Activists will march on Washington to end mountaintop removal
Activists working to end to mountaintop removal coal mining will gather in Washington, D.C. from Sept. 25 to 27 for Appalachia Rising -- a weekend conference followed by a Monday rally and march to the White House where hundreds are expected to get arrested committing acts of nonviolent civil disobedience.
The organizers are calling on the Obama administration to put an end to the controversial mining technique, which entails blowing off the tops of mountains to reach the coal seams below while dumping the resulting waste in the valley streams. The practice causes serious environmental problems, including water pollution and damage to human and ecological health.
"Mountaintop removal threatens real human lives, communities, and local economies in Appalachia, but our state regulators and politicians have turned their back on us," said Vernon Haltom of West Virginia's Coal River Mountain Watch. "The federal government has only taken half measures and tentative steps. We are going to Washington, D.C. to demand justice for the people and to let them know that we are not merely expendable populations."
Besides calling for an end to mountaintop removal and surface mining in general, the activists are asking the president to put an immediate end to one specific project: Arch Coal's proposed Spruce 1 coal mine in West Virginia's Pigeonroost Hollow.
The Army Corps of Engineers permitted the Spruce 1 operation in 2007, but the Environmental Protection Agency under Obama has threatened to stop or scale back the project, which it fears would permanently damage streams and wildlife while violating the Clean Water Act. The decision, expected to come later this year, is widely regarded as a bellwether for mountaintop removal's future.
So far, the Obama administration has sent mixed messages on mountaintop removal. In March 2009 Obama's EPA slowed two mining permits that the Army Corps had issued for West Virginia and Kentucky, citing concern about their impact on streams. The move called into question more than 100 pending valley fills, leading to widespread protest from the mining industry.
EPA went on to raise concerns about other mountaintop removal permits and toughened its standards for issuing such permits in the first place -- but its first decision under those new guidelines was to approve a mountaintop removal mining permit for Logan County, W.Va. That controversial decision was issued back in June, the same month Appalachia Rising was announced.
This weekend's conference, billed as "Voices From the Mountains," is expected to draw citizens from West Virginia, Virginia, Kentucky and Tennessee to talk about their experiences being directly impacted by mountaintop removal. Also attending will be leaders from the faith, scientific and environmental communities as well as celebrities including country music star Big Kenny, who recently traveled to a mountaintop removal site in West Virginia where he wrote and performed a song called "Contaminate."
"I don't want to make Obama the bad guy, but he's got to make the right choice," said protest organizer Bo Webb of West Virginia. "There's nothing I'd like more than to be in front of the White House on the Appalachia Rising Day of Action and hear him announce from the Rose Garden, 'In a step towards building a clean energy economy, my administration is putting a moratorium on all new and active surface mining permits in Appalachia."
The organizers are calling on the Obama administration to put an end to the controversial mining technique, which entails blowing off the tops of mountains to reach the coal seams below while dumping the resulting waste in the valley streams. The practice causes serious environmental problems, including water pollution and damage to human and ecological health.
"Mountaintop removal threatens real human lives, communities, and local economies in Appalachia, but our state regulators and politicians have turned their back on us," said Vernon Haltom of West Virginia's Coal River Mountain Watch. "The federal government has only taken half measures and tentative steps. We are going to Washington, D.C. to demand justice for the people and to let them know that we are not merely expendable populations."
Besides calling for an end to mountaintop removal and surface mining in general, the activists are asking the president to put an immediate end to one specific project: Arch Coal's proposed Spruce 1 coal mine in West Virginia's Pigeonroost Hollow.
The Army Corps of Engineers permitted the Spruce 1 operation in 2007, but the Environmental Protection Agency under Obama has threatened to stop or scale back the project, which it fears would permanently damage streams and wildlife while violating the Clean Water Act. The decision, expected to come later this year, is widely regarded as a bellwether for mountaintop removal's future.
So far, the Obama administration has sent mixed messages on mountaintop removal. In March 2009 Obama's EPA slowed two mining permits that the Army Corps had issued for West Virginia and Kentucky, citing concern about their impact on streams. The move called into question more than 100 pending valley fills, leading to widespread protest from the mining industry.
EPA went on to raise concerns about other mountaintop removal permits and toughened its standards for issuing such permits in the first place -- but its first decision under those new guidelines was to approve a mountaintop removal mining permit for Logan County, W.Va. That controversial decision was issued back in June, the same month Appalachia Rising was announced.
This weekend's conference, billed as "Voices From the Mountains," is expected to draw citizens from West Virginia, Virginia, Kentucky and Tennessee to talk about their experiences being directly impacted by mountaintop removal. Also attending will be leaders from the faith, scientific and environmental communities as well as celebrities including country music star Big Kenny, who recently traveled to a mountaintop removal site in West Virginia where he wrote and performed a song called "Contaminate."
"I don't want to make Obama the bad guy, but he's got to make the right choice," said protest organizer Bo Webb of West Virginia. "There's nothing I'd like more than to be in front of the White House on the Appalachia Rising Day of Action and hear him announce from the Rose Garden, 'In a step towards building a clean energy economy, my administration is putting a moratorium on all new and active surface mining permits in Appalachia."
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Sue Sturgis
Sue is the editorial director of Facing South and the Institute for Southern Studies.