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The Environmental Protection Agency, in an unusual move, revoked a key permit for one of the largest proposed mountaintop-removal coal-mining projects in Appalachia, drawing cheers from environmentalists and protests from business groups worried their projects could be next.
The decision to revoke the permit for Arch Coal Inc.'s Spruce Mine No. 1 in West Virginia's rural Logan County marks the first time the EPA has withdrawn a water permit for a mining project that had previously been issued.
t's also only the second time in the 39-year history of the federal Clean Water Act that the agency has canceled a water permit for a project of any kind after it was issued...
...
The EPA said Thursday it revoked the permit, issued by the Army Corps of Engineers in 2007, because it concluded new scientific research on mountaintop-removal mining since then indicated the potential harm to streams and watershed areas surrounding the Spruce project could be significant.
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"...the EPA stressed that the permit decision had no implications beyond the Spruce mine..."
Seems this was a specific rejection/cancellation of a permit for a specific area. Not a general edict for an industry. That said, it always does good to flex a little regulatory muscle, especially to an industry that flaunts it's "record" of safety & stewardship.
If you're really concerned about jobs in the abstract, you would advocate a return to traditional, labor-intensive mining. "Mountain top-removal" decreases the number of workers necessary to mine coal, all at stupendous environmental cost. The "jobs" issue is a canard perpetuated by the mining industry to general local support.
If you're really concerned about jobs in the abstract, you would advocate a return to traditional, labor-intensive mining. "Mountain top-removal" decreases the number of workers necessary to mine coal, all at stupendous environmental cost. The "jobs" issue is a canard perpetuated by the mining industry to general local support.
Yeah, choosing mountain-top removal as an activity that must be protected is a bit of a hard sell. If ever there was an activity where environmental concerns should be considered...
Of course, Rand Paul has said that mount-top removal "enhances" the landscape, so perhaps it's just those among us who like mountains with the tops still on them that are seeing things wrong?
The Environmental Protection Agency, in an unusual move, revoked a key permit for one of the largest proposed mountaintop-removal coal-mining projects in Appalachia, drawing cheers from environmentalists and protests from business groups worried their projects could be next.
The decision to revoke the permit for Arch Coal Inc.'s Spruce Mine No. 1 in West Virginia's rural Logan County marks the first time the EPA has withdrawn a water permit for a mining project that had previously been issued.
I don't hate Obama, but economically it's a jerk...
"The plaintiff who began the fight to stop the mine, 70-year-old Jimmy Weekley, told CNN on Thursday that he was elated at the decision.
Weekley sued the government in 1998 for issuing the permit, saying Pigeonroost Hollow, where he lives, would be obliterated by the mine.
"They did the right thing, the EPA did. Thank God for that," Weekley told CNN, whose news crew was interviewing him when he received word of the ruling."
Anyway, good for the EPA for finally heeding the scientific community.
"The litany of problems—both to the environment and human health—caused by a practice that involves blasting the top off a mountain to get at the coal beneath it more easily include: heavy metals, sulfuric acid and other mine contaminants in waterways and drinking-water wells; deformed fish carrying toxic levels of selenium found in 73 of 78 streams affected by mountaintop mining; entire streams filled in by blasted mountain rock; and forests cleared to get at the mountaintop beneath them. "
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