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CROSS RIDGE MINING AND
MOUNTAIN TOP REMOVAL:
You have probably heard of Mountain Top Removal (MTR).
This is the mining which has devastated areas in southern West Virginia and northeast Kentucky.
But have you ever heard of Cross Ridge Mining?
There is a new form of Mountain Top Removal which is spreading in Tennessee: Cross Ridge Mining! Like Mountain Top Removal, Cross Ridge Mining operations will mine through an entire mountain peak and remove an entire seam of coal.
But unlike MTR operations, these Cross Ridge Mines will not get a "variance from AOC"
because instead of leaving the mountain flat,
they propose to remove the mountain and then PUT IT BACK AGAIN!
Since 2003, permits have been issued to remove the tops of four mountains in Tennessee.
There are 8 more mountains that can be destroyed, depending on the outcome of a study TVA is doing on whether to mine the coal it owns under the Royal Blue Wildlife Management Area.
The Strip Mine Committee is currently working to stop Mountaintop Removal from spreading in Tennessee.
In March 2006 SOCM's Strip Mine
Committee, along with the Campbell-Anderson Chapter and the Sierra Environmental
Justice Program, sponsored a tour of areas that are currently being mined.
Participants were leaders of the faith based communities in the affected areas.
In 2006, a request by TN Governor Bredeson to revise the 1985 Environmental Impact Statement on mining was rejected by
the federal Office of Surface Mining (OSM).
Removing a mountain top has an impact on water.
When SOCM submitted a policy proposal to TDEC outlining why
Tennessee's water quality law should prohibit mountain top removal,
TDEC's Deputy Commissioner Paul Sloan responded, "..We believe that most situations in which adverse impacts occur (are) because of permit violations."
However, recent pollution of Dan Branch on Zeb Mountain and consistent
failure to enforce existing regulations make it clear TDEC is not enforcing the law.
We want the Governor to use Tennessee's Water Quality Law to prevent
mountaintop removal from spreading across east Tennessee. We also want Governor Bredesen to stand up to the Tennessee Valley Authority
and request that they not allow surface mining on the Tennessee's 53,000
acre Wildlife Management Area at Royal Blue. Royal Blue is a popular
hunting and outdoor recreation area. Strip mining and mountaintop removal
could put almost a quarter of this area off limits to hunting, four
wheeling, fishing, and hiking.
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ABOVE: SOCM members hold an on site news conference to urge Congress to provide more funds to Tennessee for abandoned mine clean up work
The Stripmine Committee sent Ann League of the Campbell-Anderson chapter and
Lauren McGrath of the SOCM staff to Washington last September to lobby for
the Clean Water Protection Act (CWPA). When coal mining companies utilize
explosives to remove layers of mountain in order to access the coal seams,
the explosions create “overburden” or “fill”. Due to an executive rule
change by the Bush Administration, this “fill” is not considered waste and
it can be dumped into adjacent watersheds and streams. The Clean Water
Protection Act seeks to define mining “fill” as waste in order to prevent
this.
According to the federal Environmental Impact Statement on Mountaintop
Removal, “valley fills” have already buried thousands of streams throughout
Appalachia. Nashville Congressman Jim Cooper was one of the few
representatives from a coal field state to sign on as a cosponsor of the
CWPA, a major win for those supporting the act.
The United Nations Commission on Sustainable Development will be hosting a
meeting in New York City in April 2007. The Stripmine Committee, in
conjunction with three other coal field organizations, plans to attend the
meetings to bring national and global attention to the destruction of
Appalachia for coal.
The Stripmine Committee has been reviewing its strategy as well as
discussing certain key topics involved in the coal debate, topics such as
global climate change and “clean coal”. The committee is also discussing
other long-term strategies to address the problem of mountaintop removal
mining and other especially destructive aspects of strip mining, including
future legislative options. The committee will be looking for more at-large SOCM members, Board members, and other SOCM folks from around the state to
be on an ad hoc committee to help work on these new strategies.
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What you can do:
• For more information on the Strip Mine Committee
or to get involved, contact: Lauren@socm.org
or call (865) 426 9455.
• For more
information on how your local congressional representative can cosponsor or
support CWPA, contact Lauren@socm.org or
call (865)426-9455.
• For more information on mountaintop
removal in Appalachia, see:
http://www.ilovemountains.org
• CHECK THE ACTION ALERTS PAGE!
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ABANDONED MINES CLEANUP CAMPAIGN:
The Strip Mine Committee is also working to bring jobs to the coal fields
and clean up abandoned mine sites by getting the federal government to
release millions of dollars in the Abandoned Mine Land (AML) Fund,
money
which is currently going unused. There are hundreds of abandoned mine sites in Tennessee, and it is estimated
that clean up of these sites will cost almost $40 million. According to
the Association of General Contractors for every million dollars spent on
AML clean up, 59 new jobs will be created.
Under current federal law the AML program is set to end in June of 2005!
If this happens the $1.4 billion which has been collected for AML clean-up
will likely be absorbed back in to the general fund of the federal government. Without this money coal field communities will have no help in
addressing the legacy of unregulated mining in their back yards. The state of Tennessee would be left with millions of dollars worth of clean-up.
We want Congress to reauthorize the AML program and improve it so more money
comes to Tennessee. The law needs to be changed so that states that do not have regulatory primacy but do have AML clean-up left to be done also get
minimum program funding. Congress should increase minimum program funding from $2 million to $4
million. Also the amount of money which is distributed to States based on Historic Production should be increased!
CHECK THE ACTION ALERTS PAGE to learn how you can help with this campaign.
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WHY
JOIN THE
STRIP MINE COMMITTEE?
David Hardeman explains: I've been a member of the Strip Mine Committee for almost as long as I've been a member of SOCM.
This committee deals with the issues that gave birth to our organization. I joined the committee because of a strip mine located on the property next to mine--I was scared of the consequences I had seen my neighbors suffer.
When I first joined the committee, I knew very little about strip mining. However, in the 10+ years that I have been a member, I've had the opportunity to learn about geology, hydrology, chemistry, and the 1977 Surface Mining Law.
I've helped work on mining legislation and lands unsuitable petitions. I've also had the pleasure of meeting and working with members of other grassroots organizations throughout the U.S. and American Indian Nations.
My experience on the committee is pretty typical: you don't have to be an expert to be involved, you just need to be interested in the issue and be willing to do some work and learn some new things.
If you would like to be a member of a committee with plenty of action and an ever changing workload, then this is the one for you!
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HISTORY:
SOCM has worked on coal related issues since the early 1970s.
Over the years the Strip Mine
Committee has worked on getting the state and federal
government to enforce the existing laws.
In the Spring of 2000 the Strip
Mine Committee won a huge victory in their 25 year fight to protect
communities on the Cumberland Plateau from the devastating effects of strip
mining. The Fall Creek Falls watershed is the largest area ever to have
been declared unsuitable for mining by the Office of Surface Mining.
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