the employment of their constituents dovetails with the concerns of industry.  Back when the auto industry and the steel industry decided to move operations overseas and allow America’s industrial belt to crumble and turn into the rust belt I don’t recall a great number of politicians pontificating on the concern to keep Detroiters or Pittsburghers in their jobs.

 

When did politicians hold rallies to keep jobs in Detroit and Pittsburgh?

As I said above, I give credit to Tomblin for not denying climate change. And I guess in a weird way I have to give credit to Nick Casey, the former chairman of West Virginia’s Democratic Party who is now running for Congress. He doesn’t deny climate change either. But in a meeting with some of West Virginia’s largest lobbying groups he said that global warming is not a problem to be addressed by West Virginians. “It’s not our problem,” he said, because global warming is an international issue.

            Excuse me, I hope the quality of my writing doesn’t suffer as I keep pounding at the keyboard, but right now my head is spinning. Nick Casey is saying global warming is not a West Virginia problem because the problem belongs to the whole world. Well, well, well. I’m not even sure where to start with this. It is true that as the seas rise and the oceans grow more and more acidic West Virginia will not be immediately affected. The amount of warming that the Mountain State experiences may not be as great as what is expected in other places. So Casey could be right that global warming may not be a big problem for West Virginia. But, as a state with a lot of coal and natural gas, it is, undeniably, their responsibility.

            And my head still spins.

            

Pulling the Plug on Mountaintop Removal Health Research

The saying goes that coal keeps the lights on, but in at least this case the lights are going out. Apparently without much fanfare, the Obama administration pulled the plug on a research project being conducted by the USGS that had been looking into the health effects from mountaintop removal.

            In February of last year the USGS Energy Resources Program discontinued the funding for a study of the air quality in Artie, West Virginia, a very small community that has the misfortune to be surrounded by mountaintop removal mines. You can see Artie pinpointed below in the Google map. The expansive blotches across the landscape are the mountaintop mines.

The study is in its second year and had already resulted in some better understanding of how these large mines hurt the air quality around them and subsequently hurt the health of nearby residents. Folks who live close to mountaintop mining have higher rates of respiratory diseases, including lung cancer.

            The team working on this research has been told that they will be investigating health concerns over fracking. As all agencies have to prioritize their activities around limited budgets, this shift might be seen as a wise move, as fracking, being widespread across the country, has the potential to affect a lot more people than those living in Appalachia around mountaintop removal operations.

            But some folks think that politics may have played a part in the scientific switcheroo, among them Michael Hendryx. Hendryx is a former West Virginia University researcher who has more than two dozen peer-reviewed papers published that establish a link between mountaintop removal and poor health.

            Is this politics or prioritizing? The USGS is continuing other research on MTR, so I really can’t say. I just know it’s a shame that funding gets pulled on needed research, no matter what the reason might be. On the other hand, the science that has been done so far shows mountaintop removal to be harmful to salamanders, fish, people, and other creatures that live in the mountains. We know enough already to see that it should go on no longer.

Testing the Waters in West Virginia

Well, well, well. Maybe I should figure better late than never, but that is small consolation when your drinking water has smelled like licorice and made you nauseated and gave you headaches for weeks.

            The National Institute of Health, specifically the National Toxicology Program at the NIH, announced that they will conduct extensive tests on the health effects of 4-methylcyclohexane methanol, the coal cleaning substance that spilled into the Elk River in West Virginia back in January and poisoned the drinking water for 300,000 residents.

            I’m glad that the NIH is doing its job, but it is unsettling that this announcement comes six months after the Elk River spill. It’s actually unsettling that MCHM, which has been used by the coal industry for decades, hadn’t been tested long ago.

The glass is half full and long overdue to be tested for toxicity

Matt Wasson Tells Washington About Mountaintop Removal, Science, and Ill Health

Today on Capitol Hill the House Energy and Commerce subcommittee on Environment and the Economy held hearings. The hearing was titled “Modernizing the Business of Environmental Regulation and Protection.”

            Persons testifying at the included a number of state regulators who explained programs and efforts to hasten the pace of the regulatory process. Perhaps to shed some light on the reality that for folks living in Appalachia there exists scant regulation when it comes to mountaintop removal Representative John Yarmuth (D-KY) brought in Matt Wasson, the Director of Programs for Appalachian Voices, to testify as to the large body of science that links mountaintop mining to the poor health of Appalachians living in proximity to the mines. Here is a short video of Wasson’s testimony:

Yarmuth is the author of the Appalachian Communities Health Emergency Act (H.R. 526), which would halt mountaintop removal until it is determined to be safe by the Director of Health and Human Services. The science is there, but I doubt if there is any way his bill could get through Congress. If you want to see the whole hearing, it is here in a hyperlink sort of way.

Fasting and Frustrations In the Mountains of West Virginia

There’s been a lot going on in the hills of Appalachia in the last week or so. Unfortunately for me, I’ve been busy with other work and writing. So here is a brief rundown of what’s been happening in the mountains.

For the last two weeks, actually a bit longer, 16 days total now, Roland Micklem, a retired science teacher who is now 85 years old, has been conducting a fast at the West Virginia state capitol building to inspire awareness of climate change, which includes mountaintop removal mining. He has fought for the mountains and the people of Appalachia for some time. In 2009 he organized a walk of senior citizens in West Virginia to protest mountaintop mining. He says his environmental awareness goes back to the 1950s, when he noticed that some of his favorite birds and animals were disappearing from his native Virginia.

Micklem has been joined by two other activists, Vincent Eirene and Mike Roselle. Here is a short video of Micklem from a couple days ago as he explains his motivations:

You can keep up with Micklem’s efforts through a Facebook page that follows the fast.

And I thought this was very interesting. Over at Coal Tattoo, the excellent blog about all things coal, Ken Ward points out the blatant subservience Senator Joe Manchin has to all things coal, as he held a stakeholder meeting to discuss the EPA’s new rule on emissions from existing power plants and to “find a balance between economic and environmental concerns.” As Ward point out this “balance” is a sort of Fox News type of balance that only included the interests of the fossil fuel companies. No one from any environmental organization or agency was invited to this stakeholder meeting.

            For blog posts, I only rarely read any of the comments, but please read the comment from Bo Webb on this post. Webb is of course the man who, in hopes of finding a simple rural life, returned to West Virginia only to find his homeland ravaged and his neighbors sickened by mountaintop mining. The story of his growing awareness and activism makes up part of the documentary On Coal River. In his comment Webb recounts his absurd meeting with Manchin as an environmental stakeholder in the state of West Virginia. I don't believe that Manchin could have sent a clearer message to Webb that the Senator did not care one fig about Webb, his community, or his mountains.

            

A Great Day For the People of Appalachia

This is a great day for the mountains. Actually, the great day was yesterday, but I’m just getting around to blogging today, but it’s still a great day. Anyway, yesterday a panel from the US Circuit Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia ruled that the EPA is within its authority to set up a process, in coordination with the Army Corps of Engineers, to review Clean Water Act permits for mining operations.

            Ever since the enactment of the Clean Water Act, which requires permitting for dumping or dredging in the waterways of this country, it has fallen to the Army Corps of Engineers to issue those permits. Having the Corps perform this function made sense, as this agency has been building dams, canals, and flood control structures.

            Since taking office in 2009 and in an effort to mitigate the pollution and destruction that is the legacy of mountaintop mining, the Obama administration has been involving the EPA in the review process for mountaintop mining permits. The court’s ruling, which came from a three-judge panel, invalidated lower court decisions by U.S. District Judge Reggie B. Walton that sided with the mining companies who claimed that the EPA was overstepping its authority in working with the Corp on permitting for the mines. Yesterday’s decision sends the case back to U.S. District Court.

Thank you, Mr. President for improving the lives of Appalachians

As more and more science indicates that mountaintop removal is bad for people’s health (see here, here, and here) and is bad for the environment (see here, here, here, here, here, and here), it only makes sense that the EPA should take part in permitting for the mines. And if you’ve ever seen the destruction caused by these mines, you wonder why the EPA hasn’t been part of the process all along.

Concerned Citizens Or NIMBYs?

I’m not sure what to think of this latest development in West Virginia mining. In perhaps what might be called a fit of NIMBY, opposition has formed to a mountaintop mine operation going in right next to the Kanawha State Forest, which is about five to ten miles from the state capitol Charleston. Almost 200 concerned residents met at a local church on Tuesday to discuss ways they could have the permit for the planned mine rescinded.

Where the mine is planned next to the state forest. Image Tye Ward The Charleston Gazette

Officially designated as a state forest, the 9,300 acres of land are nonetheless managed as and considered by local residents to be a public park. People camp, hike, hunt, and fish there. While a company called Keystone Development has been mining an area east of the forest, the permit would allow an expansion of that mine into a mountaintop removal operation. Originally, the mountaintop mine would have come to within 100 feet of the forest and would have filled in an adjacent valley with mining debris, but Keystone scaled back some of the mining footprint and changed plans for the debris to possibly be dumped at another mining site.

While preserving the beauty and pleasure of a park is fully understandable, mountaintop mining is harmful wherever it happens. I don’t mean to jump allover these people, who certainly have a legitimate concern, but where were have they been as hundreds of mines have flattened the rest of their state? Did they show up at other churches as their fellow West Virginians were diagnosed with bladder cancer caused by mountaintop mining? Did they want to rescind permits to mines that would cause expectant mothers to give birth to babies with birth defects?

Freedom Industries and Teensy-Weensy Justice For Southern West Virginia

Justice has come to the people of southern West Virginia. Freedom Industries, which poisoned the drinking water of 300,000 West Virginia residents, has had a fine leveled against it by the federal government for the improper storage and infrastructure violations that caused the toxic spill.

            So—after spilling thousands of gallons of  4-Methylcyclohexane Methanol into the Elk River and poisoning the drinking water for 300,000 West Virginians, sickening many of them, inconveniencing most of them by forcing them to buy bottled water, adversely affecting business for bars, restaurants, and other establishments, and forcing the closing of dozens of schools—how much was the fine?

            $11,000.

            That’s right, Freedom Industries, after poisoning the drinking water of 300,000 individuals, paid out $11,000 dollars. That comes out to about three and a half cents per person.

            As I said, Justice has come to the people of southern West Virginia, only it is a very small and teensy-weensy amount of justice.

The glass is half full. It's just a teensy-weensy little glass.

More Bad News If You're a Fish: Mountaintop Removal Is Not Good For You

Although I’ve never been a sport fisherman, one of the things I remember from growing up in West Virginia was the enthusiasm so many of my friends and neighbors had for fishing. Lake fishing and trout fishing were a big deal, with lots of folks out on their boats or standing in their waders waiting for that next strike.

            Well, there is some new research out that demonstrates that mountaintop removal jeopardizes this pastime. Rivers and streams affected by mountaintop mining have only about a third as many fish as rivers and streams that have not been affected by the massive mining technique. Affected streams also have fewer than half as many species of fish than unaffected streams. These are the findings of research conducted by the U.S. Geological Survey. The title of the paper, published this week in the journal Freshwater Science, is Temporal changes in taxonomic and functional diversity of fish assemblages downstream from mountaintop mining.

            Some of the data used in the study was collected between 1999 and 2001 by a team from Pennsylvania State University. The USGS collected data for the study from 2010 to 2011. Other recent research had also found fish populations to be negatively affected by mountaintop removal.[i] And still other research found a link between the surface mining of coal and the extirpation of stream benthic organisms.[ii] To me, this research just points out the obvious. Anybody who has spent time around the sulfurous streams around surface mines will tell you that you won’t find many fish in them, and sometimes not much other life, either.

            As with other studies, this scientific work found heightened levels of selenium in the mining affected streams. Previous research, mandated by state legislation in West Virginia, found that high levels of selenium in streams were associated with deformities of fish larvae. In streams with especially high levels of selenium up to 20 percent of some fish species had deformities. This research dovetails with the USGS findings. If a lot of your offspring have deformities, a lot of those deformed offspring will not make it to maturity.

            How much more research is needed to convince people that mountaintop removal is harmful? I fear that nothing besides the depletion of all the viable coal seam in Appalachia will bring about the end to large coal companies blowing up our beautiful mountains. The paper’s press release from the USGS is here. And a hat tip to Ken Ward and his Coal Tattoo blog where I found out about this scientific study.

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[i] Hopkins, Robert L., and Jordan C. Roush. "Effects Of Mountaintop Mining On Fish Distributions In Central Appalachia." Ecology Of Freshwater Fish 22.4 (2013): 578-586. Environment Complete. Web. 27 Sept. 2013

[ii] Cormier, Susan M., et al. "Assessing Causation Of The Extirpation Of Stream Macroinvertebrates By A Mixture Of Ions." Environmental Toxicology & Chemistry 32.2 (2013): 277-287. Environment Complete. Web. 3 July 2014.

Eight Arrested As They Protest Mountaintop Removal

This just in: Eight individuals were arrested today as they protested against mountaintop removal at the headquarters of Alpha Natural Resources, one of the mining companies that engages in mountaintop mining. Alpha is headquartered outside of Bristol Virginia. The protesters are members of Mountain Justice and Radical Action for Mountain People’s Survival (RAMPS). Members of RAMPS and Mountain Justice sometimes show up in the news for their acts of civil disobedience to defend the mountains.

            A court date was set for Monday. The protesters face charges of trespassing, obstructing free passage, disorderly conduct, and violation of fire codes. There is no word as to the charges Alpha might face for destroying mountains.

Mountaintop Removal Comes to China

Just as industrialists and manufacturers have moved their operations from the U.S. to China, it looks as though we’ve also sent mountaintop removal from Appalachia over to China as well.

            According to this article in the International Business Times, the effort to flatten mountains in China resembles that of what has occurred in Kentucky, West Virginia and other mountain states in the eastern U.S., at least in terms of scale. Hundreds of mountains are being flattened by the Chinese, with the resulting rock and dirt being deposited in adjacent valleys, just as they do in Appalachia.

            The difference is that coal is not the object of this effort. What the Chinese are after is flatland, more room for what China is known for: people, people, and more people. Mountains close to cities, such as Chongqing, Shiyan, and Lanzhou are being cleared away for development. Outside the city of Yan’an in the Shaanxi province they are flattening around 30 square miles; that’s about the size of Manhattan Island.

            Of course there are environmental concerns. Time will tell if the Chinese take better care of their valleys, rivers, and people than we have in Appalachia. 

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.

ALEC's Efforts to Harpoon EPA Limits on CO2

I’m never surprised when I read news like this. Using documents obtained from the American Legislative Council (ALEC), the Guardian has found a coordinated effort by the GOP and big business to harpoon the EPA’s ability to regulate greenhouse gasses.

            ALEC, which is funded in large part by the coal company Peabody Energy and the Koch brothers, and which holds a strong stance against the EPA, has been encouraging state attorneys general to bring lawsuits against new EPA regulations that restrict emissions from power plants. ALEC encouraged legislators to perform similar lobbying of governors and state attorneys general. The organization also got legislation into about a dozen state houses that would impinge on the efforts of the EPA to reduce carbon emissions.

            The new rules for power plant emissions came out last year. In a somewhat surprising move this week, the Supreme Court ruled that the EPA has the authority to enforce a similar rule that protects downwind states from the pollution caused by power plants in other states.

            Considering all the big money and the organized effort against the EPA and any program to reduce the amount of carbon that we pump into the atmosphere, it amazes me that any progress can occur. But it does. There may be hope.

Ohio, a Fracking Dumping Ground, Now Wonders About the Safety of Its Drinking Water

I guess that the state of Ohio is having one of those “Well, duh!” moments, when the folks there realize that expansive environmental degradation is not just the domain of their neighbors across the river in West Virginia.

            As with my last post that ended with West Virginia Senate Majority Leader John Unger warning that the toxic spill that deprived 300,000 residents of his state of basic drinking water could, if ignored, serve as a harbinger to the rest of the country. Through the lax enforcement of regulation and even the absence of regulation other parts of the country could have poisoned water pouring out of their taps as well.

            Just as West Virginia leads the country in mountaintop removal, Ohio leads the country in being a dumping ground for fracking waste. Fracking requires tons and tons of water, which becomes contaminated because of the chemicals used in the fracking process. Because Ohio is blessed, or cursed depending on your point of view, with unique rock layers that are ideal for disposing of fracking waste, the Buckeye State is home to over 200 injection wells where hydraulic fracturing waste is pumped deep underground, sometimes as deep as 5,000 feet.

            With so many West Virginians out of water for so long, a number of Ohioans are now asking how safe is it to pump tons and tons of waste under the rocks that provide their groundwater. A major spill in a river is a disaster, but the flow of the water cleanses the river within weeks or months. On the other hand, once groundwater is contaminated, it could be decades or even centuries before the contaminants make their way from an aquifer.

            Just as it seems obvious, now, that letting a large tank filled with a toxin to sit next to a major water source was a bad idea, you kind of wonder why weren’t some Ohioans a little leery of letting folks pump toxic waste into the rocks under their state in the first place.

Three Months On West Virginia Still Suffers From Troubled Waters

Three months on some West Virginians still aren't drinking the water.

Sorry to have dropped the ball on this blog for a while. There has been plenty to write about, but I’ve been tied up with a few things lately. I promise to get back to a more regular schedule with my posts here.

            The story that I’ve been following a great deal lately is the toxic spill in West Virginia’s Elk River that occurred in January of this year. Though the spill happened almost exactly three months ago, apparently there are still folks who are staying away from their tap water, and some folks are complaining that the telltale licorice smell still lingers in the water coming from their taps. The levels of the 4-methylcyclohexane methanol have dropped in the drinking water. The highest level of the chemical in water tested in a ten-home pilot project was found to be 6.1 parts per billion, much lower than the Center For Disease Control’s somewhat arbitrary threshold of 1000 parts per billion.

            It seems as though some members of the national press are keeping an eye on the water problems in the Kanawha Valley. I heard this story on Here and Now. Interviewed for the story is Rahul Gupta. The Kanawha-Charleston health director said that there may now be evidence pointing to long-standing low levels of MCHM being present in the drinking water of the Kanawha Valley. As he said, there is no research on what this chemical might do to people who are exposed to small amounts of it over long periods of time.

And the spill made the pages of the New Yorker. Evan Osnos, who years ago worked as a photojournalist in Clarksburg, West Virginia, my hometown, delves into the history of the coal companies and the grip that they have on the politics of the Mountain State. In his piece Osnos suggests that the rise of the GOP in West Virginia, a very traditional Democratic stronghold, is not a good trend. Although the anti-environmental rhetoric of the GOP and that party’s willingness to slash and burn environmental and health regulations would seem to support what he has to say, I think things are bad in my home state no matter which party occupies the state house or the governor’s mansion. The lack of regulatory control over the coal companies and the chemical industries goes back through the administrations of governors Joe Manchin and Jay Rockefeller, both Democrats.

            Democrats and Republicans both bear some of the blame for the state of affairs in West Virginia; the same can be said of the electorate that sends these politicians into office. Ultimately, however, the coal companies and the chemical industry in West Virginia are responsible for the polluted waters and sickened people. From the time Appalachian children attend grammar school, where the coal industry has developed and, with the blessing of the educational establishment, inserted into Appalachian schools’ curricula to indoctrinate students and turn them into coal industry loving adults, through the industry’s campaign against the president and environmental regulation in the guise of fighting Obama’s “war on coal,” King Coal and the chemical companies influence enough of the electorate to get coal-friendly politicians into office. Their influence is not total. Recent polling indicates that mountaintop removal remains unpopular in West Virginia. Even still, you don’t have to convince every voter, just enough to make the difference to get your preferred candidate into office. And once in office, no matter what a state senator or governor may believe personally, they are barraged with the money and lobbying of the industries that control West Virginia.

            Without footage of floodwaters or images of flattened houses, most of the national press moved on from the story of West Virginians and their water problems. But Osnos quotes West Virginia Senate Majority Leader John Unger pointing out why this toxic spill deserves the attention of the rest of the country, “Martin Luther King said that injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere. Why should anybody care about what goes on in West Virginia? Because it’s the canary in the mineshaft. If you ignore it in West Virginia, it’s coming, it’s going to continue to build, and the issue is: Should our country have the debate about our rights to the very basic infrastructure that sustains us? Or should we continue to ignore it?”

Supreme Court Denies Arch Coal More Mountaintop Removal at Spruce Mine No. 1

The Supreme Court did a good thing today, rejecting an appeal from Arch Coal to review a decision by the U.S. District Court of Appeals. The original ruling of the District Court, which goes back to April of last year, found that the EPA could withdraw a previously approved Clean Water Act permit. The permits are granted to allow for pollution of waters and the filling in of streams. Coal companies need these permits to operate their mountaintop removal mines and dump the waste rock and soil or “overburden” from the mines into adjacent valleys and streams.

            Arch coal had sought the permit, and received the permit from the Army Corps of Engineers, to expand its Spruce Mine No. 1 in West Virginia. The Spruce Mine is already huge; with the permit it would have made it the largest such mine in the Mountain State. The EPA had rescinded the permit retroactively, after the Corps had granted the permit.

            Arch Coal said that wasn’t kosher. The District Court said it was. And now the Supreme Court has said that decision stands. We are not totally out of the woods on this, but this is a good turn of events.

The Educational Director Who Could

This is a great story. Bill Bigelow taught high school social studies in Portland, Oregon for almost 30 years before becoming the curriculum editor of Rethinking Schools and the co-director of the Zinn Educational Project. In 2011, while he was developing academic activities on coal and climate change for Rethinking Schools magazine, he came across The United States of Energy, a pro-coal propaganda “curriculum” for fourth grade students that had been sponsored by the coal industry and published by Scholastic, the well-known education publisher.

            Bigelow wrote a critique of The United States of Energy and teamed up with another prominent educator. Before long the Center for Biological Diversity, Friends of the Earth, and Greenpeace were on board with the effort.

            As a result, Scholastic severed ties with the coal industry and stopped distribution of The United States of Energy. Scholastic also began a review of its “In School Marketing” program.

            I love stories like this, when one individual brings about a needed change by simply speaking the truth. Now if Bigelow and Rethinking Schools could just get the coal companies out of the schoolrooms of Appalachia, where they still run the show.

Duke Energy Wants to Have Its Cake and Eat It, Too. And They Want to Have Your Cake and Eat It Too, Too

Sorry about that coal ash spill thingy. You folks don't mind paying for it now, do you?

This news item has my head spinning. In a move that goes way beyond having unmitigated gall, Duke Energy, whose spill of between 50,000 and 82,000 tons of coal ash fouled North Carolina’s Dan River last month, now says that the power company’s customers should pick up the bill to clean up the company’s dozens of coal ash storage sites.

            Lynn Good, Duke Energy’s CEO, told the Charlotte Observer that since rate payers had enjoyed the electricity the company provided for generations they are the ones who should pay for the cleanup of the byproduct of producing that electricity.

            OK, so I sell you a guitar. Years later, due to my bad business practices, I incur debts. I then tell you that since you bought a guitar and benefited from my bad business practices, you should pay my bills. That is exactly what Duke is trying to do here. They want to have their cake and eat it, too. And they want to have your cake and eat it too, too.

Hat tip to my friend Amy for this story.

CPAC = Big Crazy, At Least Where the Environment Is Concerned

photo Reuters

It looks like the darling of this year’s Conservative Political Action Conference, in what is an apparent flirtation with the GOP presidential nomination, was Rand Paul, the son of Ron Paul and, like his father, a firebrand libertarian.

            Paul’s message of less and less government has some staying power for this conference. The Kentucky Senator was similarly lauded at last year’s CPAC. As the way things are going for Appalachians, I have little hope that things will change for the better in those states. They can continue to expect toxic spills in their rivers. With a Rand Paul administration, however, that dismal future would be a certainty. For him, the companies that mine coal can pretty much do as they please, and he dismisses mountaintop removal by saying, “I don’t’ think that anyone is going to be missing a hill or two here and there.”

            Looking at some of the other things to come out of CPAC, it certainly seems like a lot of Big Crazy is going on there. Here we have William Peter Pendly, author of Sagebrush Rebel: Reagan's Battle with Environmental Extremists and Why It Matters Today speaking on president Obama’s fictitious “war on fossil fuels.” Later in the video someone in on the panel discussion dismisses concern or action on climate change by saying that there is a “prejudice against the man-made,” due to “human racism.” That, in essence, folks who are concerned about melting glaciers, rising oceans, possible worsening weather events such as drought, floods, and more sever storms, are only concerned because of their prejudice against the human race. Is that Big Crazy or what?

West Virginia Leaders in Washington Sing the Same Old Tune

West Virginia leaders sing the same old tune

It seems that in Washington things remain quite the same,

with the law makers from West Virginia continuing to toe the line for King
Coal. Once again, this is from Ken Ward, who knows way more about West Virginia
and coal than I ever could, and his Coal Tattoo blog.

West Virginia Water Bill in Final Sausage-Making Phase

Fat possums: Water bill coming down to the wire

Ken Ward’s Coal Tattoo blog on the ins and outs of the West

Virginia legislation crafted in response to January’s chemical spill in the Elk
River. Lots of last minute sausage making moves going on, and Ken sums things
up really well.

Good News About Coal And Coal Mining? Can You Believe It?

Wow. That’s all I can think right now. Wow. I just got this news story in from Reuters. In a consent decree reached with the Department of Justice and the Environmental Protection Agency Alpha Natural Resources and its subsidiaries have agreed to spend about $200 million to install and operate wastewater treatment systems and begin upgrades to current systems to reduce toxic runoff from their mines that pollute streams throughout Appalachia.

            Alpha will also pay $27.5 million in civil penalties for thousands of permit violations. This is the largest penalty in history for violations of Section 402 of the Clean Water Act.

            In other good news, Spaniards are showing some good sense in banning mountaintop removal from the beautiful mountains of their northern region.

            Is today Christmas? It sort of feels that way to me right now.

UPDATE: For more on the Alpha story check out Ken Ward's blog here. 

Snoopy and Charlie Brown are happy for the mountains and the folks who live there.