www.roanoke.com

Joan Kark

Kark is a retired Virginia Tech professor who lives on Guinea Mountain in Giles County.

Legislators, including Rep. Rick Boucher, D-Abingdon, have proposed bills to encourage coal-to-liquid fuels and other measures helpful to the coal industry (Feb. 26 Associated Press article, "Boucher renews his push for liquefied coal as fuel"). If successful, these representatives will be instrumental in the widespread destruction of the Southern Appalachian Mountains due to mountaintop removal coal mining.

Mountaintop removal coal mining is the process of blasting off a mountain to extract the thin seams of coal. The debris from the blasting is then dumped into valleys, filling in streams. Thus, the mountain as well as the stream is destroyed, having detrimental effects on the surrounding communities.

In addition, the coal is then taken to nearby facilities for processing where the resultant coal slurry waste is stored in huge ponds, many of which lurk dangerously over the communities below.

This radical method of strip mining has destroyed an estimated half-million acres of land in West Virginia, more than 300,000 in Kentucky, 100,000 in Virginia and slightly less in Tennessee. Unfortunately, these figures will increase dramatically because of the proposed legislation.

So-called land reclamation by spraying an alien species of grass seed on the barren land does nothing to solve these problems. And very few sites have been reclaimed successfully. More often, companies that extracted the coal declare bankruptcy, leaving barren sites.

Boucher perceives coal as a way to "move our country away from petroleum as the primary fuel." But there are far better alternatives to liquefied coal as a gasoline replacement, such as ethanol and other biofuels that would support farmers. These alternatives do not involve major destruction of the environment nor does their extraction endanger public health.

As a supporter of coal, Boucher is not alone in the government. Virginia Sen. James Webb has sponsored legislation to research carbon dioxide storage, a method to offset coal's major contribution to global warming.

Sen. Barack Obama of Illinois also has sponsored a coal-to-liquid fuel bill. Montana's Gov. Brian Schweitzer and West Virginia's Gov. Joe Manchin both are strong coal supporters.

Besides being Democratic Party members, they all have something else in common: large coal reserves exist in their respective states.

For Boucher and Webb, the coal is located in Virginia's Far Southwest, which has seen a coal boom since 2001. Unfortunately, it has not meant prosperity for the residents. On the contrary, these counties generate some of the lowest annual per capita incomes and, not surprisingly, some of the highest suicide rates in the state.

Instead of prosperity, these residents have suffered through clouds of coal dust that cover their homes from the incessant coal truck traffic coming out of the mines.

I have seen houses that sustained serious structural damage due to the blasting from mountaintop removal. When these homeowners complained to state agencies, they received no sympathy from the person charged with investigating public safety hazards. Consequently, the homeowners cannot afford to move, since their houses are severely devalued. They have been unable to receive restitution either.

Unfortunately, these are not isolated cases. Similar stories can be heard throughout Appalachia, but our representatives are not hearing them.

On a recent trip to Southwest Virginia, Webb toured an underground coal mine rather than visiting the far more common mountaintop mine. He met with coal industry representatives, but did not meet with local residents suffering from the ill effects of mountaintop coal mining.

Although Boucher's office is close by in Abingdon, he has declined to accept an invitation to take a plane trip from there to inspect the widespread destruction of our Appalachian Mountains.

As chairman of the House of Representatives' Energy and Air Quality Subcommittee, Boucher could be a catalyst to stop or slow the rate of mountaintop removal coal mining. Likewise, he and Webb could be instrumental in promoting renewable energy. These measures should include:

n Supporting the bill H.R. 2719 that would amend the Federal Water Pollution Control Act to clarify that fill material cannot be composed of waste, thereby protecting our streams from strip mining debris.

n Holding coal and coal truck companies accountable for harm to residents and their property.

n Promoting renewable energy and energy conservation.

n Prohibiting mountaintop removal coal mining.

n Abandoning sponsorship of legislation to promote the use of coal-to-liquid fuels.

Implementing this legislation will protect the southern Appalachian Mountains from future destruction by mountaintop removal coal mining. Let's hope that our representatives have the courage and vision to do so.