Last year, the Tennessee Department of Environment
and Conservation approved a permit for a 2,100 acres mountaintop removal
coal mine in Campbell County, Tennessee.
This mine on Zeb Mountain is the largest of the four mountaintop
removal mines that have been permitted in Tennessee since 2000.
During
a mountain removal operation, a company blasts apart the top of a mountain
and removes an entire seam of coal.
The coal operator then stores the spoil material from the top of
the mountain in the top of small valleys or attempts to pile the spoil
back up into a man-made mountain.
The huge surface area that is disturbed creates uncontrollable
sediment pollution that chokes streams.
The head of hollow fills and the reconstructed peaks of loose spoil
create conditions for increased flooding and the possibility of catastrophic
slope failure.
In Tennessee,
the federal government has primary responsibility for regulating coal
mining. The State Government
has responsibility for regulating the aspect of mining that impacts the
water. In the past year the
Bredesen administration has taken two positions related to mountaintop
removal. In December, TDEC
responded to the federal draft environmental impact statement on mountaintop
mining saying that it is and will continue to be the State of Tennessee’s
position to not allow disposal of mine spoil in streams.
In March, Commissioner Child responded to a federal proposal to
weaken the rule that provides a buffer between mining activities and streams
by requesting that federal officials either maintain or expand protection
of streams from mining.
In the coming year, the State of Tennessee should move
to protect Tennessee’s mountains, streams, and communities from devastation
by mountaintop removal. The
Governor should put in place policies that use existing water quality
law to stop the spread of mountaintop removal in the state and TDEC should
not issue additional permits for mountaintop removal.
