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.

Maybe West Virginians Really Aren't Happy With King Coal After All

I’ve been blogging about my apparent dismay that there doesn’t seem to be that much of a sense of outrage in West Virginia when those folks have been denied basic drinking water for weeks on end. Well, this recent poll by the Sierra Club may indicate that, though they are not carrying signs and marching down the street, West Virginians are not happy with the situation in their state.

            Across party lines in this poll of 504 West Virginia voters a great majority favor more regulation of the coal industry, with an overwhelming 68 percent, including 57 percent of Republican respondents, saying that greater regulation would have prevented last month’s toxic spill in the Elk River that poisoned the drinking water for 300,000 West Virginia residents. Another 65 percent of respondents thought that the coal industry bore “some” or “a lot” of responsibility for air and water pollution in their state. And 61 percent believe that coal companies have too much influence in their state’s politics.

            These people are voters. Let’s hope that their beliefs and convictions accompany them to the polls in the next election.

When the river looks like this, maybe it's time to call in the regulators.

Right Out of Kafka: Chevron Sues the Individuals It Harmed With Its Pollution

For a long time Chevron had been dumping toxic waste into waterways of the Amazon, causing great harm to the rainforest. After years of litigation, an Ecuadorian court imposed a judgment of over $17 billion against the oil company for their wanton pollution practices. Now here is the Kafka part of the story. Instead of paying the judgment, Chevron sued more than 50 individuals involved in the original lawsuit.

            I understand that Chevron would want to keep themselves out of a courtroom and wouldn’t want to pay the plaintiffs in this case. But this move to sue the plaintiffs is thuggish.

The company is claiming that, despite their wrongdoing, Chevron is the victim of a conspiracy among lawyers, environmental activists, and journalists. Even more bizarre, in their suit against the plaintiffs a judge in New York has granted Chevron access to the emails of the plaintiffs. For anyone involved in any sort of environmental work or any sort of activism, this is quite chilling.