|
On
Wednesday of our Winter meeting, Cindy Tibbott of the Pennsylvania
Field Office gave a Powerpoint presentation on mountaintop
removal/valley fill mining. Mountaintop removal is a form of steep
slope mining that occurs in the heart of the ORVE ecosystem. Mining
companies remove hundreds of feet of overburden to get at coal seams
that are two to three feet thick. The mountains are not returned to
their approximate original contour, rather, the relief is gone,
streams are gone, and a different reclamation results in grassland
habitat, profusion of exotic shrubs, and perched wetlands.
Dan
Ramsey from the West Virginia Field office summarized activities
which have occurred during the interim permitting period since 1998.
During the time period 1999 through 2001, 40 projects were permitted
in West Virginia resulting in the loss of 61 miles of stream and
15,000 acres of forested habitat. Approximately 10 permits per month
are issued in Kentucky.
Katherine
Paybins from the U.S.G.S. in Charleston, West Virginia summarized a
number of ongoing studies, some of which have already been
published, on the effects of mountaintop removal/valley fill mining
on stream hydrology and invertebrates. For example, watersheds with
valley fill mining experience higher flood flows than unmined watersheds.
The
final speaker for the morning was Ken Hechler, former U. S.
Congressman, West Virginia Secretary of State, lecturer at Marshall
University, and West Virginia statesman. He related the history of
strip mining, mountaintop removal, and valley fill mining dating
back to his tenure in Congress in the 1970s. The bottom line is the
existing legislation is not doing the job. He spoke about the
cultural and social impacts of mountaintop removal and valley fill
mining to the citizens of Appalachia.
Following
lunch on Wednesday, most attendees participated in a field trip led
by the West Virginia Field Office to an active mountaintop
removal/valley fill mine site on Kayford Mountain, West Virginia.
The team also met with a local resident, Larry Gibson, who presented
a compelling case on the human impacts caused by this type of
mining. On the way back to the State Park, the team stopped off to
visit the upper reaches of the Kanawha River Focus Area, a five-mile
reach of the free flowing Kanawha River which supports at least two
federally listed species of mussels among a community of over 25
other species.
Minutes
from the Winter Meeting
List
of Attendees
|
A mountain top removal site
|
