Environmentalists Fear Mountaintop Mining

[Ithaca 37]

Sounds like it's tough on the water quality!

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/ap/20040107/ap_on_go_ca_st_pe/mountaintop_mining_2


"The method, dubbed "mountaintop mining," involves shearing off the tops of ridges to expose a coal seam. Dirt and rock are pushed into nearby stream beds, a practice known as valley fill.


The Interior Department's proposal would eliminate an existing policy that says land within 100 feet of a stream cannot be disturbed by mining activity unless a company can prove that the work won't affect the stream's water quality and quantity......"

I'm afraid Bush is becoming the worst president, ever, on the hunting and fishing/wildlife habitat issues. I know he and Sr. went quail hunting last week, but do you suppose that was anything like the way I hunt quail on public land?

 

[1_pointer]

It's already happening in W.Va and Eastern KY. Bush made it simpler by allowing the removed material to be classified as construction waste or some such and can be disposed of most anywhere. Many a stream is no longer flowing.

 

[Bambistew]

Mountain top mining accounts for a very small % of the nations coal production. The clean air act states that only X tons of sulfer dioxide can be emited into the air each year... The coal in Appalachia is very high in sulfer, sometimes up to about 12%, while the coal in the Powder River Basin in MT and WY runs around 1-4%. The draw back is the coal in the PBR is pretty low quality (low BTU) while Appalachia coal is of much higher BTU (almost twice) SO, the coals are blended to make the end result give the highest BTU's and meet the emissions requirements. As you can see the the Appilachia coal is of much higher sulfer content so very little of it can be used before the sulfer content gets to high. This has resulted in a shift in the last 5 years of the coal production in the west out pacing that in the east.

Aproximatly 1billion tons of coal are mined every year, accounting for about 70% of electrical production. Approximatly 400mil tons are shipped from the PBR every year. It would be more but rail lines are the limiting factor. They can "only" run about 90 unit trains through there a day!

The environmental problems that MTM creats are not worth the small amount of coal that is removed... The largest MTM in Penn, mines about 250,000 tons a year from three seams ranging from 20" to 8"... this is very high quality coal (14,000BTU)$$$, but on the other hand is the impact worth it??? PBR coal mins have that much production in a month and a couple produce that in a couple days, with a much smaller impact to the environment, atctually very little. Well to say very little is an undersatement, but when its all said and done the only thing that will be different will be that the land is about 40 feet lower... The draw back is that the PBR coal is only about 7500BTU, thus making it worth about a third of what the appalachia coal is worth but costing about the same to mine... once again $$$ and profits drive the world. Which all translates to all of us using electricity. The US as a whole uses almost as much electricty as the entire world put together... That is pretty damn scary to me!

Personally I don't think the water quality in appalachia could get much worse... but by alowing the mines to dump directly into the streams is not a wise thing to do...

Ivan

 

[dgibson]

Bambistew, your statements are spot-on in my limited experience. The fact that low-sulphur coal has run out (or never existed) in this area is a good deal of why many coal fields in Western Kentucky closed down.

Regarding the question of whether the low-income MTM is "worth the impact," well, sure it is, to the coal companies! The environmental impact doesn't cost them anything (or substantially less, anyway) under the new rules, so what do they care?

 

[1_pointer]

The plant my dad works at had problems with the coal from WY spontaneously combusting after being pulverized. Is this attributed to the low sulphur content?

Another reason we need to find a lower emission, renewable fuel source.