Federal judge rules that mountaintop removal is damaging Southern West Virginia streams

"Citing what he said was 'extensive scientific evidence,' a federal judge has ruled for the first time that conductivity pollution from mountaintop removal mining operations is damaging streams in Southern West Virginia," Ken Ward reports for the Charleston Gazette. "U.S. District Judge Robert C. Chambers concluded that mines operated by Alpha Natural Resources in Boone and Nicholas counties have 'caused or materially contributed to a significant adverse impact' to nearby streams, giving citizen groups a major victory that also supports Obama administration efforts to reduce mountaintop removal impacts."

Chambers "found that mining discharges had not only altered the chemistry of the streams but also 'unquestionably biologically impaired' them, leaving both the diversity and abundance of aquatic life 'profoundly reduced,'” Ward writes. The judge wrote: "Losing diversity in aquatic life, as sensitive species are extirpated and only pollution-tolerant species survive, is akin to the canary in a coal mine." (Wikipedia map: Nicholas County)

“As key ingredients to West Virginia‘s once abundant clean water, the upper reaches of West Virginia‘s complex network of flowing streams provide critical attributes―functions, in ecological science—that support the downstream water quality relied upon by West Virginians for drinking water, fishing and recreation and important economic uses,” Chambers wrote. “Protecting these uses is the overriding purpose of West Virginia’s water quality standards and the goal of the state’s permit requirements.” Alpha Resources has said it will appeal the ruling. (Read more)