Coal Mining and Clean Water

Posted on January 12, 2010 | Filed Under: Global Warming , Clean Water

Will Hewes
Climate Policy Coordinator

“Clean air, and water and coal mining go hand in hand.” So read an opinion piece in the Charleston Gazette earlier this month.

Phew, and all this time I had been worried that burying thousands of miles of streams in Appalachia had an impact on water quality and surrounding communities. The article goes on to make an impassioned argument in favor of continued coal mining and urges us to not “let our freedom diminish.”

As would seem relatively obvious to most unbiased observers, coal mining has not typically advanced the cause of clean water, especially when it comes to mountaintop removal. The process of coal mining can have some pretty disastrous downsides. Margaret Palmer - a member of American Rivers’ scientific and technical advisory committee - and a number of other scientists published a study in Science this week detailing the full environmental cost of mountaintop removal. The authors find:

“Mining permits are being issued despite the preponderance of scientific evidence that impacts are pervasive and irreversible and that mitigation cannot compensate for the losses.”

The practice buries streams that are important to the overall health of the watershed, destroys forests, and decreases biodiversity. Contaminants from mining sites have been found to spread far downstream and degrade water quality. There are also significant threats to human health. In mined areas, there are higher levels of chemicals in well water and elevated rates of mortality, lung cancer, and heart, lung, and kidney disease.

Coal mining also has a dual effect of worsening climate change and increasing our vulnerability to its impacts. Continued burning of coal will contribute to rising temperatures, increased floods and droughts, and worsening water pollution problems. By damaging our natural resources, mountaintop removal also makes ecosystems less resilient to the impacts of climate change and decreases their ability to provide clean water, reduce floods, and buffer against droughts.

If defenders of this destructive practice want to protect West Virginia’s economy, they would do well to support a transition to energy sources that will make us energy independent and preserve the ecosystems that drive the state’s economy. There may be some near-term economic disruption as we transition to alternative energy sources, but this can be overcome with the right policies.

We have to stop mortgaging our future for short-term advantages. By continuing to insist that burying streams under mountains of dirt, heavy metals, and other contaminants is actually good for clean water, we will degrade both the environment and the economy we pass on to our children.

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