The Depths To Which Men Will Sink Themselves For King Coal

It amazes me how shamefully some people can act, even when they are in public, even when they know that there are microphones and cameras running, even when they are in a House Subcommittee hearing room.

This video shows Representative John Fleming, a GOP representative from Louisiana, questioning Dr Michael Hendryx during a hearing of the House Energy and Minerals Resources Subcommittee today. Hendryx is  the former Director of West Virginia Rural Health Research Center and Founding Chair of the Department of Health Policy Management and Leadership in the School of Public Health at West Virginia University. Among his dozens of published scientific papers are studies of the health effects of mountaintop removal on the residents of Appalachia. In this “hearing” Fleming badgers Hendryx about one of his studies that found cancer rates among residents who live near Mountaintop mining to be twice that of their fellow Appalachians.

            This video is embarrassing. It shows you, like a drunkard lying in a trash strewn ditch, the depths to which men will sink themselves just for that next campaign contribution from King Coal.

Mountaintop Removal Affecting Bird Populations

This is just out from the U.S. Geological Survey. Mountaintop mining is not only changing the landscape, it is, unsurprisingly, changing the ecology of the Appalachians. According to a new study published in Landscape Ecology, songbirds that thrive in forested areas are in decline in areas adjacent to reclaimed mountaintop removal mines, while birds that live in shrub lands are increasing in these areas.

            The results make sense on the face of things. Even when MTR mines are reclaimed, they are mostly large grassland areas devoid of trees. And as you can surmise, it will take a while for trees to take root, grow, and reach maturity in reclaimed mines. Most optimistically the forests will grow to maturity in the mines in a matter of a few decades, but in most cases it will probably take longer.

            Here are some details from the USGS news release:

The study evaluated the bird communities in the forest that remains around the reclaimed habitats in West Virginia and Kentucky. Researchers found that even small amounts of forest lost to mineland or grassland within a landscape resulted in lower abundance for the majority of bird species in the forest that remained adjacent to the reclaimed lands.  Declines in abundance were detected for 12 species of forest interior birds and 11 species of interior edge birds including species of conservation concern such as Cerulean Warbler and Worm-eating Warbler.  But the numbers of some species did go up.

“Some shrubland species, for example the brown thrasher and song sparrow, or forest generalist species such as the brown-headed cowbird and the yellow-throated vireo, did have a positive response to the loss of forest and the gain in mineland or grassland, but most bird species did not,” said Doug Becker, professor of biology at Kutztown University in Pennsylvania and senior author of the study.  “If managers want to take actions that may benefit sensitive, forest-dependent species, they need to minimize the amount of forest lost in a landscape.”

A reclaimed mountaintop mine. No trees here. photo: ovec.org

The Cerulean Warbler, one of the bird species in decline around the mountaintop removal mines photo: nc.audubon.org

Other ecological effects have been documented, including the recent finding that the mining was threatening rare endemic crayfish. And it is needless to say that for years and decades we will be finding even more effects that mountaintop removal coal mining has had on the lives of Appalachians and the environment of their mountains.

Mountains that have not been removed for their coal, where many songbirds want to live

Interactive Map Highlights the Communities Affected By the Mountaintop Removal Mines

Working with Google and SkyTruth, an environmental mapping organization, Appalachian Voices has developed an interactive map that illustrates how the mountaintop mines have encroached on the communities of Appalachia. There are hundreds of towns and communities that are affected by the mines. This map concentrates on the 50 communities thought to be the most horribly affected by the mountaintop removal coalmines. The map is here.

Let the Mines Be Big and Toxic Because Those Hillbillies Just Don't Matter

Jeff Biggers gets it. The author of The United States of Appalachia and Reckoning at Eagle Creek: The Secret Legacy of Coal in the Heartland and a man who grew up around coal mining and its legacy understands the hellishness that surface mining, and particularly mountaintop removal, unleashes on Appalachia. Here in his Guardian opinion piece, Would There Be More Regulation of Coal Mining If It Didn't Just Affect "Hillbillies," he explains that the Appalachian Mountains are ravaged and the streams and ecosystems are ruined because we simply disregard the lives of Appalachians. We think that they are just a bunch of dumb hillbillies who deserve their lot.

            There is obviously more to it than the larger prejudices of the country as a whole. There are the hand-in-gloveworkings of the coal companies and politicians of the region; the infection of school curricula in which students are given propaganda by King Coal to be learned as lessons in their classrooms; there is the endemic poverty that grinds down people’s spirits and keeps them ever distracted worrying about their mounting bills and being trapped in an economic system that gives them as much choice in their lives as their ancestors had in the company towns.

It's just a bunch of hillbillies who live nearby. So who cares?

But Biggers gets the larger picture of how mountaintop removal can be such a low priority, even for people and groups that care about poverty or environmental concerns. You really should read his opinion piece. Here is another link to it right here. And remember, Appalachian lives matter.

Mountaintop Removal, Just Not In the Press and Just Not On Our Minds

I know that this is something that bloggers are loath to admit, but often, particularly when I blog about mountaintop removal mining, the hits I get on this blog can be pretty meager, diving down from dozens or hundreds to only a few hits.

            The reason for this is quite simple. Mountaintop mining is simply not on the minds of most folks. This is due in part at least to the few stories about the mines in the press. In the past 15 years the New York Times ran 40 stories that were about mountaintop removal or mentioned mountaintop removal somewhere in a story.[1] Conversely, over the same period the Times ran 17,158 stories that were about or mentioned Israel.

            Certainly there is much that goes on in Israel that is newsworthy, and on the occasions when there are missiles flying or bombs going off there will be a lot of press coverage of that area of the world. But a scourge on the land and people of Appalachia—one that is occurring within our borders, one that has been investigated by the U.N. for human rights abuses, one which, unlike the politics or conflicts of a country thousands of miles away, we can actually do something about—why does it receive less than 0.3 percent of the coverage of that given to Israel?

            Because of the dearth of press coverage, we just aren’t curious about mountaintop removal and don’t try to find out more about it. Below is a graph showing the searches in Google[2] for mountaintop removal over the last ten years. The graph doesn’t give absolute numbers, but you’ll get my point in the next few graphs. You can see from the graph that interest in mountaintop coal mining peaked around 2010.

 

Goolging of mountaintop removal since 2005

Now take a look at the graph below. It shows the googling of mountaintop removal compared to the googling of fracking. The blue line is the one representing mountaintop removal and the red one is the fracking one. If you think about it, fracking has been in the headlines a lot more than MTR mining. Maybe this can be explained by more compelling and appealing documentaries about fracking. Perhaps the press covers the extractive practice more because more communities are affected by hydraulic fracturing than that of mountaintop removal.

 

Googling of mountaintop removal and fracking since 2005

OK, here’s the kicker. Below is a graph of the googling done on mountaintop removal, fracking, and Taylor Swift, the very popular singer. The line representing her Google searches is the dashed yellow one.

 

Googling of mountaintop removal, fracking, and Taylor Swift since 2005

Wow. The searches on fracking barely resister compared to the ones on Swift, and unless I knew that mountaintop removal was graphed, I would not know it was there.

            I don’t mean to take away from Taylor Swift and her popularity. She brings a great deal of joy to millions. I would like to see peace for the Middle East, and perhaps the press coverage of the region will help bring that about. The same can be said about fracking, that the press coverage and interest in the subject will help us to stop or severely restrict this dangerous extractive practice. But why such miniscule press coverage of the mines that are devastating our Appalachia? Why?

And here's a picture of Taylor Swift, just for good measure. photo: Jason Merritt/Getty Images 

---

[1] This search in the Times and other searches were performed using Proquest.

[2] These graphs were generated in Google Trends https://www.google.com/trends/

Mountaintop Removal Linked to Health Hazards Again

It’s been pretty well established that mountaintop removal is bad for the health of the folks who live around the mines. Mountaintop mining kicks up a lot of dust, and many of the ailments that afflict those who live close to the mines is directly related to inhaling coal dust or silica associated with the mines.

            Well, it turns out that recent research indicates that the ultrafine dust from the mines can make people sick, too. This is dust so small that you cannot see it. It is so small that it can pass through the incredibly small holes in the cell walls of living tissue. Once the dust enters the cell through the cell wall, inflammation occurs, and inflammation can lead to a number of ailments.

            Lab research backs this up. In one case, rats exposed to dust composed of titanium oxide, the white pigment in paint, suffered no ill effect. If the titanium oxide dust was very, very small, the rats died.

This mine can make you very sick.

If these particles are so small they can pass through the pores of cells, they are too small to be stopped by dust masks or other prophylactic devices. On the other hand, getting rid of these ultrafine dust particles in Appalachia is pretty simple. End mountaintop removal.

NASA Images Reveal Destruction of Mountaintop Removal

This page from NASA’s Earth Observatory shows the growth of the Hobet mine, one of the largest mountaintop removal mines in Appalachia, from 1984 through 2013. If you're in a good mood and don't want to spoil it, please don't click on the link! It's pretty depressing. Otherwise on the Earth Observatory page you can see the footprint of the mine grow across the landscape. Remember, this is only one mine.

The Hobet Mine in 1984, dwarfing the towns of Danville and Madison, West Virginia.
In the next 20 years it gets way worse. photo: NASA

ESA Protection Proposed For Two Appalachian Crayfish Threatened By Mountaintop Removal

Two crayfish that have died out throughout much of their range in Appalachia may have some hope. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has proposed to protect the two species under the Endangered Species Act.

            More than half of their habitats of the Big Sandy crayfish and the Guyandotte River crayfish have become too polluted, mostly from mountaintop removal coal mining, for these creatures to live in. The proposed protection by the Fish and Wildlife Service is in response to a petition and a lawsuit brought by the Center for Biological Diversity.

Big Sandy crayfish photo: Guenter Schuster

Though the evidence that mountaintop removal causes ecological damage has been mounting, and the health hazards to people because of mountaintop mining have become more evident, this is the first news that I’ve run across that any legislators or government agency is doing anything to mitigate the harm that this mining practice inflicts on the people or land of Appalachia.

            You can read more about the proposed listing in the press release from the Center for Biological Diversity.

West Virginia Leads the Country in Population Loss

The population of West Virginia continues to decline. Thirty years ago there were about Three million people living in the Mountain State. Now less than two million folks call West Virginia home. As the Charleston Gazette explains, with more than 3000 residents leaving the state last year, West Virginia is losing folks faster than any other state.

            As one among the many who have left the hollows and the mountains, this is bittersweet for me. I dearly love West Virginia. I grew up eating pepperoni rolls, and I’ve drunk more than my share of sassafras tea. My mom would make cobbler from the blackberries that I picked in our fields. And I remember how black my hands would stain when we’d gather walnuts in the fall.

            More than anything, it was wanderlust that lead me away. And I never really had a reason to go back for longer than a visit. So I now live in southern California instead of West Virginia. Although I am one of the many former West Virginians, my story is not typical of how and why it is that so many thousands of folks have left. When it comes right down to it, there are fewer and fewer jobs. And the jobs that are there don’t pay as well as they may have in the past. Poverty plagues the state, one of the poorest in the union. With a 18.5 percent of West Virginians living in poverty, the Center For American Progress ranks the Mountain State 41st in its state poverty raking.

Below is a map indicating the counties that have seen population loss and the ones that have seen increases in their numbers. The eastern panhandle has seen an increase in numbers, largely because now the eastern panhandle now serves as a large bedroom community for the D.C. area. Monongalia County has seen the largest increase, almost seven percent. As well, it may be that this area of the state is becoming a bedroom community for Pittsburgh.

 GIS mapping by Paul Hormick. Source files: West Virginia Broadband Mapping http://www.wvgs.wvnet.edu/bb/data.html. Population information from West Virginia Public Broadcasting http://wvpublic.org/post/which-west-virginia-counties-have-seen-most-population-loss-recent-years

But of the 55 counties, only 15 have seen increases in their numbers. Forty counties have fewer folks than just a few years ago. Wyoming, Clay, Pendleton, and Mingo have seen population losses of over four percent each. If you take another look at the map, you’ll see that down in the southwestern section of the map are all counties that have lost folks. The one at the bottom, that’s McDowell County, which has lost almost seven percent of its population. Now take a look at the same map below that now shows where the great surface mines and mountaintop removal mines are.

 

GIS mapping by Paul Hormick. Source files: West Virginia Broadband Mappinghttp://www.wvgs.wvnet.edu/bb/data.html and I Love Mountains http://ilovemountains.org/maps: Population information from West Virginia Public Broadcasting http://wvpublic.org/post/which-west-virginia-counties-have-seen-most-population-loss-recent-years

For all of those who equate coal with jobs, this second map reveals the falsehood of that claim. At one time, before the giant machines came in to make the giant mines in the mountains, dozens of men might be employed at a mine. And those jobs were union jobs paying good wages. As with the mountains, those jobs and good wages are gone.

 

A closer view of the footprint that the mines make across West Virginia

This has nothing to do with a fantasy world in which president Obama has a “war on coal” and much more to do with the loss of labor rights, cheaper natural gas from fracking, a criminally negligent West Virginia Department of Environmental Protection (and the same can be said of the federal EPA), and politicians who are beholden to and serve King Coal instead of the West Virginia citizens who cast their votes and send them into high office.

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.

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?

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.

---

[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.