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SPEECH TO THE APPALACHIAN STUDIES ASSOC. Mountaintop Removal and the Destruction of Appalachia Jack Spadaro The Ecosystem The Central Appalachian region of the United States, consisting of Eastern Kentucky, Southern West Virginia, and Southwestern Virginia, is one of the most biologically diverse regions in North America. The forests in this region constitute the largest unbroken forest east of the Mississippi River. It is home to approximately 250 bird species, 150 tree species, and countless animal, plant, and aquatic species. Since the early 1970s approximately 380,000 acres in West Virginia; 320,000 acres in Kentucky; and 90,000 acres in Virginia have been strip mined for coal. Mountaintop removal operations have become the predominant form of strip mining in this region. Mountaintop removal requires the use of large valley fills for the disposal of the soil and rock removed from the tops of the mountains to allow access to the coal seams. Many of these valley fills contain millions of tons of soil and rock and are dumped with little regard to the effects upon aquatic, animal, or plant life, or the human beings downstream. Some valley fills contain over three hundred million tons of mining debris and extend downstream from their headwaters for as far as six miles. More than nineteen hundred miles of streams have been buried or severely degraded, in fact completely obliterated, by the valley fills. These mine waste valley fills are the largest earth structures in North America. Flash Flooding and Fatalities Since 2001 there have been at least seven periods of severe flash flooding in the region that can be directly attributed to increased runoff from mountaintop removal operations and other types of strip mining operations. Flash flooding occurred on July 8, 26, 28, and 29, 2001, in Southern West Virginia and Eastern Kentucky. Flash flooding 37 occurred again on May 2 and July 19, 2002, and the next year on June 16, 2003. There have been fatalities. As far back as June 1, 1997, two people died in the Clear Creek area of Raleigh County, West Virginia, as a result of flash flooding caused by runoff from a mountaintop removal operation. On July 8, 2001, three people drowned in flash flooding related to strip mining operations, and on May 2, 2002, at least seven people died as a result of rapid runoff and flooding caused by mountaintop removal. As recently as August 2004, young Jeremy Davidson, a three-year old boy who lived near the community of Appalachia, Virginia, died when a boulder weighing several tons was dislodged by a bulldozer constructing an illegal haul road to a strip mining operation. Jeremy was asleep in his bed when he was crushed to death by the boulder. The road construction was being conducted in the early morning hours in a steep sloped area so as to avoid detection by government regulators. Sediment Loading of Streams and Reservoirs Sediment loading of streams, particularly in the Kentucky, Cumberland, and Big Sandy river basins in Kentucky, and the Guyandot, Coal, and Tug river basins in West Virginia, has accelerated at an alarming rate in the past twenty-five years. This is due to increased runoff from the unstable, eroding slopes of valley fills and poorly graded mountaintop removal areas. The sediment load in areas downstream from mountaintop removal operations can now be measured in the millions of tons. It is estimated that about twelve hundred miles of streams downstream from mountaintop removal operations have been severely damaged by sedimentation and heavy metal deposition. Flooding of the main stem rivers and the Ohio River itself can be attributed to this increased sediment loading, which reduces stream and flood control reservoir capacities. It is estimated that some flood control reservoirs in Eastern Kentucky, particularly Fishtrap Lake on the Levisa Fork of the Big Sandy River, have lost as much as 60% of their storage capacities. 38 Coal Waste and Slurry In October 2000 I was asked by the Assistant Secretary of Labor for Mine Safety And Health under President Clinton to participate in an investigation of the Martin County Coal Slurry Spill, which occurred on October 11, 2000. The conflicts involved in that investigation have been well documented by...

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