The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers took overdue action last week when it suspended an expedited permitting process for stream dumping of waste from mountaintop mining in Virginia and several other coal-producing states. But more action is needed to end this dreadful method of mining — including harder work toward developing clean forms of energy.
Mountaintop mining is a severe form of strip mining, which the Journal has long opposed. In the 1970s, investigative articles in this newspaper and its former sister paper, the Sentinel, played a leading role in stopping a company’s efforts to introduce strip mining to Northwest North Carolina. Strip mining and mountaintop mining ravage the beauty of mountains and reduce property values. The mining also cripples ecosystems, including watersheds.
Mountaintop mining doesn’t happen in North Carolina, but coal mined using this method produces electricity for many of us.
Last week’s decision doesn’t end the practice of dumping the mining waste into streams, but does bring more public scrutiny to the permitting process. It’s the latest step by the Obama administration to curb mountaintop mining, The Associated Press noted. It’s also another step to tighten oversight of mining in the region. The Gulf Coast oil spill, and recent coal-mining disasters, have painfully driven home the need for better government oversight of industries that threaten the environment.
Mountaintop mining is safer for the workers, who don’t have to tunnel into the earth, risking the chance of explosions and cave-ins. But the practice exposes humans and wildlife around the mines to environmental hazards, including flash floods. Mountaintop mining is brutal on the environment, which is crucial to the region’s tourist industry.
The advocacy group Earthjustice says more action is needed from the Corps on mountaintop mining. “We are relieved that the Army Corps of Engineers is finally taking this permit off the books, in a move that is long overdue, but what the Corps really needs to do is change the Bush administration policy that allows the dumping of mining waste in streams and waterways until they are destroyed and buried completely,” Joan Mulhern, senior legislative counsel for Earthjustice, said in a prepared statement.
Using cleaner forms of energy, such as solar and wind power, and practicing energy conservation, are the long-term solutions for which we must continue to push. The destruction wrought by mountaintop mining will continue until we commit ourselves to this new energy agenda.
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