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.