Mountaintop-removal mining under attack in the courts and in the legislature in Kentucky

Jim Bruggers, environmental writer for The Courier-Journal, informs Louisville-region readers about a big case involving mountaintop- removal strip mining for coal in Leslie County in Eastern Kentucky: "The Thunder Ridge mine is undergoing a planned 1.5-square-mile expansion that, since December, has become the newest front line in a national battle over mountaintop removal and other surface mining methods. The Kentucky Waterways Alliance and the Sierra Club have had recent success using the courts to slow the Thunder Ridge expansion."

The environmental groups sued the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, which issues water-pollution permits. The suit says that the corps' Louisville office "allowed streams to be filled in five valleys, and [that] a mitigation plan is flawed. After work on the first two began in December, the corps in January blocked the three others, agreeing to take a second look. It was the first time the Louisville office had done that." Most such permits for mountaintop-removal mines are handled by the Huntington, W.Va., office; the boundaries are based on watersheds.

Bruggers writes that mountaintop removal is "literally remaking the landscape of Appalachia. While some landowners are happy to see their property leveled off, environmentalists warn the headwaters that feed waterways that eventually reach the Ohio River and others are being irreparably damaged." He notes a Valentine's Day "I Love Mountains" rally at the state Capitol in Frankfort will push a bill that would ban mined material from being dumped in stream beds -- a measure that the industry says would kill mountaintop removal. Not so, says Teri Blanton of Berea, former chairwoman of Kentuckians for the Commonwealth, which is organizing the rally. She told Bruggers, "They would have to do it a little more responsibly rather than just blowing up the mountain and putting it over the side." (Read more)