A massive drag-line, dwarfed by the huge scale of the operation, at work on a mountaintop removal operation near
Kayford Mountain, WV
Photo by Vivian Stockman, Oct. 19, 2003
Unable to bear the house-shaking noise and dust from blasting and the psychological toll from the destruction of their
beloved forests and streams, the husband and wife who own this Lincoln County, W.Va. home have very reluctantly sold
their property to Arch Coal, operator of the Hobet 21 mountaintop removal coal mine. The husband used to teach school
for a small community up a miles-long valley that was nearby. The people were driven out of their community as the
surface mine approached. That valley is now buried under hundreds of millions of tons of former mountain top
Photo by Vivian Stockman, Oct. 19, 2003
Photos courtesy of Ohio Valley Environmental Coalition
HUNTINGTON, W.Va. - Fed up with the federal government's continued illegal permitting of mountaintop removal valley
fills, two local environmental groups and one national group today filed a lawsuit against the Army Corps of Engineers. The
suit challenges the illegal use of Nationwide Permit 21 for large-scale surface mining operations, particularly mountaintop
removal operations.
The action seeks to force the Army Corps of Engineers to comply with the federal Clean Water Act and National
Environmental Policy Act by requiring it to cease using a general permit, Nationwide Permit 21, to authorize large-scale
strip mines. Nearly all surface mines in West Virginia are authorized under NWP 21, which is essentially a "rubber stamp"
the Corps relies on to allow coal companies to destroy thousands of acres of irreplaceable forest and water resources and
the communities they support. If successful, this action will set a precedent for improved Corps' permitting throughout
the Appalachian Region and nationally.
The action was filed on behalf of the Whitesville-based Coal River Mountain Watch, the Huntington-based Ohio Valley
Environmental Coalition and the Washington, D.C.-based Natural Resources Defense Council by Joe Lovett, Executive
Director of the Appalachian Center for the Economy and the Environment and Jim Hecker, Environmental Enforcement
Director of Trial Lawyers for Public Justice (TLPJ).
"The Corps' mindless action is decimating much of Appalachia. Over 1,200 miles of Appalachian headwaters streams
already have been buried under waste rock valley fills from mountaintop removal coalmines. Hundreds of thousands of
acres of the most productive and diverse temperate hardwood forests in the world have been permitted to be destroyed
since 1977," said Vivian Stockman, an organizer with the Ohio Valley Environmental Coalition.
"Our communities face threats of increased flooding, coal waste impoundment failures, and contaminated drinking water.
We are forced to sell our land as surface mining operations displace generations-old communities and make life in the
coalfields unlivable. And without the approval of the Corps, these mines could not be permitted," said Judy Bonds,
Outreach Coordinator with Coal River Mountain Watch.
Despite prior litigation and the devastating scientific data developed by the federal agencies in preparing the recently
released draft environmental impact statement on mountaintop removal mining, the Corps continues to authorize coal
mining activities with Nationwide 21 permits in southern West Virginia, Eastern Kentucky, Virginia and Tennessee.
"It is unfortunate that citizens must resort to litigation to force the Bush administration to enforce environmental
protection laws passed by Congress more than 25 years ago," attorney Joe Lovett said. "The Administration's collusion
with coal operators to undermine the enforcement of these crucial laws, if allowed to continue, will not only destroy the
region's forests, streams and mountains, but also its economic future"
"Big Coal has buried alive 1,200 miles of streams, and the Corps has buried the truth by calling this
major disaster a minimal impact," said TLPJ's Jim Hecker. "The Corps should stop twisting science
and the law to satisfy industry greed, and instead make Big Coal conform to the law."
"It's painfully obvious that the Corps is acting without regard to the law by ignoring the individual, let alone cumulative
effects of valley fills on the natural resources and communities in the coalfields. The Corps isn't bothering to review and
evaluate the destruction it is permitting. The effects to communities and the ecosystem are hardly minimal and temporary,
but massive and permanent," Stockman added. "The Corps is betraying the public trust by leaving a landscape that will not
recover for hundreds of years."
"In issuing general Nationwide 21 Permits for mountaintop removal valley fills, the Army Corps of Engineers is ignoring
both the law and science," said Bonds said. "It's exceedingly disturbing that the government is so routinely and callously
breaking the law without any regard for the long-term social and ecological costs. Once again we have to resort to the
courts to get the government to obey its own laws.
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