This news story originally provided by The Intellingencer

February 22, 2006

W.Va. Pays Price of Mining

By BETHANY A. ROMANEK Staff Writer

WHEELING — While mining is a way of life in West Virginia and Ohio, it’s no secret it comes at a high cost.

Benjamin Stout, Wheeling Jesuit University professor of Biology who also works on the Coal Impoundment Project with the university’s National Technology Transfer Center, said that many older mines, particularly deep mines, have created acid mine drainage.

“Impacts on streams come from longwall mines,” said Stout. “Planned subsidence causes streams to sink.”

But what’s it going to take to protect the environment during the current energy boom, when older mines are reopening with new technology?

Education is the key to this problem, according to Stout and others in the environmental field, as mine operators need to understand the impact their work is having on the environment. Also, companies that surface mine need to reclaim the land, a practice that is common but still needs to be stressed.

But even with education and reclamation, problems remain.

Stout said that in some areas, subsidence drains up to 50 percent of headwater streams.

Stout also said that the mountaintop removal method of coal mining is the most devastating form. This method involves removing the tops of mountains to get to the buried coal seams, and then using the mountaintops to fill the valleys in between the mountains.

“Mountaintop removal dumps bury streams,” he said. “At least 1,200 miles of streams have been buried in West Virginia, and there’s another 100 miles or so getting the ax.”

Burying streams results in the “complete annihilation of ecosystems,” and “breaks the link in the chain” between the forest ecosystem, the streams and the river, according to Stout. Insects and bacteria in streams break down organic matter from the forest, which flows downstream to form the foundation of the river ecosystem.

But biological disruption is the least of concerns with valley-fill mining. Because the dumps bury watersheds, there is an increased flooding risk. Stout said the only definitive study on the flooding risk of valley-fill dumps — published by the U.S. Geological Survey — showed that up to 60 percent more rain water flowed off filled valleys than those left untouched. Stout said that coal industry authorities claim that there is a “sponge effect” that soaks up water and reduces run-off from mountaintop removal dumps, but he said that the USGS study refutes that claim.

Aside from flooding dangers, the fill-in valleys leach poisonous heavy metals into the water supply, metals like aluminum, manganese and selenium. Selenium is particularly dangerous because it bio-accumulates, meaning concentrations in prey are passed on to predator through the meat. In high enough concentrations, all these metals are poisonous to humans.

“It’s hard to get this stuff out in the public treatment of water supplies,” Stout said.

“At some point, there’s a human health concern.”

The Ohio Valley Environmental Coalition, formed in 1987, is a non-profit organization with a mission to “organize and maintain a diverse grassroots organization dedicated to the improvement and preservation of the environment through education, grassroots organizing and coalition building, leadership development and media outreach.”

The group’s work encompasses much of West Virginia and portions of southern Ohio and eastern Kentucky.

“Our group focuses on a form of strip mining known as mountaintop removal,” said Vivian Stockman, Ohio Valley Environmental Coalition project coordinator. “It is hazard on mines and miners working on mountain top removals and dangerous for those living downstream from the mountain top.”

According to the coalition, traditional coal mining in the form of deep mining remains a source of long-standing environmental problems such as acid mine drainage, refuse dams, erosion, unstable soil, land subsidence, and dust. About two-thirds of West Virginia coal production is from coal mines underground.

Stockman said that government studies also show mountaintop removal and associated deforestation exacerbates flooding.

“State studies and common sense will tell you deforested areas will not hold water as well as forests do,” Stockman continued. “The national forests in West Virginia were established for flood control and this is a fact. Mountain top removal makes flooding worse and that is what we are saying.”