Coal Combustion Residuals – Proposed Rule
Coal Combustion Residuals, often referred to as coal ash, are currently considered exempt wastes under an amendment to RCRA, the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act. They are residues from the combustion of coal in power plants and captured by pollution control technologies, like scrubbers. Potential environmental concerns from coal ash pertain to pollution from impoundment and landfills leaching into ground water and structural failures of impoundments, like that which occurred at the Tennessee Valley Authority’s plant in Kingston, Tennessee. The need for national management criteria was emphasized by the December 2008 spill of CCRs from a surface impoundment near Kingston, TN. The tragic spill flooded more than 300 acres of land with CCRs and flowed into the Emory and Clinch rivers. EPA is proposing to regulate for the first time coal ash to address the risks from the disposal of the wastes generated by electric utilities and independent power producers. EPA is considering two possible options for the management of coal ash for public comment. See proposed rule.

]]> http://thedirtylie.com/blog/?feed=rss2&p=3514 0 http://thedirtylie.com/blog/?p=3542 http://thedirtylie.com/blog/?p=3542#comments Tue, 07 Sep 2010 13:42:16 +0000 admin http://thedirtylie.com/blog/?p=3542 All of the dates, locations and pre-registration information can be found  here.

To pre-register to speak at the hearings, you can also call 703.308.8429 or sign up online   here.

• Knoxville News Sentinel

Alexander asks EPA for coal-ash hearing in Roane County
By Michael Collins- Knoxnews
September 1, 2010 WASHINGTON – U.S. Sen. Lamar Alexander has asked the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to hold a hearing in Roane County on proposed federal regulations for the disposal of toxic coal ash.
The Maryville Republican sent a letter Tuesday to EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson arguing that a hearing should be held in East Tennessee in light of the catastrophic coal-ash spill at the Tennessee Valley Authority’s Kingston Fossil Plant in December 2008.
“That spill displaced residents, caused significant environmental damage, and may require up to $1.2 billion in clean-up costs,” the letter said. “Given this tragic event, the people of Tennessee have a unique perspective on this issue that would be beneficial to EPA while you are writing a final rule.” Read entire article.

4-State power company keeping an eye on coal ash hearings in Virginia
Aug 30, 2010- KOAM TV Monday is the first of a series of public hearings regarding federally regulating coal ash.  The hearings are taking place in Virginia but is getting attention from all across the U.S. A Riverton, Kansas coal fired energy plant took the time to explain how it stores its ash, and what a federal mandate would mean.
Coal is used to produce the energy we use at the Riverton plant, but after the coal is used, there are some leftovers. Julie Maus of Empire District Electric says some is sold and the the rest “is stored on site in an earthen containment structure.” That coal ash that is stored is currently not regulated by the EPA. What could be leaking out if it is not stored properly is what concerns environmentalists. “That’s what we want, is for what isn’t sold to be deemed a hazardous waste and stored as such,” says Grand River keeper Earl Hatley.  “Mercury is a neurotoxin, just like lead in young children, it takes away IQ.  In adults it causes heart problems, heart attacks.” Hatley says mercury is just one of the toxins in coal ash, another arsenic. It was one of the main problems seen in the 2008 coal ash spill in Tennessee. That is why Hatley says it is important regulations are mandated by the EPA and not left up to each state. Empire says it is watching the rulings and will be prepared to comply. Read entire article.

Va. activists urge federal oversight of fly ash dust
By Scott Harper- The Virginian-Pilot- August 31, 2010
The proposal: The EPA announced its intention earlier this summer to impose first-ever federal regulations of coal ash, which also includes fly ash and slag.
The danger: Coal ash can contain arsenic, mercury, chromium and other dangerous chemicals. It is a known health and environmental risk.
The local issue: Some Chesapeake residents who live near a golf course sculpted from fly ash, right, blame illnesses and subsequent financial problems on the toxins.
ARLINGTON, VA
Residents who live near a Chesapeake golf course sculpted from fly ash joined a chorus of scientists, environmentalists and activists Monday in urging a federal program to regulate the black, toxic dust as a hazardous waste.
Stephen Fox, who blames the ash for causing his cancer, testified that the government needs to tightly control coal ash so others will not suffer the same fate as he and his neighbors.
When the Foxes bought their home near the Battlefield Golf Club at Centerville, “nothing was ever said to us about living next door to a toxic waste dump disguised as a golf course,” he told a panel from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.
The Foxes have since gotten sick, their dogs have died, they have had to declare bankruptcy and have been forced to move away after selling their home at a huge loss, he told the panel. Read entire article.

Environmental groups say ND, SD coal ash causing water pollution, want EPA regulation
Associated Press- 08/26/10
BISMARCK, N.D. — Environmental groups say coal ash from power plants in North Dakota and South Dakota is polluting nearby groundwater supplies.
The groups want the federal Environmental Protection Agency to regulate coal ash disposal. The agency is holding a series of hearings on the issue.
The report was released Thursday by the Environmental Integrity Project, and Sierra Club and Earthjustice. It mentions North Dakota’s Antelope Valley and Leland Olds power stations and the Big Stone power plant in South Dakota as pollution sites. Read entire article.

Exams find no health effects caused by ash spill
The Associated Press August 17, 2010
OAK RIDGE, Tenn.
Medical screenings of more than 200 residents living near a large coal ash spill in East Tennessee found no adverse health effects related to the components of the ash.
The results of the screenings were released Tuesday by Oak Ridge Associated Universities and the Vanderbilt University Medical Center in Nashville and were funded by the Tennessee Valley Authority. The results of the exams were to be presented to residents in Roane County at a public meeting on Tuesday evening.
A breach in an earthen dam in December 2008 sent 5.4 million cubic yards of ash into the Emory River and onto surrounding landscape at TVA’s Kingston Plant in Roane County.
According to a news release about the exams, a total of 214 people living in Roane County underwent medical evaluations including health history, physical examination, a breathing test, chest x-ray, routine urinalysis, complete blood count, blood chemistry and biological monitoring tests.
Dr. Donna Cagle, a Ph.D. epidemiologist and vice president of Occupational Exposure and Worker Health for ORAU, said they began signing people up for the screenings in May 2009 and finished the exams in April of this year.
“This is not what you would call a research study because we did not have a specific sampling plan,” Cagle said. “What we did was more of a service to the community to allow them to have access to the appropriate kind of medical testing they would need to determine whether they had any effects on the spill or not.”
About half of the participants lived within two miles of the spill and the most common symptoms reported were runny nose, cough and congestion. Read entire article.

Additional Coverage

Wells Fargo cuts off mountaintop removal mining companies
Cameron Scott- August 12 2010-SFGate
Local bank Wells Fargo recently joined five other major banks in restricting the money it loans to mining companies that practice mountaintop removal, a controversial practice that blows the tops off of mountains and dumps them in nearby streams to make coal easier to get to.
iLoveMountains.org
Local activist group Rainforest Action Network has played a significant role. Its scrappy activism (Watch Video) was largely responsible for Bank of America and Citigroup’s policies, which led the way in late-2008 and mid-2009, respectively. Credit Suisse followed in September 2009.

Since May of this year, Morgan Stanley, JPMorgan Chase and, finally, Wells Fargo have enacted policies, but their motives apparently have more to do several other factors: EPA’s increasing restrictions on mountaintop removal — making it a less appealing investment, financially speaking; the April Upper Big Branch mining catastrophe at a mine owned by Massey Energy, a big player in MTR; and, finally, the need to get better, rather than worse, PR since the financial industry ran the global economy into dust. Read more

]]> http://thedirtylie.com/blog/?feed=rss2&p=3526 0 http://thedirtylie.com/blog/?p=3509 http://thedirtylie.com/blog/?p=3509#comments Tue, 17 Aug 2010 14:16:04 +0000 admin http://thedirtylie.com/blog/?p=3509

Lighting a Fire Under Clean Coal

Administration Tries to Boost Carbon Capture and Storage Technology

Sonja Elmquist- National Geographic News- August 13, 2010

In a multipronged effort to boost “clean coal,” the Obama administration has announced a $1 billion project to demonstrate a new combustion technique, launched studies of where carbon dioxide could be stored underground, and unveiled recommendations meant to chisel away at regulatory barriers.

But many supporters of the drive for carbon capture and storage (CCS) as a way to address the U.S. greenhouse gas pollution from coal-burning power plants say the flurry of moves in the past week fall short of what is needed—a clear legal commitment by the United States to make cuts in fossil fuel emissions.

“You can build a small number of demos, but seriously deploying? It doesn’t have a future without legislation,” says George Peridas, a scientist in the Natural Resources Defense Council climate center. “Unless the finance community has a certainty about what will happen in the policy domain, they won’t go there.”

NRDC parts ways, to some extent, with environmental groups that reject carbon storage outright, arguing that the mining of coal is too damaging or that the huge investments required would be better spent on energy sources that don’t emit carbon in the first place. NRDC has advocated more research on CCS, although the group has been critical of coal industry efforts to block the very climate legislation it sees as essential to spurring the huge investment that is needed.

Opposition to climate legislation indeed proved effective, as repeated efforts to refashion a bill narrowly passed last year by the House failed to garner the 60 votes needed to avoid a filibuster in the Senate. Read entire article.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
August 12, 2010
Federal Task Force Sends Recommendations to President on Fostering Clean Coal Technology Interagency report marks an important step forward on administration priority
WASHINGTON –  President Obama’s Interagency Task Force on Carbon Capture and Storage (CCS), co-chaired by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the Department of Energy (DOE), delivered a series of recommendations to the president today on overcoming the barriers to the widespread, cost-effective deployment of CCS within 10 years. CCS is a group of technologies for capturing, compressing, transporting and permanently storing power plant and industrial source emissions of carbon dioxide. Rapid development and deployment of clean coal technologies, particularly carbon capture and storage (CCS), will help position the United States as a leader in the global clean energy race. The report concludes that CCS can play an important role in domestic greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions reductions while preserving the option of using coal and other abundant domestic fossil energy resources.
In February 2010, the president charged the task force with proposing a plan to overcome the barriers to the widespread, cost-effective deployment of carbon capture and storage within 10 years, with a goal of bringing five to 10 commercial demonstration projects online by 2016.
Charting the path toward clean coal is essential to achieving the administration’s clean energy goals, supporting American jobs and reducing emissions of carbon pollution.  Already, the United States has made the largest government investment in carbon capture and storage of any nation in history, and these investments are being matched by private capital.  DOE is currently pursuing multiple demonstration projects using close to $4 billion in federal funds, matched by more than $7 billion in private investments, which will begin to pave the way for widespread deployment of advanced CCS technologies within a decade. Ongoing EPA efforts will clarify the existing regulatory framework by developing requirements tailored for CCS, which will reduce uncertainty for early projects and help to ensure safe and effective deployment.
“If we can develop the technology to capture the carbon pollution released by coal, it can create jobs and provide energy well into the future,” President Obama told the nation’s governors when establishing the task force, co-chaired by Energy Secretary Steven Chu and EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson.
|”These recommendations mark an important step forward in combating climate change and strengthening our economy through green jobs – top priorities for this administration,” said EPA Administrator Jackson.  “Consistent with these recommendations, EPA is proactively developing regulations tailored to carbon storage technology that will reduce uncertainty for early projects and help to ensure safe and effective use of the technology. By encouraging efforts to develop clean coal technology we will obtain new tools to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, create jobs, and make our nation more competitive in the global race for clean energy technology.”
“Around the world countries are moving aggressively on investing in clean energy,” said Energy Secretary Chu. “The U.S. has the ability to develop clean energy innovation here at home. Rather than sending billions overseas to pay for clean technologies, we should invest these dollars here – in America’s workers, industries, and innovations.”
“A diversified energy portfolio, which includes coal, is important for a strong 21^st century American economy,” said Nancy Sutley, Chair of the White House Council on Environmental Quality. “These recommendations move us toward bringing safe and deployable CCS technologies to the marketplace to help us meet the goal of reducing harmful carbon emissions while continuing to use this energy source.”
The report reflects input from 14 federal agencies and departments as well as hundreds of stakeholders and CCS experts.  It addresses the incentives for CCS adoption and any financial, economic, technological, legal, institutional, or other barriers to deployment.  The task force also considered how best to coordinate existing federal authorities and programs, as well as identify areas where additional federal authority may be necessary.
The report’s main findings and recommendations include:
·         CCS is Viable: There are no insurmountable technical, legal, institutional, or other barriers to the deployment of this technology.
·         A Carbon Price is Critical: Widespread cost-effective deployment of CCS is best achieved with a carbon price, but there are market drivers and actions that can and are taking place now, which are essential to support near-term CCS demonstration projects that will pave the way for broader deployment after a carbon price is in place.
·         Federal Coordination should be Strengthened: With additional federal actions and coordination, the task force believes our nation can meet the president’s near-term goal and get 5-10 commercial demonstration CCS demonstration projects online by 2016. The report recommends the creation of a standing federal agency roundtable and expert committee to facilitate that goal.
·         Recommendations on Liability: The task force conducted an in-depth analysis of options to address concerns that long-term liability could be a barrier to CCS deployment. It concluded that open-ended federal indemnification is not a viable alternative but that four approaches merit further consideration: relying on existing frameworks, limits on claims, a trust fund, and transfer of liability to the federal government (with contingencies). Efforts to improve long-term liability and stewardship frameworks led by EPA, DOE and the Department of Justice (DOJ) will continue in order to provide evaluation and recommendations in these areas by late 2011.
Additional recommendations include setting up an effort by DOE and EPA – in consultation with other agencies – to track regulatory implementation for early commercial CCS demonstration projects and consider whether additional statutory revisions are needed. The report also encourages leveraging existing efforts among federal agencies, states, industry, and NGOs to gather information and evaluate potential key concerns about CCS in different areas of the United States and develop a comprehensive outreach strategy that would include: (1) a broad plan for public outreach targeted at the general public and decision makers; and (2) a “more focused engagement with communities that are candidates for CCS projects, to address such issues as environmental justice.”
Many experts consider CCS an important option as part of a portfolio of strategies – including increased efficiency and greater use of low-carbon energy resources — to help mitigate growing atmospheric CO₂ emissions from human sources.   It can play a major role in reducing GHG emissions globally. However, widespread cost-effective deployment of CCS will occur only if the technology is commercially available at economically competitive prices and supportive national policy frameworks, such as a cap on carbon pollution, are in place. The administration’s policy and technology initiatives are intended to address these needs.
The full report and the presidential memorandum establishing the task force: here and here

]]> http://thedirtylie.com/blog/?feed=rss2&p=3505 0 http://thedirtylie.com/blog/?p=3495 http://thedirtylie.com/blog/?p=3495#comments Wed, 11 Aug 2010 15:26:10 +0000 admin http://thedirtylie.com/blog/?p=3495

Coal ash ban would be loss for TVA
BY BILL THEOBALD – The Tennessean – August 8, 2010
WASHINGTON — There’s even more fallout ahead from the massive coal ash spill at an East Tennessee power plant two years ago.
Cleaning up the more than 1 billion gallons of gray coal ash sludge that spilled at the Tennessee Valley Authority’s Kingston plant is estimated to cost more than $1 billion. The spill has led to proposed new rules from the Environmental Protection Agency that would designate coal waste as hazardous and require greater care in its storage.
Now, an environmental group is pushing to ban the use of ash and other coal combustion waste in cement, dry wall and other commercial products. Many other groups don’t think such waste should be used as fill for embankments or abandoned mines unless it’s encapsulated to prevent it from leeching into groundwater.
Officials from companies that reuse combustion waste told members of a House committee recently that even if using recycled coal waste remains legal, designating it as hazardous would stigmatize its use and cripple their businesses.
If coal waste is banned altogether, TVA and other utilities would lose revenue from selling it.
In addition, utilities would have to pay to store the unused coal waste. Nationally, that would mean finding a home for about 60 million tons of coal combustion waste each year, about 44 percent of the total generated in 2008, according to a study by the American Coal Ash Association.
TVA would have to store 2.8 million to 3.3 million tons of the waste each year. Currently, 1.7 million to 2 million tons is used in commercial products. The rest is used as fill at sites in Memphis and Camden, Tenn. Read entire article.

Mountain mining damages streams
Study shows that stripping mountains for coal has a much greater impact than urban growth.
Natasha Gilbert – August 9, 2010- Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
The controversial practice of stripping off the tops of mountains to mine coal, long suspected of polluting streams, is guilty as charged, scientists say.
On 3 August, researchers at the Ecological Society of America conference in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, presented what they say is the first conclusive evidence of a direct link between this type of mining and environmental damage. Their research has teased apart the effects of mountain-top mining and urbanization on local water quality in West Virginia, and found that even relatively small mining operations can cause serious harm to ecosystems.
“Even at very low levels of mining we found a dramatic impact on water quality and stream composition,” Emily Bernhardt, a biologist at Duke University in Durham, North Carolina, and one of the study’s lead researchers, told Nature. The scientists have called on the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to tighten the water pollution limits faced by mining companies.
Mountain-top mining is widespread in eastern Kentucky, West Virginia and southwestern Virginia. To expose seams of coal, mining companies strip away forests and break up rock with explosives. The rubble is dumped in the valleys, often burying streams. The loss of vegetation and topsoil can cause flooding, and the water emerging from the debris contains toxic solutes including selenium, metals and sulphates, says Bernhardt. Read entire article.

EPA recently released a final Report outlining its key conclusions after reviewing state water pollution permits for Appalachian surface coal mining projects. The report, Review of Clean Water Act §402 Permitting for Surface Coal Mines by Appalachian States: Findings and Recommendations, summarizes the findings of EPA’s Permit Quality Review (PQR) performed to assess the adequacy of State National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System (NPDES) permitting under Section 402 of the Clean Water Act. EPA recommends that states more consistently evaluate the potential for mining discharges to cause or contribute to a violation of state water quality standards, and the need to more fully implement narrative water quality standards. EPA’s review helps its Regional offices, Appalachian States, and the public to identify areas for improvement and to ensure that States are developing permits that protect water quality consistent with the law. The Report can be viewed   here.

]]> http://thedirtylie.com/blog/?feed=rss2&p=3481 0 http://thedirtylie.com/blog/?p=3477 http://thedirtylie.com/blog/?p=3477#comments Wed, 28 Jul 2010 19:26:07 +0000 admin http://thedirtylie.com/blog/?p=3477

Coal execs hope to spend big to defeat Conway and Chandler
Companies seek to pool funds to defeat chandler, Conway, and delay disclosure
By John Cheves – jcheves@herald-leader.com- Wednesday, Jul. 28, 2010
Several major coal companies hope to use newly loosened campaign-finance laws to pool their money and defeat Democratic congressional candidates they consider “anti-coal,” including U.S. Senate nominee Jack Conway and U.S. Rep. Ben Chandler in Kentucky.
The companies hope to create a politically active nonprofit under Section 527 of the Internal Revenue Code, so they won’t have to publicly disclose their activities, such as advertising, until they file a tax return next year, long after the Nov. 2 election.
The U.S. Supreme Court ruled last winter that corporations and labor unions may pour unlimited funds into such efforts to influence elections.
“With the recent Supreme Court ruling, we are in a position to be able to take corporate positions that were not previously available in allowing our voices to be heard,” wrote Roger Nicholson, senior vice president and general counsel at International Coal Group of Scott Depot, W.Va., in an undated letter he sent to other coal companies.
Nicholson declined to comment on his letter Tuesday, after the Herald-Leader obtained it.
“A number of coal industry representatives recently have been considering developing a 527 entity with the purpose of attempting to defeat anti-coal incumbents in select races, as well as elect pro-coal candidates running for certain open seats,” Nicholson wrote. “We’re requesting your consideration as to whether your company would be willing to meet to discuss a significant commitment to such an effort.”
Nicholson listed three races “of interest”: Conway against Republican Rand Paul for Kentucky’s open Senate seat; Chandler against Republican Garland “Andy” Barr in Kentucky’s 6th House District; and Democratic U.S. Rep. Nick Rahall against Republican Elliott “Spike” Maynard in West Virginia’s 3rd House District. Read entire article

Massey Says Increased Federal Mining Inspections Reduce Coal Productivity

By Mario Parker – Jul 28, 2010- Bloomberg
Massey Energy Co., the owner of the West Virginia mine where 29 people died in April, said increased scrutiny from government inspectors reduced productivity at its operations during the second quarter.

Massey’s coal production was about 500,000 tons lower than expected in its deep mine operations due to reduced productivity amid “distractions” from the Upper Big Branch accident, temporary shutdowns and increased inspections, Baxter Phillips, the company’s president, said today on a conference call with analysts.

Massey said in a statement yesterday that shipments during the quarter dropped below its projections by about 1 million tons, of which 700,000 tons were lost due to lower productivity and temporary shutdowns. Three export shipments were delayed to July from June, accounting for about 220,000 tons of the shortfall, the company said.

“Certainly investor focus is on Massey’s ability to focus on this year’s tragic events and achieve their targets in what could be a very robust coal market,” said Michael Dudas, an analyst at Jefferies & Co. Inc. in New York. “They’re set up to do so, but with anything in Central Appalachia it’s going to be a challenge.”

Massey rose 65 cents, or 2.2 percent, to $30.30 at 11:38 a.m. in New York Stock Exchange composite trading. The shares have fallen 45 percent since the fatal blast on April 5.

Earnings Report:

The coal producer yesterday reported a net loss of $88.7 million on costs associated with the disaster and lowered its sales estimate for the year. Massey lost 88 cents a share, compared with a profit of $20.2 million, or 24 cents, a year earlier, the company said.

Massey, based in Richmond, Virginia, took a pretax charge of $128.9 million in its second-quarter and first-half results for the accident. Read entire article.

Massey Energy’s Blankenship:  No shame, but plenty of blame
By Dana Milbank- July 25, 2010- Washington Post
If Don Blankenship had any sense of shame, he’d crawl into a mine and hide.As CEO of Massey Energy, he has presided over a coal company that had thousands of violations in recent years, leading up to the April explosion that killed 29 of his miners. The company now faces a federal criminal investigation into what the government has called negligent and reckless practices.But Blankenship must have no sense of shame, because he visited the National Press Club last week to complain about “knee-jerk political reactions” to mine deaths and to demand that the Obama administration lighten regulations on his dirty and dangerous company. “We need to let businesses function as businesses,” an indignant Blankenship proclaimed. “Corporate business is what built America, in my opinion, and we need to let it thrive by, in a sense, leaving it alone.” Read entire article.

]]> http://thedirtylie.com/blog/?feed=rss2&p=3463 0 http://thedirtylie.com/blog/?p=3457 http://thedirtylie.com/blog/?p=3457#comments Fri, 23 Jul 2010 20:43:19 +0000 admin http://thedirtylie.com/blog/?p=3457  Massey Energy’S Don Blankenship: In the Hot Seat Again

Europe Proposes to End Coal Mining Subsidies by 2014
By JAMES KANTER- NYTimes
It has been one of the most acrimonious debates in memory for officials at the European Commission, the executive body that runs the European Union. Should the commission allow nations to subsidize unprofitable coal mines to preserve jobs and help vulnerable regions? Or should it halt the aid to show the European Union’s commitment to reducing dependence on fossil fuels?
On Tuesday, in a preliminary victory for environmental groups and for green-minded regulators, the commission said that cash handouts for loss-making coal mines should end within four years — by Oct. 15, 2014 — rather than being allowed to continue for more than a decade as originally planned.
The decision, if approved by the European Union’s 27 governments, would mainly affect mines in Germany, Spain and Romania.
Debate over the measure had raged for weeks, with Connie Hedegaard, the union commissioner for climate action, and Janez Potocnik, the commissioner for the environment, leading efforts either to kill the initiative or to shorten the amount of time that aid would remain available.
“I’m satisfied with this outcome because it guarantees that the aid will stop soon and be stopped while this commission is still in office,” Mr. Potocnik said.
The tussle over subsidies for the coal industry in Europe was also seen as a sign of how difficult it would be to phase out government support for fossil fuels, even in the most industrially advanced parts of the world. Read entire article.

]]> http://thedirtylie.com/blog/?feed=rss2&p=3453 0 http://thedirtylie.com/blog/?p=3443 http://thedirtylie.com/blog/?p=3443#comments Thu, 22 Jul 2010 17:36:55 +0000 admin http://thedirtylie.com/blog/?p=3443 Top GOP prospect won’t seek Byrd’s Senate seat
Wednesday, Jul. 21, 2010- By LAWRENCE MESSINA – Associated Press Writer
CHARLESTON, W.Va. — The top GOP prospect for the late Sen. Robert C. Byrd’s seat said Wednesday she won’t run, leaving the state’s Democratic governor the clear favorite as his party looks to keep its Senate majority in November.
Republican U.S. Rep. Shelley Moore Capito announced she would not enter the race a day after popular Gov. Joe Manchin launched his campaign to fill the remaining two-plus years of Byrd’s term. The filing deadline for candidates is Friday.
West Virginia GOP Chairman Doug McKinney said he has not heard from any Republican seriously weighing a bid and noted that a candidate would likely need to raise several million dollars quickly to mount a credible campaign.
Two Democratic challengers to Manchin stepped forward Wednesday: Ken Hechler, a 95-year-old former congressman and secretary of state; and former Monongalia County lawmaker Sheirl Fletcher.
The primary will be Aug. 28. Fletcher is an ex-Republican who ran against U.S. Sen. Jay Rockefeller, D-W.Va., in the 2008 primary and attracted less than 15 percent of the vote in a three-way race.
Hechler said he filed so voters can weigh in against the controversial strip mining method known as mountaintop removal that exposes coal seams through large-scale blasting. Manchin is a champion of the state’s coal industry, which considers the method highly efficient. Read entire article

Coal Lobby files suit against U. S. Environmental Protection Agency
July 21, 9:32 AM- Clay County Environmental News Examiner- Tammy Rose|
The coal industry lobby has a filed suit against the United States Environmental Protection Agency to challenge President Obama’s administration’s stated plan to take steps toward setting limits to govern the environmental impacts of Mountaintop Removal Mining.
Lawyers for the National Mining Association, filed the suit in the United States District Court for the District of Columbia, are challenging EPA’s more detailed review of Clean Water Act permits for surface mines and the agency’s new guidance for controlling “conductivity” pollution from mountaintop removal operations. Read entire article.

Breaking: Activists Stop Strip Mining Machine on Coal River Mountain

Published by Sparki, July 14th, 2010

“It was usually around July you could go up there and sit and it was like the annual bear gathering up there… The whole area was full of laurels. The bears had tunnels through them, it was so thick…What’s going on today you know with the Brushy Fork of course, that whole area has just about been stripped out now, and that’s all been taken away.” Ed Wiley on Coal River Mountain.

MARFORK, W.Va. – Protestors associated with Climate Ground Zero and Mountain Justice have locked to and shut down a highwall miner on Coal River Mountain today. Colin Flood, 22, and Katie Huszcza, 21, are locked to the mining equipment on Massey Energy’s Bee Tree Surface Mine, near to the Brushy Fork Sludge Impoundment.  Their banner states “Save Coal River Mountain” alongside images of ginseng, a morel, a deer and a bear.

The human rights activists locked down in order to bring attention to the many local resources that will be lost if blasting on Coal River Mountain continues. This destruction led the four protesters, including 22-year-old Jimmy Tobias and 20-year-old Sophie Kern, both of whom acted as direct support, to take part in the action. “These mountains are home to some of the most biologically diverse temperate forests in the world and contain a variety of precious flora and fauna including edible and medicinal plants that can save lives, a wide array of extremely nutritious mushrooms, old growth forest and an abundance of deer and trout,” Huszcza said. “Coal River Mountain is priceless.” Read entire article.

- Arlington, VA August 30, 2010, Hyatt Regency
2799 Jefferson Davis Highway
Arlington, VA 22202
Phone: (703) 418–1234,

http://www.crystalcity.hyatt.com.

- Denver, CO September 2, 2010, Grand Hyatt, 1750 Welton Street, Denver, CO 80202
Phone: (303) 295–1234,

http://www.granddenver.hyatt.com.

- Dallas, TX September 8, 2010, Hyatt Regency Dallas
300 Reunion Boulevard
Dallas, TX 75207
Phone: (214) 651–1234,

http://www.dallasregency.hyatt.com.

- Charlotte, NC September 14, 2010,
Holiday Inn Charlotte (Airport),
2707Little Rock Road
Charlotte, NC 28214
Phone: (704) 394–4301,

http://www.hicharlotteairport.com.

- Chicago, IL September 16, 2010,
Hilton Chicago, 720 South Michigan
Avenue, Chicago, IL 60605, Phone:
(312) 922–4400,

http://www.chicagohilton.com/hotels__hiltonchicago.aspx.

Take Action!

Army Corps sets public hearing over plan to use coal ash to shore up river levees
By Jim Suhr- ST. LOUIS (AP) – The Army Corps of Engineers wants to use ash cast off from coal-fired electrical generation to shore up dozens of miles of Mississippi River levees, drawing fire from environmentalists worried that heavy metals from the filler might make their way into the river.
The corps announced the plan last month, touting the injection of a slurry of water, coal ash and lime into 25 miles of slide-prone levees in 200-mile stretch of the river from Alton, Ill., near St. Louis to tiny Gale on southern Illinois’ tip as the cheapest, longest-lasting fix among several options it weighed.
A public hearing on the matter, scheduled Thursday in St. Louis, is certain to elicit questions from environmentalists who consider the use of coal ash — also known as fly ash — a bad idea despite corps assurances that it has been used trouble-free on levees near Memphis for more than a decade.
“This is an emotional issue with some people,” Alan Dooley, a spokesman for the Army Corps’ St. Louis district, said Tuesday. “But we are looking for a more permanent way of fixing the levees. We’re looking at public safety and best use of taxpayer dollars.”
Various studies have suggested the ash — a remnant of coal-fired power plants and long used in making roads and cement — contains arsenic, selenium, mercury and other substances defined as hazardous, and may be closely linked to cancer.
The corps has said clay used to build the levees more than a half-century ago wasn’t strong enough to last long-term, its significant shrinkage at low moisture levels allowing for the formation of cracks that fill with water from precipitation, weakening the embankment. Read entire article.

]]> http://thedirtylie.com/blog/?feed=rss2&p=3417 0 http://thedirtylie.com/blog/?p=3414 http://thedirtylie.com/blog/?p=3414#comments Wed, 14 Jul 2010 14:18:05 +0000 admin http://thedirtylie.com/blog/?p=3414

Army Corps considering coal ash to fix levees
ST. LOUIS – July 13, 2010- By JIM SUHR Associated Press Writer
The Army Corps of Engineers wants to use ash cast off from coal-fired electrical generation to shore up dozens of miles of Mississippi River levees, drawing fire from environmentalists worried that heavy metals from the filler might make their way into the river.
The corps announced the plan last month, touting the injection of a slurry of water, coal ash and lime into 25 miles of slide-prone levees in 200-mile stretch of the river from Alton, Ill., near St. Louis to tiny Gale on southern Illinois’ tip as the cheapest, longest-lasting fix among several options it weighed.
A public hearing on the matter, scheduled Thursday in St. Louis, is certain to elicit questions from environmentalists who consider the use of coal ash — also known as fly ash — a bad idea despite corps assurances that it has been used trouble-free on levees near Memphis for more than a decade.
“This is an emotional issue with some people,” Alan Dooley, a spokesman for the Army Corps’ St. Louis district, said Tuesday. “But we are looking for a more permanent way of fixing the levees. We’re looking at public safety and best use of taxpayer dollars.” Read entire article.

Mountaineers Say EPA Has Backtracked
07/13/2010- By Robert Browman- Daily Yonder
In April opponents of mountaintop removal coal mining believed the federal government was finally ready to outlaw such operations. But a new recommendation to permit yet another huge mine has Appalachian environmentalists baffled and angry.
In April, a turn in the Environmental Protection Agency bouyed Lorelei Scarbro with hope. After many trips to the nation’s capitol to oppose mountaintop removal mining, the 54 year old grandmother and coal miner’s widow thought the EPA was taking its first steps to abolish the radical coal extraction process that threatens her West Virginia home.
But two weeks ago, the EPA seemingly reversed course. It recommended approval of a major mountaintop removal mine in nearby Logan County, WV, an operation that would level 760 mountain acres, fill three valleys, and destroy more than two miles of streams.
“The most important thing to me is clean drinking water for my grandchildren,” Scarbro wrote to  Lisa Jackson of the EPA after the June decision. “I don’t believe that is possible if we continue to destroy and cover head water streams in Appalachia.  Once again, I have lost hope. Please don’t let this be the final word.”
Scarbro lives in fear that a coal mine like this one will bury her home in Raleigh County, West Virginia, taking with it the way of life she holds dear. Her house, built by her late husband, stands in the shadow of one of the last untouched mountains in the area, Coal River Mountain. Massey Energy is poised to blast it to smithereens. Read entire article.

Dear Friend,

The clock is ticking on cleaning up coal ash. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency made it official on June 21, giving us 90 days to comment on the first-ever federal rule for coal ash disposal at hundreds of dumps and landfills across the country. We’ve got just three months to send 50,000 emails to the EPA, telling them to set strong, federally enforceable safeguards against this hazardous waste.

But the EPA’s proposed coal ash rule is far from perfect.

Instead of setting a clear direction on cleaning up coal ash, the EPA instead offered two options: one that uses the strongest protections under the law to curb the coal ash threat, and another that maintains the status quo, offering no federally enforceable requirements to clean up the coal ash mess.

We’re part of a national coalition of more than 250 environmental and public health groups working together to fight the lobbyists for the coal and power industries who want little or no oversight over coal ash dumping. They’ve met with EPA and White House officials and will do everything they can to keep the status quo, which allows them in many states to dump their toxic waste without any concerns for nearby communities. They don’t want to clean up the coal ash mess they’ve made over the last 50 years and will be fighting for more delay, more cutbacks and less protections for our health and environment.

Let’s tell the EPA that we want strong, federally enforceable safeguards that guarantee coal ash will not pollute our drinking water, our rivers, our streams, our wildlife and our communities. This hazardous waste has been ignored for far too long, and millions of Americans may be at risk of cancer, developmental problems, organ damage and other health threats.

TAKE ACTION: Time is Short on Coal Ash Safeguards!

- Earthjustice

Because the earth needs a good lawyer

426 17th Street, 6th Floor, Oakland CA 94612

EPA finalizes public hearing locations on coal ash
Published today, along with preregistration information, in the Federal Register:

Arlington, VA—August 30, 2010, Hyatt Regency

2799 Jefferson Davis Highway

Arlington, VA 22202

Phone: (703) 418–1234,

http://www.crystalcity.hyatt.com.

Denver, CO—September 2, 2010, Grand Hyatt, 1750 Welton Street, Denver, CO 80202

Phone: (303) 295–1234,

http://www.granddenver.hyatt.com.

Dallas, TX—September 8, 2010, Hyatt Regency Dallas

300 Reunion Boulevard

Dallas, TX 75207

Phone: (214) 651–1234,

http://www.dallasregency.hyatt.com.

Charlotte, NC—September 14, 2010,

Holiday Inn Charlotte (Airport),

2707Little Rock Road

Charlotte, NC 28214

Phone: (704) 394–4301,

http://www.hicharlotteairport.com.

Chicago, IL—September 16, 2010,

Hilton Chicago, 720 South Michigan

Avenue, Chicago, IL 60605, Phone:

(312) 922–4400,

http://www.chicagohilton.com/hotels__hiltonchicago.aspx.

Take Action!

July 8, 2010-RAN

Blasting John Denver’s ‘Take me Home, Country Roads’ in the EPA HQ, activists said: “We’re sitting down so the EPA will stand up for Appalachia’s drinking water.”

Appalachia Residents and Environmentalists Disappointed at EPA’s Decision to Approve Large Coal Permit Under New Mountaintop Mining Guidelines

Hi-res photos at: http://rainforestactionnetwork.smugmug.com/Mountain-Top-Removal/epa-pine-creek-sit-in
Audio file playing inside the EPA can be heard here: http://ran.org.s3.amazonaws.com/cr.mp3
Follow @dirtyenergy for live twitter updates of today’s events
WASHINGTON— Today, activists with the Rainforest Action Network staged a sit-in at the EPA headquarters to demand stronger protection for Appalachia’s drinking water and an end to the devastating practice of mountaintop removal (MTR) coal mining.
After entering the EPA building, activists sat down in the center of the lobby, locked themselves together with metal ‘lock boxes,’ and began to play West Virginia’s adopted state song, John Denver’s ‘Take me Home, Country Roads,’ mixed with intermittent sounds of Appalachia’s mountains being blown apart by MTR explosives. An additional activist climbed to the top of the EPA front door on Constitution Ave and blocked the door with a banner reading: ‘Blowing up mountains for coal contaminates Appalachia’s water, Stop MTR.’  
“We’re sitting down inside the EPA to demand the EPA stand up to protect Appalachia’s precious drinking water, historic mountains and public health from the devastation of mountaintop removal,” said Scott Parkin of Rainforest Action Network, who participated in the sit-in. “At issue here is not whether mountaintop removal mining is bad for the environment or human health, because we know it is and the EPA has said it is. At issue is whether President Obama’s EPA will do something about it. So far, it seems it is easier to poison Appalachia’s drinking water than to defy King Coal.”
With the nation’s eyes on the BP disaster, the EPA, without publicly announcing the action, recently gave the green light for a major new mountaintop removal coal mining permit in Logan County, West Virginia. The permit would allow the destruction of nearly three miles of currently clean streams and 760 acres of forest, in a county where at least 13 percent of the land has already been permitted for surface coal mining. This is the first permit decision the EPA has issued under the new MTR guidelines, which came out last April and were anticipated to provide tougher oversight of the practice.
“This is a devastating first decision under guidelines that had offered so much hope for Appalachian residents who thought the EPA was standing up for their health and water quality in the face of a horrific mining practice,” said Amanda Starbuck of the Rainforest Action Network. “The grand words being spoken by Administrator Jackson in Washington are simply not being reflected in the EPA’s actions on-the-ground. Moving forward, it is clear that the EPA cannot end mountaintop removal coal mining pollution, as it has committed to, without abolishing mountaintop removal all together.”  
For decades, Appalachian residents have been decrying the impact of mountaintop removal coal mining—the practice of blowing up whole mountains (and dumping the toxic debris into nearby streams and valleys) to reach seams of coal. Environmentalists, leading scientists, congressional representatives and even late coal state Senator Byrd have all called for the end to this mining practice.
A paper released in January 2009 by a dozen leading scientists in the journal Science concluded that mountaintop coal mining is so destructive that the government should stop giving out new permits all together. “The science is so overwhelming that the only conclusion that one can reach is that mountaintop mining needs to be stopped,” said Margaret Palmer, a professor at the University of Maryland Center for Environmental Sciences and the study’s lead author.
Since 1992, nearly 2,000 miles of Appalachian streams have been filled at a rate of 120 miles per year by surface mining practices.  A recent EPA study found elevated levels of highly toxic selenium in streams downstream from valley fills. These impairments are linked to contamination of surface water supplies and resulting health concerns, as well as widespread impacts to stream life in downstream rivers and streams.  Further, the estimated scale of deforestation from existing Appalachian surface mining operations is equivalent in size to the state of Delaware.  
The Pine Creek permit is currently awaiting approval from the Army Corps of Engineers.

Posted: 07- 2-10- Huffington Post
While state and federal investigations into the worst mining disaster in decades continue, mine owner Massey Energy was hit with more bad news this week.

Early Thursday morning, a 60-year-old mine employee, died in an accident at Massey’s White Buck Coal Co.’s underground Pocahontas Mine. Leslie Fitzwater, spokeswoman for the West Virginia Office of Miners’ Health, Safety and Training, said the electrician from Charmco was struck by a shuttle car, reports the Register-Herald.

Prior to this accident, the Mine Safety and Health Administration had already issued that mine more than 160 safety violations in this year alone, one-third of which were in the “serious violation” category. Read entire article.

July 7, 2010- 10:22 AM          
CONTACT: Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility (PEER)

Kirsten Stade (202) 265-7337

EPA Suspends Coal Ash Promotion Program

Abrupt Removal of Own Website While Ash Re-Use Effort Is “Re-Evaluated”

WASHINGTON – July 7 – Without public announcement, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has yanked its own website promoting the re-use of coal ash while this highly-touted partnership with the coal industry “is being re-evaluated,” according to the lonely disclaimer on now-blank agency web pages. Today, Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility (PEER) wrote to EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson urging her agency to rethink the full range of risks in putting highly toxic coal combustion wastes into an array of consumer, agricultural and commercial products – which is the object of the suspended EPA/coal industry joint venture called the Coal Combustion Products Partnership or C2P2.

Coal ash and other combustion wastes represent the second biggest waste stream in the nation, second only to wastes generated by coal mining itself. Re-use of coal ash has, with active support of EPA, turned into a multi-billion dollar business that provides a huge subsidy to coal-fired power-plants. Following the disastrous Kentucky coal sludge spill in December 2008, EPA has belatedly undertaken an effort to possibly regulate coal ash as a hazardous waste. The main industry concern about regulating coal sludge ponds as hazardous is the “stigmatizing effect” that would have on the growing coal ash market.

The C2P2 program put EPA in an awkward position of promoting what it is supposed to be regulating. Earlier this year, PEER revealed that EPA officials routinely allow coal industry executives to edit agency reports and fact sheets to downplay risks of coal ash. C2P2 product endorsements have drawn criticism from EPA’s Inspector General. Last week, PEER filed an administrative complaint charging EPA with falsely touting, via C2P2 publications, greenhouse gas reductions from coal combustion waste reuse.

Last month, as it unveiled its final proposals for regulating coal sludge, EPA quietly posted a notice that C2P2 was temporarily suspended because it “was deemed appropriate to foster dialogue on the proposal evenhandedly with all interested parties through the public comment process.” This week in an unusual move, EPA went further by suddenly taking down all the C2P2 postings and leaving only this statement:

 “The Coal Combustion Products Partnerships (C2P2) program Web pages have been removed while the program is being re-evaluated.”

 “We suggest that EPA use this opportunity to honestly review the entire range of potential public health and environmental effects of injecting millions of tons of unquestionably hazardous materials into the stream of commerce,” stated PEER Executive Director Jeff Ruch, noting that EPA has used industry research as the underpinnings of the C2P2 findings. “With so many unknowns, EPA should cease being promotional and try being precautionary about coal ash.”

 If EPA is genuinely reconsidering its previous posture that virtually all re-use of coal ash was “beneficial” and thus beyond regulation, it would be a huge shift with profound implications for the economics of coal-generated power. “If coal plants had to properly dispose of all their combustion wastes this power source would not be such a bargain anymore,” Ruch added.

Samuel E. Flenner III

Outreach Associate

Environmental Integrity Project

www.environmentalintegrity.org

samf.environmentalintegrity@gmail.com

317.352.2339  c-317.850.0436

Decision made quietly disappoints opponents, skirts science

by Matthew Berger – Jul 7th, 2010

The EPA has given tentative – and quiet – approval to a new mountaintop removal mine in West Virginia. It is the agency’s first decision under the new guidelines it issued April 1 which promised to prevent “significant and irreversible damage to Appalachian watersheds at risk from mining activity.”

Environmental groups say the approval, which was indicated in a letter last week, shows the agency is not serious about sticking to those stricter new regulations and the science behind them.               

In mountaintop removal mining, coal mining companies strip away forests then blast the bare mountaintops to cut through hundreds of feet of rock and reach the coal seams buried below. The dynamited rock, soil and unearthed heavy metals, collectively called “spoil” or “overburden,” are dumped into adjacent valleys, often burying streams that wildlife and area residents depend on. Toxins from those mine sites that make it into the water and air have been blamed for health problems including birth defects and chronic heart and lung diseases. Read entire article.

KDKA

A local community is fed up after the latest water main break in their neighborhood.

Last night neighbors along Railroad Street in the village of Webster, Westmoreland County, heard the familiar telltale rumbling underground.

Another water main break was about to blow and not for the first time. The old patching along the street says it all.

People are really frustrated.

“This is just constant,” Jack Cheesbrough said. “First it’s all winter long, now it’s all summer long.”

“We’re not rich down here but everybody tries to take care of their property real good,” Barry Couser said.

Railroad Street might be better dubbed “Water Street.”

“This is No. 20 in three years in this two-block stretch here,” Kathi Swann said.

Three of those breaks occurred in just over the past month.

“It’s just not fair to the people down here and everybody is tired of it,” Cheesbrough added.

On Memorial Day, a geyser sprayed slimy mud and water all over the place. In an earlier break, a newspaper delivery lady was swallowed up to her axles when the street collapsed.

“It’s just an ongoing hassle,” Cheesbrough said. Read entire article.

Complaint Filed to Delete Inaccurate Statements from EPA Website and Publications

WASHINGTON – July 1 – The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency routinely makes the false claim that putting coal combustion wastes into consumer and commercial products actually reduces generation of greenhouse gases associated with climate change. Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility (PEER) today filed a complaint against the agency demanding that numerous inaccurate statements touting the greenhouse gas benefits of coal ash be removed from the EPA website and publications.

EPA has a formal promotional partnership with the coal industry to expand use of coal ash and other coal combustion wastes in products such as cement, wallboard, carpet backing and consumer products such as kitchen counters and even cosmetics and toothpaste. As part of this campaign, EPA repeatedly represents that using coal ash reduces greenhouse gas emissions because it substitutes for virgin materials.

One huge fallacy is that EPA claims generally omit any mention of the massive amounts of greenhouse gases emitted in mining and burning the coal to produce the ash. Many of the EPA assertions are made without reference sources, methodology or qualification. Occasionally the agency inserts a footnote that it makes the highly questionable assumption that coal ash is carbon neutral for purposes of its claims.

“Coal is our biggest source of greenhouse gases. It is the height of absurdity to contend that the toxic wastes produced by coal combustion help our atmosphere,” stated PEER Executive Director Jeff Ruch, noting that EPA recently suspended the coal ash promotion campaign (called the Coal Combustion Product Partnership or C2P2) while it considers whether to regulate coal ash as a hazardous waste.

The PEER complaint is filed under the Data Quality Act which requires that materials distributed or relied upon by federal agencies be accurate, complete and unbiased. In addition to the central flaw mentioned above, the PEER complaint cites the fact that EPA’s coal ash claims -

• Violate its own guidelines published for calculating lifecycle emissions;
• Bury its own conclusion that coal ash use “may not be an efficient method for reducing overall emissions” of greenhouse gases and may in fact be a net detriment; and
• Are internally inconsistent and usually are un-sourced.

EPA has 90 days to respond to the complaint. If it rejects the complaint, PEER may file an administrative appeal forcing the formation of a three-member executive panel to review the matter. The decision by that review panel is final.

“EPA is guilty of false advertising. Using taxpayer dollars to mislead the public adds insult to the injury,” added Ruch. “EPA should purge this nonsense from its website now.”

June 30, 2010

The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) has issued a Request For Information (RFI) to gain public input on the development of a Wind Energy Workforce Roadmap, which will provide details on the current workforce landscape in the wind industry as well as future steps necessary to train and develop a green workforce for the sector.

The purpose of the Roadmap is to establish the policy objectives and overall direction that workforce development efforts throughout the wind industry should assume as it moves forward. This RFI provides leaders from academia, industry, and government with the opportunity to provide insight and guidance to DOE as the nation ramps up its wind energy production. A draft Roadmap document has been developed, and the public may provide comments on the initial draft or may provide alternative or additional viewpoints.

This RFI does not constitute a request for specific project proposals. The information being sought under this RFI is intended to assist DOE and the wind industry in maximizing ongoing efforts to spark interest and skills development in the growing wind industry.

The information collected may be used for internal DOE planning and decision-making to align future activities under the Wind and Water Power Program with the Administration’s goals for increased use of renewable energy and domestic job creation.

DOE will not reimburse costs associated with preparing any documents for this RFI, and there is no guarantee that a funding opportunity announcement will be issued subsequent to this RFI.

View the full text of the RFI at the FedConnect Web site.

Comments must be provided by no later than July 30, 2010.

The mission of the DOE Wind Program is to focus the passion, ingenuity, and diversity of the nation to enable the rapid expansion of clean, affordable, reliable, and domestic wind power to promote national security, economic vitality, and environmental quality. For more information on how DOE works to develop and deploy wind power technologies, see the Wind and Water Power Program’s Web site.

June 29, 2010- Rainforest Action Network

EPA’s First Decision Under New Mountaintop Mining Guidelines is to Approve Coal Permit; Permit Would Create Three New Valley Fills

SAN FRANCISCO– Just last week, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency gave the Army Corps of Engineers a green light for the Pine Creek mine permit, a mountaintop removal (MTR) mining site in Logan County, W.Va. This is the first permit decision the EPA has issued under the new mountaintop mining guidelines, which came out last April and were anticipated to provide tougher oversight of mountaintop removal coal mining.
The new MTR guidelines were understood to provide greater protection for headwater streams by curbing the practice of dumping waste in neighboring valleys to create what is known as valley fills. The Pine Creek permit is the first test of these guidelines, and green lights three new valley fills (each over 40 acres large). It was anticipated that these guidelines, by requiring mining operators to control levels of toxins in nearby streams, would significantly reduce the dumping of mining waste in valleys, which the EPA said was scientifically proven to contaminate drinking water and wreck ecosystems.
“This is a devastating first decision under guidelines that had offered so much hope for Appalachian residents who thought the EPA was standing up for their health and water quality in the face of a horrific mining practice,” said Amanda Starbuck of the Rainforest Action Network. “The grand words being spoken by Administrator Jackson in Washington are simply not being reflected in the EPA’s actions on-the-ground. This continues the inconsistent and contradictory decisions that have plagued the EPA’s process on mountaintop removal coal mining all along.”
In announcing the new guidelines in April, Administrator Jackson told reporters: “We expect this guidance to change behaviors, to change actions, because if we keep doing what we have been doing, we’re going to see continued degradation of water quality… Minimizing the number of valley fills is a very, very key factor. You’re talking about no or very few valley fills that are going to be able to meet standards like this. Read entire article

The piss poor week of coal news this week makes the BP disaster look like a cake walk. If only I could be glib and declare: The more things change, the more things stay the same. Peabody Energy announced they’re opening a massive strip mine in Mongolia that will dwarf Wyoming’s Powder River Basin to “solve world poverty”; Australia’s strip mines continue to disappear historic communities; and the NY Times pointed out that Big Coal receives over $100 billion annually in welfare from Europe. Read entire article.

CALEDONIA — Some residents near the Oak Creek power plant have not had access to drinking water since last August because their wells have been contaminated.

They have been advised by the state Department of Natural Resources to not drink or cook with the well water because of higher-than-standard levels of a dissolved metal called molybdenum.

Instead, they’ve been drinking and cooking with the water bottles supplied to them by We Energies “as a courtesy and precautionary measure.”

“It is possible that molybdenum is naturally occurring at these levels in your well water, or it could represent impacts from coal ash fills in the area,” reads a letter from Kristine Krause, vice president-environmental at Wisconsin Energy Corp., dated Aug. 24.

The state groundwater standard for molybdenum, set in 2006, is 40 micrograms per liter. The residents along County Line Road or Douglas Avenue are finding higher levels, even up to triple the standard in one case. Frank Bink’s water sample read 113 micrograms per liter on Aug. 26, according to an Oct. 5 letter from We Energies. Because it was so high, they tested it again — it read 124 micrograms per liter on Sept. 25. 

“Had I known … I wouldn’t have built out here,” says Bink, who’s 84, retired and has lived at his house on County Line Road near the plant for 51 years.

Out of the 27 residential wells We Energies tested since 2007, 14 of those showed higher concentrations of molybdenum than the state standard. Test results ranged from 3 micrograms per liter to 58, plus two farther away at 89 and 124 micrograms per liter, according to the company. Read entire article.

That’s the good news. The bad news is that EPA’s proposed rule offers an out to industry by way of an alternative to the Subtitle C approach. In addition to the Subtitle C hazardous waste section, RCRA also contains much more lax regulatory provisions under Subtitle D where non-hazardous, solid wastes like your own household garbage are covered. Under this section, regulation and enforcement is left largely to the states, resulting in a patchwork approach of inconsistent monitoring and control. In its proposed rule, EPA is considering regulation of coal ash under either Subtitle C or, as an alternative, Subtitle D. Their primary justification for considering the “D” option is that it will cost the industry a whole lot less money than regulation under “C”. In other words, EPA is considering trading off your health and safety for industry profits.

Write EPA today and tell them that there is only one real option for regulating hazardous coal ash waste and that is the Subtitle C approach. Coal ash is a dangerous mixture of arsenic, lead, mercury and other many other poisons. When improperly disposed of it contaminates drinking water supplies, surface waters and communities. There are thousands of these poorly managed and maintained coal ash impoundments across the country – thousands of TVA coal ash disasters waiting to happen.

Impacts on industry profits are no reason to abandon the regulatory approach to hazardous wastes mandated with passage of this important environmental law. Write EPA today and demand that the people in Washington who are charged with safeguarding your environmental and public safety do the right thing and implement strong RCRA Subtitle C regulation of hazardous coal ash waste. Tell them that D is not an option.
Sincerely,
Donna Marie Lisenby
Upper Watauga Riverkeeper
a program of Appalachian Voices
191 Howard Street
Boone, NC 28607
828-262-1500
www.appalachianvoices.org
www.iLoveMountains.org
Member Waterkeeper Alliance, Inc.

The New River – 6.21.10 – ACTION ALERT – GILES COUNTY FLY ASH ON THE NEW

Many of you have been following the fly ash travesty in Giles County, Virginia. With this Action Alert, we are asking you today to take action on behalf of the New River!

For 2.5 years NCNR has been working with the Concerned Citizens of Giles County (CCGC) who have been working tirelessly trying to figure out how a 7.5 acre 250,000 cubic yard Coal Combustion Waste dumpsite could be placed in the flood plain of the New River.

Through dogged research, and numerous FOIAs (Freedom of Information Act), much of the “process” has now been uncovered. On April 3rd 2006, before any information about the project was public knowledge, an AEP representative requested assurances from Giles County, via an email, that their project (to dump fly ash in an unlined pit on the banks of the New River) would be allowed to move forward if the property was acquired.

We can only assume that the assurances were given — because the land was acquired and the project began! At the time the land was acquired, no permits were applied for or granted — the project had not been reviewed by state or federal agencies.

Additionally, we suspect that different information was subsequently provided on the state and federal permit applications — these agencies did not have the complete picture when approving permits.

The lack of information effectively eliminated public participation in the approval process. Citizens should have the right to comment when a dumpsite containing toxic heavy metals is placed in their community!

How can you help? We’re asking you to request Congressman Rick Boucher (the dump is in his Congressional District) to continue to seek the answers to these questions. He sought a congressional FOIA in the fall of 2009, but we still have not received answers to our questions. We’re appealing to VA DCR, FEMA, and EPA regarding these issues but without these answers our case is incomplete.

Please urge Congressman Boucher get us the answers we seek! A sample letter to the Congressman follows. You may contact him via email on his website if you live in the district, or, send regular mail, or call, one of the offices listed after this sample letter. If you would like to see a copy of our June 21, 2010 letter to the Congressman from our attorney, please email me (george@ncnr.org) and we will send you a copy.

The Honorable Richard Boucher

U.S. House of Representatives

Washington, D.C. 20515

Dear Representative Boucher:

It is critical for the people of Giles County, and everyone who values the New River, to receive answers to our questions regarding the fly ash dump on the river in Giles County. We know that you are aware of the project and have sought answers via a congressional FOIA, but to date we have no answers to our concerns about the public comment and permitting processes of this project. As a (tax payer/Giles or VA Citizen/lover of the New River), I request that you find out this information. Please let me know when we can expect a response.

Be sure to you’re your name and supply contact information for a response when you take call or send a letter.

http://www.boucher.house.gov/index.php?option=com_content&view=frontpage&Itemid=1

Abingdon Office | 188 East Main Street | Abingdon, Virginia 24210 | 276-628-1145

Pulaski Office | 106 North Washington | Pulaski, Virginia 24301 | 540-980-4310

Big Stone Gap Office | 1 Cloverleaf Square | Suite C-1 | Big Stone Gap, Virginia 24219 | 276-523-5450

Washington D.C. Office | 2187 Rayburn House Office Building | Washington, D.C. 20515 | 202-225-3861 | 202-225-0442(fax)

Thank you for contacting Congressman Boucher on behalf of the New River., and please do it today. The New River needs answers.

George Santucci

Executive Director

National Committee for the New River

Press Contacts:

George Santucci

PO Box 1480 West Jefferson, NC 28694

336/982-6267

george@ncnr.org

The papers, which measure 60 cubic feet in volume and would fill about 100 boxes, remain at UK while Berry negotiates their transfer to the Kentucky Historical Society in Frankfort. He said the papers include letters he has received over the years, drafts of various books and corrected proofs.
Berry, 75, said UK’s push to become a “Top 20″ research university has caused it to stray from its land-grant university obligation to address Kentucky’s problems.Read entire article.