Appalachians Hail EPA's Great Victory for Clean Water Act and Justice

Earlier this morning, I wrote a piece for April Fool's Day, Obama Ends 150-Year War of Strip-Mining in 24 States:
Mountaintop Removal Loses Its Groove.

Well, turns out the second part wasn't an April Fool's joke after
all. EPA administrator Lisa Jackson invoked the rule of science and law
today--and for the first time raised the concern of the health care
crisis in the coalfields from mountaintop removal.

The EPA administrator announced a major decision today to clamp down on Clean Water
Act violations from mountaintop removal mining--yes, the EPA
administrator actually used the words "mountaintop removal" and not
"mountaintop mining" in the press conference today--and effectively
bring an end to the process of valley fills (and the dumping of toxic
coal mining waste into the valleys and waterways).

Citing new EPA studies that conclusively demonstrate that "burial of
headwater streams by valley fills causes permanent loss of ecosystems,"
the EPA issued new conductivity levels "to protect 95% of aquatic life
and fresh water streams in central Appalachia."

In responding to this benchmark set on measuring conductivity levels
from mining discharges to streams and waterways, Jackson declared in the
question and answers with journalists: "No or very few valley fills
that are going to be able to meet standards like this."

In the words of 95-year-old Ken Hechler, the former West Virginia
congressman who introduced the first bill in Congress to stop
mountaintop removal and strip-mining in 1971, "This is a great victory
for the Clean Water Act and justice."

In 1971, Hechler testified in a House committee: "Representing the
largest coal-producing state in the nation, I can testify that
strip-mining has ripped the guts out of our mountains, polluted our
streams with acid and silt, uprooted trees and forests, devastated the
land, seriously destroyed wildlife habitat, left miles of ugly
highwalls, ruined the water supply in many areas, and left a trail of
utter despair for many honest and hard-working people."

Forty years later, with over 500 mountains and 1.2 million acres of
hardwood forests decimated and blown to bits, with more than 2,000 miles
of streams and waterways jammed with toxic coal waste, and untold
thousands of American forcefully removed from their historic
communities, the nightmare of mountaintop removal appears to be coming
to the end of a long and tortuous road of regulations.

Lorelei Scarbro, a
Coal River Mountain Watch community organizer and resident in West
Virginia, declared: "We are so thankful that the EPA is basing their
decision on science, environmental justice and the health and welfare of
coalfield residents. This is a biggy. This is the beginning of the
end for valley fills and mountaintop removal. We are not leaving our
mountains."

The beginning of the end of mountaintop removal. Let's hope.

Sys Vivian Stockman with the Ohio Valley Environmental Coalition:
"The EPA's new guidance on stream conductivity and the emphasis on the
latest scientific reports show that at least this one government agency
is finally listening to scientists, too. While there is much good news
for us today, we wonder -- will this help save the community of Twilight
in Boone County and so many other communities that are in the
mountaintop removal cross hairs? So much depends on how all the
guidelines and laws are enforced."

Meanwhile, Appalachian Voices legislative aide JW Randolph adds: "It
is in that vein that we expect Congress to follow the Obama
Administration's lead by passing legislation that will permanently
protect our homes and communities from mining waste. The Clean Water
Protection Act (H.R. 1310) currently has 167 bipartisan cosponsors in
the House of Representatives, and the Appalachia Restoration act (S.
696) has 10 bipartisan cosponsors in the Senate. Change in Appalachia
is now inevitable, and the time for Congress to pass this legislation is
now!"

And while the 150-year strip-mining war continues in 20 other
states, this is a beautiful and historic moment to celebrate on behalf
of human rights and environmental justice in the Appalachian coalfields.