Sen. Byrd stood strong for the interests of those in the coalfields and was a long time champion for coal miners and the industry. But he also showed us that he was willing to modify his positions as science and his constituents demanded.

In comments earlier today Obama said:

“He had the courage to stand firm in his principles, but also the courage to change over time.”

One of the most striking areas that Sen. Byrd had shown this courage was in the last year as he became outspoken on the role of coal in West Virginia’s future as well as on mountaintop removal.

As Ken Ward recounts:

About a year ago, Sen. Byrd sent his staff into the coalfields, on a fact-finding mission, and last December came out with his major statement, urging the coal industry to “Embrace the Future.“  Among his most important points? That change was coming to the West Virginia coalfields, regardless of what happens with cap-and-trade legislation and mountaintop removal restrictions.

And then after the April mine disaster, he once again came out and demanded that the coal industry must respect miners, the land and the people who live in the West Virginia coalfields:

“The old chestnut that “coal is West Virginia’s greatest natural resource” deserves revision. I believe that our people are West Virginia’s most valuable resource. We must demand to be treated as such.”

JW at the Appalachian Voices Front Porch Blog has pulled a nice summary of Byrd’s recent statements on mountaintop removal:

“In recent years, West Virginia has seen record high coal production and record low coal employment … The increased use of mountaintop removal mining means that fewer miners are needed to meet company production goals.

…

It is also a reality that the practice of mountaintop removal mining has a diminishing constituency in Washington. It is not a widespread method of mining, with its use confined to only three states.  Most members of Congress, like most Americans, oppose the practice, and we may not yet fully understand the effects of mountaintop removal mining on the health of our citizens. West Virginians may demonstrate anger toward the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) over mountaintop removal mining, but we risk the very probable consequence of shouting ourselves out of any productive dialogue with EPA and our adversaries in the Congress.

Some have even suggested that coal state representatives in Washington should block any advancement of national health care reform legislation until the coal industry’s demands are met by the EPA. I believe that the notion of holding the health care of over 300 million Americans hostage in exchange for a handful of coal permits is beyond foolish; it is morally indefensible.  It is a non-starter, and puts the entire state of West Virginia and the coal industry in a terrible light.

To be part of any solution, one must first acknowledge a problem. To deny the mounting science of climate change is to stick our heads in the sand and say “deal me out.” West Virginia would be much smarter to stay at the table.”

And a memory I will always hold fondly of Sen. Byrd was recently watching him stand up to the arrogance of Don Blankenship when the Massey CEO was called to testify in a Senate Hearing on the Upper Big Branch mine disaster.

For more on his life and the contributions Senator Byrd made during his tenure check out the NY Times or NPR.

As we have already blogged, today the EPA announced formal guidance on the issuance of new mountaintop removal coal mining permits. I will unpack that announcement a bit for understory readers:

Mountaintop removal is regulated by the EPA under the Clean Water Act. Today Lisa Jackson announced several new considerations that the EPA will take into account when determining the fate of new mountaintop removal permits.

Here are a few aspects that are of note:

• The EPA created a “yardstick” by which they will assess conductivity of water.

Conductivity is a useful measure of stream water quality. Toxic pollutants like selenium degrade water quality. On todays call, Administrator Jackson set benchmarks that EPA will use to evaluate new mountaintop removal permits impact on local watersheds:

To protect water quality, EPA has identified a range of conductivity (a measure of the level of salt in the water) of 300 to 500 microSiemens per centimeter. The maximum benchmark conductivity of 500 microSiemens per centimeter is a measure of salinity that is roughly five times above normal levels. The conductivity levels identified in the clarifying guidance are intended to protect 95 percent of aquatic life and fresh water streams in central Appalachia.

For those of us that aren’t water quality analysts, its means that the EPA now has a threshold that they will consider impacts on water. Ok, that may seem pretty normal, but in fact this is  the first time a numerical standard has been placed on conductivity. (yes…that’s a big deal….)

• The EPA will also be cracking down significantly on valley fills. On today’s call Administrator Jackson said that under these guidelines, few to no new valley fills will be allowed. In order to better deal with the approval of valley fills EPA says: 

Mining companies must first demonstrate that there is no practicable alternative to the proposed discharge to the waters of the United States which would have less adverse impact on the aquatic ecosystem”.           

Aka, a mining company must go to great lengths to determine that a valley fill is necessary. If they are able to demonstrate this, the EPA has said they will practice sequencing, in which case only one valley fill will be permitted at a time. Also of note, the EPA studies releaseg today show that “nine out of every 10 streams downstream of surface mining operations exhibit significant impacts to aquatic life.”

In addition to today’s announcement, EPA has said that Army Corps are also working on standards to better regulate mountaintop removal under the National Environmental Protection Act (NEPA). Considering the Army Corps has historically been a “rubber stamp” on these permits, we await this new regulation with baited breath…

Today was a giant step in the right direction. For the first time in many years the EPA is indicating that they will use their authority under the Clean Water Act to regulate mountaintop removal coal mining.

It is important to note however, that while the steps taken today by the EPA should be applauded; mitigation is not a solution for those who live in Appalachia. The impacts of mountaintop removal cannot be minimized, the must be abolished.  

If you have not already, please take a minute and Pledge to End Mountaintop Removal in 2010.

The above image shows two areas, in purple, where Massey Energy is blasting dangerously close to the Brushy Fork Impoundment and multiple gas wells.

Marfork Coal Co. has started work on the Bee Tree Surface Mine, and is blasting within 1,000 feet of the impoundment. The blasting threatens to decrease the stability of the Brushy Fork dam, which sits above a honeycomb of abandoned underground mines.

Just last week, the W. Va. Department of Environmental Protection issued a violation on the impoundment for failing to meet an engineering safety factor. This measurement determines how much force a structure can withstand beyond the amount that is expected to be exerted upon it. At the time of the issuance, the dam could withstand thirty percent additional force, rather than the fifty percent mandated by law.

The WVDEP was acting under a ten-day notice issued to them by the federal Office of Surface Mining.

“What’s sad is that the federal government has to go in,” said Joseph Hamsher of Charleston, W.Va., one of the protestors occupying the office. “You just know that someone up the road is telling the West Virginia DEP not to give Massey any more violations.”

If the Brushy Fork impoundment breaks, a 38.49-foot wall of water will arrive in Sylvester, a town 4.8 miles downriver, within 36 minutes. By Massey Energy’s own estimates, the disaster would kill 998 people.

“I won’t stop breaking the law until they do,” said Mike Roselle, who along with Hamsher and Tom Smyth, intends to stay in the office until Marfork Coal Co. suspends blasting operations.

Well last week I attended the first film in the Nigerian Film Series that the Smithsonian Museum of African Art is hosting. The movie was great but the fact that Chevron is the main sponsor was disconcerting. Yep, the same Chevron that is responsible for massive environmental destruction and human rights violations in the Niger Delta. I find it disrespectful that Chevron would use an event like this to make their public image more appealing, especially within the Nigerian community of DC.

Why is Chevron the wrong sponsor for Nigeria?

• Over the last fifty years, Chevron has spilled 1.5 million tons of oil in the Niger Delta, contaminating waterways, fish-stocks and farmlands.
• Chevron still engages in the illegal practice of gas flaring [the burning and emission of natural gas into the air during the oil extraction process], contributing massive amounts of carbon dioxide and resulting in high rates of cancer, asthma and other respiratory illnesses.
• Chevron employs the Nigerian military’s secret security forces – known to violently repress peaceful protests. In 2008 Chevron stood trial for torture; extrajudicial killing; and cruel, inhuman, and degrading treatment of Nigerian villagers.

We were concerned about this so our colleagues at Justice in Nigeria Now (JINN) phoned the museum’s corporate membership office to express concern about Chevron’s sponsoring of the event and to ask about the criteria for evaluating prospective sponsors.

Their response: that they could not divulge its criteria; that they are aware of Chevron’s track record in Nigeria, but that they did not concern themselves with the political ramifications of what their funders do, since the Smithsonian’s objective is to fund art.

So I attended the movie along with some of my friends and we handed out these postcards and collected signatures of other movie-goers that were just as offended by the Chevron sponsorship. In fact, most attendees seemed surprised to find out that an oil company was sponsoring such a lovely evening at the Smithsonian.

I am looking forward to the rest of the film series. Nollywood is fascinating to me. The producer, Lancelot, who was showcased in the documentary, has made over 150 movies in his career! If you are in the DC area, come join me one Thursday.

Its been a lively evening for sure. Massey called in the reinforcements by way of a Friends of Coal rally, however the rain seemed to dampen the turnout. UC President Ed Welch moderated the event which was attended by over 950 people. By the time Kennedy and Blankenship took the stage, the auditorium was standing room only.

Welch opened the event by saying “Tonight we are going to try to recapture that art of argument. ”  He reiterated his intent to “Get beyond talking points” and get the participants to engage in a real conversation with each other rather than rehearsed sound bites. They certainly accomplished the art of disagreeing, but Welch wasn’t able to throw any questions too tough to throw these two off their game.

Both RFK and Blankenship appeared well rehearsed for the evening, opening comments were given before diving into topics of job loss, global warming, viability of reclamation, potential for transition to alternative energy, and energy independence.

After a coin toss the first question went to Blankenship, which allowed him to aire concerns of prosperity for this country and security, both of which in his opinion are solved by coal.

Bobby began by pointing out that these companies are “liquidating this state for cash”. Maybe that’s what Don meant by prosperity. But Bobby did not only point the finger to the profits of coal companies like Massey Coal, but also to the financiers of this industry such as JP Morgan Chase. He raised issues of poverty associated with communities closest to MTR sites repeatedly, however Don couldn’t seem to grasp this correlation.

Certainly one of my favorite parts of the evening was when Don held up a clear bottle of water to make a point that this is the water “we” are fighting to clean up. Suffice it to say he didn’t mistake this water for his drinking glass- water which he claims is discharge from a mine that failed EPA testing. Unfortunately, much of the water in areas where surface mining is practiced is laden with toxic heavy metals like selenium, often resulting in a brackish orange color and completely unsuitable for consumption.

You can imagine the responses when Welch brought up global warming, especially given Blankenship’s previous claims that “Global warming is a hoax and a ponzi scheme.”  Bobby prefaced the conversation by pointing out that neither he nor Blankenship are scientists and therefore they should rely on the science that does exist on climate change. He pointed out that 98% of scientists agree that global warming is happening, “2% disagree, some of them- not all of them are paid by Exxon and the carbon cronies. I have a choice to believe the 98 or the 2 percent.”

Blankenship’s retort was that the real issue is whether global warming is manmade, which, according to him “its clearly not. Its all totally nonsensical.” Better yet, he went on to say that regardless of what the climate is going to do, “there isn’t anything we can do about it.” Well I guess we should all just quit already and go sun tan on the beach.

Blankenship spoke a lot about the Indians and Asians, he seems mostly worried that they are bulking up their coal infrastructure so we will be left behind if we don’t do the same. I mostly wonder about a guy who walks around and still calls people Indians and Asians…

There was lots of discussion of making heavy machinery out of state, but the valid point that components of windmills and solar panels come from oversees was also noted. RFK was very outspoken that Blankenship came in with the intention of breaking the unions and employing out of state employees. But as long as people are starving in other countries, Blankenship feels this isn’t a fair comparison.

While there were many funny moments, no one matched the comical genius of Colbert who recently covered mountaintop removal and when talking about hillbillies said that, if you take away all their mountains, “They’ll just be billies”.

Blankenship seemed confused when RFK cited the number of violations Massey has been given. RFK claims this came from Massey’s own records which they are required to submit to the EPA. Blankenships blame of Sierra Club and the “enviros” as sensationalizing these claims seems an admission of guilt in itself.

All in all a great night, one that provided much entertainment and many thanks to UC for hosting and creating a safe, respectful evening.

You will remember that in 2009 the EPA deemed 79 pending mountaintop removal permits as having the potential for significant environmental impact and were placed in an enhanced review process. Well today’s decision marks the first of these permits to be released in West Virginia. While the EPA claims that adequate changes have been made for the permit to move forward, it will still allow for more than three miles of intact streams to be destroyed as well as millions of cubic yards of hazardous fill to be placed in valley fills offsite.

Ken Ward has a great blog treatment of the announcement on Coal Tattoo.

Sadly, there is no environmentally safe way to demolish historic mountain ranges, so the question becomes- will the EPA continue to deny this simple fact and side with industry or finally take a strong stand to protect the people of Appalachia and their watersheds?

Residents sure hope it will be the later, “We, the affected citizens that are living with the impacts of this destructive mining practice, pray that this decision is not a preview of other destructive mining permits being approved,” said Judy Bonds, West Virginia resident and Director of Coal River Mountain Watch. “We certainly hope this is the last destructive permit approved that will allow the coal industry to continue to blast our homes and pollute our streams.”

In addition to the concerns Judy has for her home and health, she worries that the industry will view this as a positive outcome and feel justified in their use of fear and violence. “The very sad thing about this decision it is that the coal industry will think that their thugery and their threats contributed to this decision and may encourage them to be more violent in the future. Shame, Shame EPA.” 

Several communitity leaders have expressed similar concerns with the direction EPA is heading in light of this decision.

Yesterdays decision made Obama’s EPA look like they are choosing a “business as usual” approach to permitting in 2010, using Bush era laws that are inadequate at addressing the disastrous impacts of mountaintop removal under the Clean Water Act.  Where’s the “change we can believe in” in that approach?

Maybe I am just too cynical because I live in the beltway, but I know one thing, this decision has only given the movement against mountaintop removal more reason to kick into high gear this new year. Get ready…

The group, Philadelphia Coalition Against Coal, was demanding that the EPA reject all new permits for mountaintop removal as well as intervene to stop the blasting on Coal River Mountain. They even mocked up a few example citations to illustrate to EPA what they should be doing.

After a few hours of flyering the employees and others passing by, Jeff Lapp, EPA staff in the Watershed division came down to speak with the youth.  Read more about their conversation here

You will recall that the EPA is holding 79 permits for “enhanced review”, and of those 23 fall within the Region 3 jurisdiction. Lapp was able to clarify the status of these permits and invited the group to sit down and meet with him to discuss their concerns. The group happily accepted this offer and gave him a letter they had prepared as well as the mock citations.

The group also demanded that the EPA intervene to stop blasting on Coal River Mountain which has been the target of much recent grassroots pressure.

UPDATE: Late in the day Friday, EPA sent a letter to the operator of this mine, Marfork Coal (Massey Energy subsidiary) demanding answers to some very tough questions. Read Dana’s blog for more on the letter.

Stay tuned for a report back from their meeting, the Region 3 office includes West Virginia and Virginia, so its a critical decision-maker on the future of MTR operations in these states.

The activists were demanding that Ms.Jackson end blasting on Coal River Mountain in Coal River, WV. The mountain is the site of a campaign by local residents for a commercial-scale wind farm. A wind resources assessment and economic study commissioned by the group Coal River Mountain Watch in 2008 revealed that Coal River Mountain has enough wind potential to provide electricity for over 85,000 homes.

Instead, the EPA has allowed Massey Energy, one of the largest coal producers in the country, to begin blasting at Coal River Mountain as part of mountaintop removal mining excavation. The blasting is occurring near the Brushy Fork impoundment, the largest slurry dam in Appalachia. Critics of mountaintop removal argue that an estimated 1,000 lives are at risk if the dam at Brushy Fork were to fail. Last December, a containment pond in Kingston, Tennessee burst, flooding the area with over one billion gallons of coal ash sludge, producing the largest environmental disaster in United States history.

Attendees to the APHA’s annual meeting were given flyers on their way into the opening session urging them to “Tell Lisa Jackson: Save Coal River Mountain.” Ms. Jackson and the EPA have been the targets of a campaign by a coalition of environmental groups working to end mountaintop removal for several months.

In response to this announcement, concerned DC residents went to the EPA headquarters to show their support for this decision, but to also remind the EPA that much more needs to be done to abolish mountaintop removal. Many passersby stopped to learn more about the issue and many of whom work within the Agency noticed our presence. Employees were even opening their windows to lean out and ask what we were up to.

While this decision was an important one, many coalfield residents and organizers like myself, question whether this announcement will hold its course. In a post by Jeff Biggers in the Nation entitled “Coalfield Uprising“, he explains how this decision has only strengthened activists resolve.

 “While we appreciate the EPA making this step to bring back enforcement of the Clean Water Act,” says Lorelei Scarbro, an organizer with Coal River Mountain Watch and a coal miner’s widow whose garden and hillside orchards border a proposed mountaintop removal site in West Virginia, “we will continue to come to Washington, DC, until mountaintop removal’s irreversible devastation to our communities and waterways is halted.”

It is hard for those who live under active blasting to see this as a sign of hope, as I mentioned before, this decision does nothing to address the destruction that is taking place daily throughout West Virginia, Eastern Kentucky, Tennesee and Virginia.

Earlier this spring, Bo Webb, a coal miner’s son and Vietnam veteran sent an open letter to Obama in which he wrote “My family and I, like many American citizens in Appalachia, are living in a state of terror. Like sitting ducks waiting to be buried in an avalanche of mountain waste, or crushed by a falling boulder, we are trapped in a war zone within our own country.”

In response to the EPA’s decision Teri Blanton of Kentuckians for the Commonwealth remarked, “This is great news, but it will take more than regulations to end the destruction. Mountaintop removal and valley fills should be banned.”

 EPA has the authority to veto the permits, but only time will tell if they will use the full extent of their oversight to block this destructive practice and put an end to Mountaintop removal once and for all.

Today the EPA made another important step forward in protecting the communities of Appalachia from the disastrous impacts of mountaintop removal mining. Under a process called “Enhanced Coordination Procedures” the EPA has put a temporary hold on 79 permits, which will now undergo further review before their fate is determined.

So did the EPA stop any MTR permits today? No, and Ken Ward gives a good explanation on his blog:

“But as the EPA statement said, EPA officials have determined that all 79 of these permits as they are currently proposed would not comply with the Clean Water Act. EPA is not denying the permits (though under some circumstances, EPA has the authority to override Corps of Engineers decisions to issue permits). Instead, EPA is saying that all 79 of these permits need to be more closely reviewed and perhaps changed so that they would comply with the law.”

You can read more about the Obama administration’s “enhanced coordination procedures” for reviewing these permits on EPA’s Web site here.  The list of 79 permits is here.

So what now you ask? Well we watch with extreme scrutiny during the next 2 months as the permits go under review. Last week during the finalization of this list I went out with other RAN activists and flyered the EPA office in DC during employees lunch break. We spoke with hundreds of employees, many of whom commented that they work on this issue. Its important that they know we are watching.

I’ll keep you updated and if you are ever in the DC area come down to the East Building of the EPA Headquarters at the corner of 12th and Constitution. You’ll likely find me there, with a tireless team of activists until mountaintop removal is ended once and for all.