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For release September 3, 2004
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Contact:
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SOCM office
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Cathie Bird
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(865) 426-9455
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(423) 784-7812
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Change of Ownership Not Reassuring to Mine's Neighbors
On September 1 National Coal Corporation announced its plans to buy the rights and permits to mine 7000 acres from Robert Clear Coal Company.
Members of Save Our Cumberland Mountains who have been monitoring Robert Clear Coal's 2000 acre mountaintop removal mine on Zeb Mountain expressed concern about the growing number of permits being amassed by National Coal.
Before Robert Clear began mining on Zeb Mountain Save Our Cumberland Mountains (SOCM), a 30 year old grassroots organization, had expressed concerns that the type of mining method proposed and the steep terrain of the area would lead to problems with stream pollution as well as blasting and truck traffic.
Since mining began in the summer of 2003 the operation has been wracked by violations.
Robert Clear Coal has been issued violations by federal agencies for ignoring permit boundaries and building a sediment pond off of the permit site.
The State of Tennessee issued a Director's order and a fine because of the failure of the company to prevent the mining operation for polluting Dan Branch, one of the streams that leaves the mine site.
"This is a very steep sloped area," explains Charles Blankenship a SOCM member who lives within a quarter mile of the Zeb Mountain mine site.
"One of the problems that contributed to the pollution of Dan Branch was a 1000 foot slide where a haul road broke off and slid down the mountain.
We don't think anybody should be doing mountaintop removal up there.
Just because it is a different company name doesn't make the area any safer to mine."
The mine on Zeb Mountain is the largest mountaintop removal mine in Tennessee. Mountaintop removal is a coal mining practice that blasts apart the peaks of mountains to remove coal.
The mine operators then either attempt to pile mine spoil back up to approximate original shape of a mountain or dump it into the upper portions of adjacent valleys.
"We are very concerned about the spread of mountaintop removal," said Cathie Bird, chair of SOCM's chapter in Campbell county.
"In addition to the mine on Zeb Mountain, the Tennessee Valley Authority is looking at the possibility of up to 12 mountaintop removal operations within the Royal Blue Wildlife Management area.
National Coal Corporation already has bought up the right to mine thousands of acres just west of Royal Blue and now it looks like they are getting into the mountaintop removal business."
According to a statement on their web site National Coal has acquired 70,000 acres in east Tennessee and plans to mine it to a greater extent than has been attempted in the past.
The Tennessee Valley authority owns the coal under the 50,000 acre Royal Blue Wildlife Management. SOCM members are concerned that a coal company and coal burning utility is planning to do surface mining on more than one hundred thousand acres in their neighborhood.
"This latest move by National Coal underscores the need for a stronger state policy of mountaintop removal," said Bird.
"It shows that there is an increasing interest in strip mining in the area."
Last month members of SOCM carried out a huge public awareness campaign about mountaintop removal and water quality.
Volunteers took a bottle of polluted water from Zeb Mountain all the way to the Nashville.
The group is calling on Governor Bredesen to develop a policy that will make Tennesseešs water quality law work to stop the spread of mountaintop removal in the state.
A draft study by four federal agencies that was released last summer found that mountaintop removal has already buried over 700 miles of mountain streams and, if unchecked, will eliminate 2,200 square miles of Appalachian forests.
"When they do mountaintop removal, they blow apart the top of the mountain with explosives and turn the mountains into rubble," explained Ann League, a SOCM member who lives in Elk Valley.
"By design mountaintop removal degrades water quality. When they cut through the tops of mountains they destroy the upper reaches of streams, while storing mine spoil in the tops of hollows buries streams, and disturbance of hundreds of acres generates uncontrollable sediment pollution that chokes streams."
SOCM will continue to monitor mining on Zeb Mountain, and to call for a better policy on Mountaintop Removal.
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