Article: “A toxic crisis in America’s coal country”

Source: BBC News

Citation:

Evans, G. (2019, February 11). A toxic crisis in America’s coal country. Retrieved from https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-47165522.

The Questions:

• What: A type of surface mining for coal known as mountaintop removal has polluted the water in the Appalachian Mountains, leading to symptoms like rashes, restrictive airway disease, dermatitis, and generic skin disease along with general inflammation and cancer.
• Who: CM Energy, owner of the surface mine in Wyoming County since 2017 (previously Dynamic Energy)
• Why: Mountaintop removal leads to excess waste material that state licensing does not regulate disposal of.
• When: First practiced in the 1970s, but practice continues today.
• Where: Multiple counties across the Appalachian Mountains.
• How: Companies dump overburden into valleys, covering streams. The water sources then have to travel through the waste, collecting acidic ions and metals.

Impact of the event:Residents are suffering health impacts listed above and many other effects. Taps, toilets, showers, appliances, and anything that comes into contact with the water are stained by the water. Drinking water isn’t safe, one man was told his clothes would be flammable in direct sunlight if washed in the water, and individual wells produce water that reeks of sulfur. The same man collects water from a local stream and treats it with swimming pool chemicals, which could lead to additional health impacts.

Relevance to society: People face health consequences, extreme costs for safe water, lengthy lawsuits, and poor living conditions. One man took out a loan against his property to drill a new well, not even knowing if it would result in clean water. A woman’s wedding ring corroded from the water. Neighbors have turned against each other due to differing opinions on litigation.

Relevance to the course: Water is an important provisioning service, necessary for human life and for the sustainability of the environment. Toxic chemicals are leeching into the water through mining waste, which in turn is spreading it into the ground, plants, and homes of residents. Dumping waste in this way is not sustainable, and allowing this dumping is polluting water that sustains life. The same life that supports the economy and is needed to do the jobs that sustain the way of life in the Appalachian Mountains.

Any pertinent questions raised by the story: What is an alternative way to dispose of the waste from mountaintop removal mining? What are less invasive methods that could be developed to mine for coal? Can the water be treated, or does it need to be disposed of entirely?

02/14/2019 EDIT: Union of Concerned Scientists & EPA article links if anyone would like to read more about this issue.

https://www.ucsusa.org/clean-energy/coal-and-other-fossil-fuels/coal-water-pollution#.XGQ5vC3MzR0

https://cfpub.epa.gov/si/si_public_record_report.cfm?Lab=NERL&dirEntryId=238504

This issue still has not been picked up by major news agencies besides a WV state newspaper.