Appalachian groups, citizens head to Washington to advocate for protection from mountaintop removal

[theHandpuppet]

The State Journal (WV)
Appalachian groups, citizens head to Washington to advocate for protection from mountaintop removal mining
Posted: Sep 08, 2014
By Sarah Tincher, Energy Reporter

Several groups and citizens hailing from Appalachia, in coordination with The Alliance for Appalachia, will be gathering in Washington, D.C. Sept. 8-9 to meet with government officials and advocate for the protection of their communities from the environmental and community impacts of mountaintop removal coal mining.

In the meeting, which will include officials from agencies including the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and the Council on Environmental Quality, the groups will primarily address the Obama administration's “promises in regards to the destructive practice,” the Alliance said in a statement. Seeking more permanent protections and concrete commitments for what the agencies can accomplish by the end of 2016, citizens will present the agencies with a two-year timeline demonstrating their goals for the remainder of the Obama administration.

The aim of the meeting, according to the statement, is to work with the Obama administration to protect Appalachian residents' health, access to clean and safe drinking water and air, and to encourage long-term economic sustainability that promotes the heritage and beauty of this important region.

“Five years ago, the Obama administration made a promise to take measures to protect the people, waters and mountains of Appalachia from the dangerous impacts of mountaintop removal mining,” said Patrick Morales of The Alliance for Appalachia and Tennessee group Statewide Organizing for Community empowerment. “But mountaintop removal coal mining is still happening, people are still living without clean water, and states are still flagrantly violating the law, and refusing to protect citizens from the impacts of water pollution from coal mining.”.... MORE at http://www.statejournal.com/story/26474557/appalachian-groups-citizens-head-to-washington-to-advocate-for-protection-from-mountaintop-removal-mining

[NYC_SKP]

1. Recommended. (nt)

[A Little Weird]

2. I wish someone would listen to them

But I am not hopeful. They say it's about jobs but that's bull. I agree with the statement from the article - “We could employ ten times the number of workers just fixing the toxic pollution mountaintop removal has left behind. We need reinvestment in Appalachia — not just clean energy, but cleaning up the messes left behind by dirty energy.”

[theHandpuppet]

3. UPDATE! Appalachian Residents Rally At The White House

Think Progress
Appalachian Residents Rally At The White House To End Pollution From Mountaintop Removal Mining
by Katie Valentine
Posted on September 9, 2014 at 3:48 pm

Ann League was in the midst of building her “dream home” in the mountains of Tennessee when she found out that a strip mine was going in next door.

“Three months after the mining started on Zeb Mountain, my well water turned bright orange,” Leauge, a member of the Alliance for Appalachia, a group that held a rally in D.C. on Tuesday, told ThinkProgress. “We were lucky enough that we could afford bottled water for drinking and cooking, but we had to use that water for showering and laundry too.”

Ultimately League ended up selling (and losing money on) the house and moving back to Knoxville, even though her neighbors and friends — and as she said, her “heart” — still lived in the mountains. That experience was part of the reason why League started working with Alliance for Appalachia, a group that aims to end mountaintop removal mining in Appalachia and advocates for water pollution policy reforms. Mountaintop removal mining is considered to be the most destructive way of extracting coal — instead of using shafts to reach coal underground, the top of a mountain is blown up to get at the coal underneath. This creates a lot of waste and debris, which easily gets into watersheds. Members of Alliance for Appalachia traveled to Washington, D.C. on Monday to meet with members of the Obama administration about water pollution issues in Appalachia and to attend a rally for clean water in front of the White House Tuesday.

League, one of the members who met with officials from the Environmental Protection Agency and Council on Environmental Quality Monday, told ThinkProgress that the main goal of the meeting was to highlight a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) the Obama administration signed in 2009. The MOU outlined the “unprecedented steps” the administration planned to take regarding mountaintop removal’s pollution of water, including increasing regulation on mountaintop removal mining and requiring stricter environmental reviews for mountaintop mining permits....

MORE at http://thinkprogress.org/climate/2014/09/09/3565111/appalachian-clean-water-rally/