A day after a controversial permit was issued for mountaintop mining in West Virginia, a group of leading environmental scientists is saying the practice has a severe impact on the environment and humans.
The article “Mountaintop Mining Consequences” appears in the Jan. 8, 2010, edition of Science. The internationally recognized group of hydrologists, ecologists, and engineers, which includes several members of the National Academy of Sciences, says the United States should stop issuing mountaintop mining permits.
The Science article argues that peer-reviewed research confirms such mining has irreversible environmental impacts and puts area residents at a high risk of serious health problems.
The Sierra Club environmental group said the article should be taken as a call to action.
“If the Obama administration is serious about science driving policy, then this report should be the nail in the coffin that prompts the administration to issue new Clean Water Act regulations that prohibit the dumping of mining waste into streams,” stated Ed Hopkins, environmental-quality program director at the Sierra Club in a press release.
Mountaintop mining is considered by many environmentalists and scientists to be the most destructive form of coal mining. It involves clearing upper-elevation forests and stripping topsoil before using explosives to break up rocks to expose coal deposits. The process sends rock, sediment, and debris down the mountainside, where it buries and obliterates streams. It is widespread throughout eastern Kentucky, West Virginia, and southwestern Virginia.
The scientists argue the United States should take a global leadership role on the issue, as surface mining in many developing countries is expected to grow in the next 10 years.
“The scientific evidence of the severe environmental and human impacts from mountaintop mining is strong and irrefutable,” states lead author Dr. Margaret Palmer of the University of Maryland Center for Environmental Science and Department of Entomology in the article. “Its impacts are pervasive and long lasting and there is no evidence that any mitigation practices successfully reverse the damage it causes.”
In the article, the authors say severe environmental degradation takes place at mining sites and downstream, including destroying extensive tracts of deciduous forests and burying small streams essential to healthy watersheds. Waterborne contaminants also enter streams below valley fills and can travel great distances to larger bodies of water.
“The chemicals released into streams from valley fills contain a variety of ions and trace metals which are toxic or debilitating for many organisms, which explains why biodiversity is reduced below valley fills,” says Dr. Emily Bernhardt of Duke University, co-author of the report.
Human health impacts include elevated rates of mortality, lung cancer, and chronic heart, lung, and kidney disease.
“Over the last 30 years, there has been a global increase in surface mining, and it is now the dominant driver of land-use change in the Central Appalachian region,” says Dr. Keith Eshleman, also of the University of Maryland Center for Environmental Science. “We now know that surface mining has extraordinary consequences for both aquatic and terrestrial ecosystems. Notwithstanding recent attempts to improve reclamation, the immense scale of mountaintop mining makes it unrealistic to think that true restoration or mitigation is possible with current techniques.”
Based on the evidence and conclusions, the scientists are urging the Environmental Protection Agency and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to stop issuing permits for mountaintop mining until solutions or alternatives can be found.
The University of Maryland Center for Environmental Science is the environmental research institution for the University System of Maryland.
The article “Mountaintop Mining Consequences” appears in the Jan. 8, 2010, edition of Science. The internationally recognized group of hydrologists, ecologists, and engineers, which includes several members of the National Academy of Sciences, says the United States should stop issuing mountaintop mining permits.
The Science article argues that peer-reviewed research confirms such mining has irreversible environmental impacts and puts area residents at a high risk of serious health problems.
The Sierra Club environmental group said the article should be taken as a call to action.
“If the Obama administration is serious about science driving policy, then this report should be the nail in the coffin that prompts the administration to issue new Clean Water Act regulations that prohibit the dumping of mining waste into streams,” stated Ed Hopkins, environmental-quality program director at the Sierra Club in a press release.
Mountaintop mining is considered by many environmentalists and scientists to be the most destructive form of coal mining. It involves clearing upper-elevation forests and stripping topsoil before using explosives to break up rocks to expose coal deposits. The process sends rock, sediment, and debris down the mountainside, where it buries and obliterates streams. It is widespread throughout eastern Kentucky, West Virginia, and southwestern Virginia.
The scientists argue the United States should take a global leadership role on the issue, as surface mining in many developing countries is expected to grow in the next 10 years.
“The scientific evidence of the severe environmental and human impacts from mountaintop mining is strong and irrefutable,” states lead author Dr. Margaret Palmer of the University of Maryland Center for Environmental Science and Department of Entomology in the article. “Its impacts are pervasive and long lasting and there is no evidence that any mitigation practices successfully reverse the damage it causes.”
In the article, the authors say severe environmental degradation takes place at mining sites and downstream, including destroying extensive tracts of deciduous forests and burying small streams essential to healthy watersheds. Waterborne contaminants also enter streams below valley fills and can travel great distances to larger bodies of water.
“The chemicals released into streams from valley fills contain a variety of ions and trace metals which are toxic or debilitating for many organisms, which explains why biodiversity is reduced below valley fills,” says Dr. Emily Bernhardt of Duke University, co-author of the report.
Human health impacts include elevated rates of mortality, lung cancer, and chronic heart, lung, and kidney disease.
“Over the last 30 years, there has been a global increase in surface mining, and it is now the dominant driver of land-use change in the Central Appalachian region,” says Dr. Keith Eshleman, also of the University of Maryland Center for Environmental Science. “We now know that surface mining has extraordinary consequences for both aquatic and terrestrial ecosystems. Notwithstanding recent attempts to improve reclamation, the immense scale of mountaintop mining makes it unrealistic to think that true restoration or mitigation is possible with current techniques.”
Based on the evidence and conclusions, the scientists are urging the Environmental Protection Agency and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to stop issuing permits for mountaintop mining until solutions or alternatives can be found.
The University of Maryland Center for Environmental Science is the environmental research institution for the University System of Maryland.
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