The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has exercised its authority and blocked the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers from issuing a valley fill permit to Central Appalachian Mining (CAM) LLC in Pike County. The unusual action came as the Corps was preparing to issue the permit as soon as it got some paperwork back from CAM with a $100 permit fee.

Will the indiscriminate dumping of mining wastes into valley and streams be brought under control by the Obama administration?

In a letter to the Corps, EPA said it was taking over the permitting process for this particular valley fill permit because it believed the valley fill would cause an "unacceptable adverse impact" on water quality. CAM wanted the permit to allow it to bury 3.5 miles of stream and valley. The Corps maintains a position that valley fills do not cause significant environmental harm.

This permit for CAM was one of the two specific pending permits that the EPA expressed concern about a couple of weeks ago when it announced that it was going to start applying water quality laws to the issuance of valley fills permits, and base decisions on science.  It said it would use its oversight authority over the Corps regarding water issues and review the permits.

But apparently the Corps got tired of waiting for the EPA to conduct it review, Charleston Gazette reporter Ken Ward reported today. On Monday the Corps went ahead and sent the permit to CAM for the company to sign and return with a fee.

You can read the EPA's first letter to the Corps here and this week's letter taking over the permit process here.

The EPA did not say it was denying the permit. Agency officials have been careful in their language saying they want to make sure the mining activity does not harm water quality. In fact, this week's letter states:

EPA feels that additional measures may be available to reduce the impact of this proposal, and that all alternatives should be exhausted to ensure that this proposal does not result in an unacceptable adverse impact, either individually or cumulatively, on the aquatic environment.

East Kentucky Power Cooperative (EKPC) wants to build a new coal-burning power plant in Kentucky. If you are a member of a rural electric co-op served by EKPC (those in the eastern, northern and central parts of the state) then this may be of particular interest to you. Because although this new plant is not necessary to make sure you have the electricity you need, EKPC will want you to pay for it.

New coal-burning plants, even those with up-to-date pollution controls, still are major polluters. So if you live in central Kentucky and prefer to breathe clean air, then this new plant may be of particular interest to you, too.

And since the new plant would burn coal if it is allowed to be built, that means more mountaintop removal, more buried streams, and continued dependence on fossil fuels when we could have made better choices. That should be of particular concern to you if you live anywhere in Kentucky.

KFTC is part of a growing campaign to stop EKPC’s Smith 1 coal-burning power plant.  We invite you to find out more about the proposed plant, what it would mean for you as a co-op customer or as a Kentucky resident, and how you can be involved in the campaign.

This “Armchair Seminar” will take place at 7:30 p.m. EDT tonight (Tuesday, April 28). To get on the call, a couple of minutes before 7:30 p.m. EDT dial 1-800-868-1837 and enter the Conference Code: 88347983#. You’ll hear a brief, informative presentation about the effort to stop the Smith power plant and ways you can get involved. There will be time for questions at the end of the call. We’ll also share resources you can use to talk with others in your community about this issue.

We’ve also prepared a helpful slide presentation that you can view during the armchair seminar. These slides are available on our web site at www.kftc.org or here. You will be able to access the slide show in several formats that are designed to work well for either high speed or dial-up internet service.

Please contact Sara Pennington at 606-276-9933 or sara@kftc.org with any questions.

Whether or not you plan to join us on this call, please sign-up here to learn more about this campaign and ways you can take action.

Coalfield residents are applauding an announcement today by the U.S. Department of Interior that it will attempt to vacate a last-minute Bush administration rule change that encouraged coal companies to dispose of their waste in streams.

The Stream Buffer Zone (SBZ) rule had been in place since 1983 and prohibited the impacts of coal mining from coming within 100 feet of a stream. But the change pushed through in December by the outgoing administration eliminated those controls if companies mined in the stream.

"It's a great day for the fragile ecosystem of the Appalachians as well as the quality of life for the people who live here," said Todd Bailey, a resident of Hueysville in Floyd County and member of Kentuckians For The Commonwealth.

Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar said that he has determined the Bush administration action to be “legally defective” and would direct the Justice Department to ask the U.S. District Court to vacate the rule due to this deficiency.

“We must responsibly develop our coal supplies to help us achieve energy independence, but we cannot do so without appropriately assessing the impact such development might have on local communities and natural habitat and the species it support,” Salazar said.

“We hope that this announcement leads to the full and fair enforcement of the law,” a statement issued by KFTC read, calling this an important first step. “It’s not too much to ask that a law in place since 1983 be enforced.”

Elmer Lloyd of Cumberland (Harlan County) also welcomed the announcement — if there will be enforcement behind it.

"This is a very good thing. They sure need some laws on the books where they can control this a little better,” said Lloyd who had a private pond destroyed because of the dumping of mining waste behind his home. “If they get the inspectors to follow up on it they might save a little of this country. It shouldn’t be hard to do something right."

KFTC said that it was encouraged that four of Kentucky’s elected leaders — Gov. Steve Beshear, U.S. Reps. Ben Chandler and John Yarmuth, and Attorney General Jack Conway — took the bold step last fall of publicly opposing the Bush administration proposal to weaken the stream buffer zone.

As expected, the coal industry predicted all manner of dire consequences if they are made to obey the law. State Rep. Hubert Collins told the Lexington Herald-Leader that the action would raise the price of coal and spell economic disaster in Eastern Kentucky.

At least 1,400 miles of Kentucky streams and 35,000 acres of diverse hardwood forest have been destroyed of severely damaged from valley fills resulting from mountaintop removal and the failure of state and federal agencies to enforce the stream buffer zone and other mining laws.

Salazar said his agency intends to gather public comment "on how we can update and improve the Reagan-era rule. It is important that we ensure that SMCRA [Surface Mine Control and Reclamation Act] requirements are coordinated with Clean Water Act obligations that are administered by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and the Environmental Protection Agency."

“There is hope and optimism in the mountains and beyond today,” said Pam Maggard, a Knott County KFTC member. “Secretary Salazar has taken a first step to restore, to protect, and to enforce the stream buffer zone.”

Background and Media Coverage

• Charleston Gazette: Obama plans for mountaintop removal buffer rule unclear
• Lexington Herald-Leader:  Obama plans to reverse Bush rule on mountaintop removal
• The Washington Post: Salazar Seeks to Vacate Bush-Era Mining Rule
• Reuters: U.S. seeks to end Bush mountaintop coal mining rule
• WYMT-TV News: Possible Rule Reversal on Surface Mining
  
• Department of Interior announcement
• Secretary Salazar Remarks on Mountaintop Mining Rule

Appalachian historian and scholar Dr. Ron Eller said that eastern Kentucky will be better off when surface coal mining, including mountaintop removal, is ended.

Eller pointed out that surface mining is not necessary to the coal industry, "it's just cheaper," and not compatible with clean water, clean air and the region's growing adventure tourism industry. A regional, home-grown economy not dependent on extractive industries would better serve the  coalfields, and governments can help by fostering entrepreneurship.

"Central Appalachia will never develop a viable tourism economy until the destruction of the mountains ceases ..." Eller cited as an example, as quoted by the Lexington Herald-Leader.

Eller made his remarks at a speech in Hazard at the East Kentucky Leadership Conference where he received the "Private Individual Award" and was the keynote speaker.

He currently teaches history at the University of Kentucky and is the former director of the Appalachian Center there. Of his many books and publications, his most recent, Uneven Ground — Appalachia Since 1945 was published last year by the University Press of Kentucky.

Eller is a descendant of eight generations of families from Appalachia. His work during the 1960's War on Poverty prompted him to look deeper into why a region blessed with many resources was forced to deal with so many problems.

“The conditions that created the economic inequalities in the mountains have less to do with our culture than they do with the structural problems that have shaped the history of the region over time,” Eller said in a report on WYMT-TV News that aired before his speech this evening.

A long-time member and supporter of KFTC, Eller  participated in KFTC's second mountaintop removal tour for Kentucky authors in October 2005. At his suggestion, a statement that the group of authors issued condemning mountaintop removal also called for an end to all surface mining.

He told reporters that he hopes Appalachian people never lose their connection to the land, or pride in their heritage.

“I hope that the work I've been able to do brings value to that — that we can find alternative ways to change, to address the problems that we have in health care and education, make a meaningful life in the mountains; that the mountains are not just a place to be abused and left and move on, that there's value there.”

More action in North Carolina today as a committee of the state legislature heard testimony on the Appalachian Mountain Preservation Act — legislation that would prevent North Carolina utilities from buying coal that had been extracted by mountaintop removal.

There was a short hearing of scheduled testimony before the NC House Environment and Natural Resources Committee, chaired by Rep. Lucy Allen. Lora Smith was there and reports:

"On the opponents side representatives from Progress Energy and Duke Power speculated on what the bill would do to the North Carolina economy warning that if passed, no new businesses would ever, ever come to the state again.  On the proponents side, Ann League of Tennessee's Save Our Cumberland Mountains (SOCM) and Matt Wasson of Appalachian Voices presented on the environmental and human costs of mountaintop removal mined coal and presented data on how little switching to entirely deep mined coal would cost North Carolina utilities in lieu of buying half of their coal from Mountaintop Removal operations."

There was a big showing of coal officials from Kentucky, West Virginia and Tennessee — including Kentucky Coal Association President Bill Caylor — there apparently expecting to testify, even though they were not invited or on the schedule.  Lora reports that Rep. Allen held her ground and didn't allow the committee to be bullied by these "special" visitors.

"However, the big coal lobbyists did get in a few comments at the end with some pretty ridiculous and outright false statements — as in telling the committee that underground mines created valley fills as large as those created by mountaintop removal."

Overall the hearing went well, though there was no vote in the committee today.

Groups in North Carolina (see stopcliffside.org) that planned the protest invited organizations working on stopping mountaintop removal mining in central Appalachia because North Carolina burns the second most mountaintop removal coal in the country behind Georgia. We are thankful to the groups planning the protest for helping to make the connection between mountaintop removal coal mining and global warming.

"In my first 50 years, I laid back and I thought you could write letters to congressmen and I thought you could write letters to your state legislators and get things done, well I’ve done that, and in my next 50 years, I’m going to take action, action is what it’s all about," said KFTC member Mickey McCoy of Martin County.

Representatives from Duke Energy claim that this new coal burning  plant will allow an older and dirtier plant to shut down. Even if the new coal burner produces less SoX and NoX, and less mercury, there are still no plans to reduce the CO2 emissions. And it's really rate payers across the country who should be demanding energy companies move away from coal because as soon as carbon cap legislation is passed on the federal level, the price of electricity from coal will skyrocket. This is not a transitional fuel, this is a step backwards.

Anyway, you can read all about the protest and even watch KFTC members being put in handcuffs by referencing the media stories below.

Video clips:

• http://www.news14.com/content/top_stories/608047/group-protests-planned-duke-energy-plant/Default.aspx
  
• http://www.charlotteobserver.com/420/index.html?media_id=3846343
• http://www.wcnc.com/news/topstories/stories/wcnc-042009-al-duke_rally.f23ce157.html
• http://www.wsoctv.com/news/19228315/detail.html#-
  

• http://www.wbtv.com/global/story.asp?s=10214781
• http://www.wral.com/news/state/story/4988772/
• http://www.wlos.com/template/inews_wire/wires.regional.nc/3eb69633-www.wlos.com.shtml

• http://www.stopcliffside.org/e107_plugins/my_gallery/my_gallery.php?gallery=Gallery/action/rally
• http://www.charlotteobserver.com/galleries/gallery/675641.html
  

Levon Baker was a Knott county KFTC member from up on the Right Fork of Beaver. He worked for many years as a deep mine engineer for Southeast Coal Co. He's been a KFTC member for the last 5-6 years. He became involved with KFTC when CONSOL opened up a deep mine and created a big valley fill on his property without his permission.

He liked to say, "I've sat on both sides of the table, with the coal company and with the citizens and I can tell you this; when a new law is created, the coal companies don't try to figure out how to comply with the law, they always try to figure out how to get around the laws."

I'll miss Levon, he had the strength and the courage to stand-up in front of hundreds of miners, many of them he knew, at the Hazard hearing on Mountaintop Removal and tell them that what we are doing to the land and the people is wrong. I remember riding home with him in the car and he told me, "The truth is fifty percent of the men in that room agree with me. And another twenty five percent will agree with me on their ride home. And the last twenty five percent just never will agree with me."

Levon had been suffering for many years with complications from black lung. He passed away over the weekend from a heart attack.

The funeral will be in Hindman at the Nelson Frazier funeral home Tuesday April 20th at 11:00 AM.

If you have other stories you would like to share about Levon please post them in the comments.

More than 40 people turned out in Berea on Friday for a Madison County KFTC Chapter event with a national energy efficiency expert who implemented numerous successful energy efficiency programs for utility companies.  In the presentation, “Making the business and ethical case for energy efficiency,” Mr. Cannon talked about how energy efficiency programs are good for utility companies from a business and economic stand-point.  

“The savings are real and persistent if the programs are designed and implemented well,” Mr. Cannon said.  “And there is no reduction or shift in customer value, comfort or output.”  He went on to talk about how the programs can save customers 10%, 20%, and 30% off their energy bills and only cost 2 to 3 cents per kWh.

Mr. Cannon’s audience included KFTC members, other members of the local community, and several local public officials including the mayor, city council members, and utility advisory board members.  The event was cosponsored with Sustainable Berea, Kentucky Environmental Foundation, and the League of Women Voters of Berea & Madison County.

During a 30 year career in municipal utilities, Glenn served as chair of the Board for the American Public Power Association and for 17 years, as General Manager of Waverly Light & Power, a small town utility just about the size of Berea’s.  Mr. Cannon has long been an effective champion of energy efficiency and renewable energy and currently serves on the Leadership Group of the Joint EPA & DOE Energy Efficiency Action Plan.  He spook about energy-efficiency programs designed by Waverly Light &Power that have resulted in less electricity use, savings for the town and its residents, and a strengthened local economy.  

Maria Gunnoe — a West Virginia woman whose family life has been disrupted and property severely damaged by mountaintop removal — was just named the 2009 North American winner of the prestigious Goldman Award.

Instead of just accepting the coal company's assault and explanation that a flood of toxic coal sludge that covered her property was "an act of God," Maria has fought back both to hold the coal company accountable and to protect citizens in coalfields everywhere from similar abuses.

A statement released Sunday by the Goldman Prize read:

"In the heart of Appalachia, where the coal industry wields enormous power over government and public opinion, lifelong resident Maria Gunnoe fights against environmentally devastating mountaintop removal mining and valley fill operations."

Read more about Maria and her work with the Ohio Valley Environmental Coalition on the Goldman Prize web site and the OVEC web site.

The Goldman Award is considered to be the Nobel Prize for the environmental movement. One individual in each of the world's six continental areas is named as a recipient each year for the prize, which includes a $150,000 award.

In 2006, Craig Williams, a founder of the of the Chemical Weapons Working Group in Berea, received the award. In 2003, Judy Bonds, also fighting against the devastation of mountaintop removal with the Coal River Mountain watch, was the North American recipient.

Maria is known to many KFTC members, and heartfelt congratulations goes to Maria and her family for this honor. KFTC also is appreciative to the Goldman Prize for again recognizing the struggle to stop mountaintop removal and coal company abuses as one of the most important environmental and social justice campaigns in the world.

You can view some aerial photos of mining above Maria's home here.

Story in the Charleston Gazette.

Story in USA Today.