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The Rev. Dennis Sparks of the West Virginia Council of Churches said yesterday that talking hasn't worked to put an end to mountaintop removal that has filled hundreds of miles of West Virginia streams.
Sparks said lawsuits have only had limited success.
So Thursday a group of West Virginia clergy got together on the steps of the state capitol to ask for some divine help from above.
Shortly, a federal judge put a hold on coal company plans to
permanently bury Appalachian streams and threaten homes and neighborhoods in
West Virginia by granting a temporary restraining order and preliminary
injunction against a mountaintop removal mine.
A coalition of local
environmental groups challenged the permit on the heels of a major court
victory earlier this year against this destructive mining practice.
In ruling that the mining cannot go forward at this time, federal district
Judge Robert C. Chambers noted that the environmental groups "made a strong
showing that the permits issued by the Corps are arbitrary and capricious,
contrary to law, and contrary to the economic and environmental balance
struck by Congress in the passage of the relevant environmental statutes."
The proposed valley fills at the Callisto Mine in Boone County, West
Virginia, would have permanently destroyed 5,750 feet of streams and
tributaries of Roach Branch, Dry Branch and Lem White Branch of Pond Fork in
Boone County.
These streams eventually flow into the Little Coal River.
The
order, issued by the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of West
Virginia, halts the mining company's plan to begin new valley fill
activities at the site until the Court can rule on the groups' challenge to
the Callisto permit.
"The judge just gave hope to other affected residents that live in
communities near this type of destructive illegal mining," said Judy Bonds
of Coal River Mountain Watch.
"We have hope now that coal companies will no
longer be allowed to mine coal in our homes."
Mountaintop removal mining is a destructive form of coal mining that has
already buried more than 1,200 miles of streams and destroyed over 387,000
acres of West Virginia forests and mountains.
Mountaintop removal mining
also increases severe flooding in communities near mining sites, making life
utterly miserable for coalfield residents.
Families report sleepless nights
and worried children when rain threatens. Blasting damages foundations and
dries up wells, and property values plunge as mining operations approach
communities.
Mountain streams are often unable to sustain life.
Bim resident Dorsey Green, whose home in the Dry Branch Hollow is closest to
the proposed valley fill, was relieved by the judge's decision.
"I am so thankful for this ruling. I've been a coal miner my whole life and
this valley fill would have destroyed my homeplace and everything I have
worked for," Green said.
"I have spent many sleepless nights thinking about
the terrible representation we as a community get from our regulatory
agencies. This ruling will restore my sleep and my retirement years."
On March 23, the Ohio Valley Environmental Coalition, Coal River Mountain
Watch and the West Virginia Highlands Conservancy, represented by
Earthjustice, the Appalachian Center for the Economy & the Environment and
now Public Justice, won a victory in the same case, when the Court rescinded
four similar valley fill permits.
The Court ruled that the permits violated
the Clean Water Act and the National Environmental Policy Act.
In
particular, the Court found that the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers granted
the permits without adequately considering the environmental effects of the
fills, and without providing any scientific support for the Corps' claim
that stream damage from the valley fills could be offset through "stream
creation."
The Callisto Mine valley fill permit suffers many of the same
defects as the permits that the Court rescinded in March.
"Inch by inch, mile after mile, these illegal fills are changing the face of
West Virginia, burying valuable stream valleys and destroying the lives of
people who have lived in these valleys for generations," said Cindy Rank of
the West Virginia Highlands Conservancy.
"We are grateful for Judge Chambers
ruling; no one wants to put another person out of work but the promise of
jobs based on illegal permits is not fair either."
Rev. Sparks said the coal industry is going about surface mining in a destructive way without thinking of the consequences. He cites a 33-year-old law that coal companies and state and federal agencies are ignoring.
"The 1977 Surface Mining Reclamation and Control Act was intended to put an end to the abuses of surface mining," he said. "The way it's often operated now is those abuses are continuing."
Sparks hopes to draw the community together to protest the destruction he says is taking place along mountaintops across the state.
"There's a balance in there to say how do we administer that dominion without abusing God's creation," Sparks said, adding he's praying for a solution and hopes others will as well. | 
