Restoring Clean Water in the Coalfields of Tennessee and Virginia
In the Appalachian region of Tennessee and Virginia, the dramatic rise in mountaintop removal and other coal mining practices has taken a devastating toll on our water resources. Entire streams have been buried under waste rock, and aquatic life has been pushed to the brink of survival.
 ©SELC The Clinch, Powell and Big South Fork watersheds are among the world's most biologically diverse river systems - and are suffering severe impacts from mountaintop removal coal mining. |
Today, dozens of native fish and mussel species, harbingers of declining water quality, are in dire trouble in three of America’s most biologically rich watersheds – the Clinch, Powell and Big South Fork of the Cumberland. (See what’s at stake.)
SELC has petitioned the federal agencies charged with preventing this from happening to fully and carefully assess the impacts of coal mining on our most vulnerable wildlife.
Our action seeks to abolish a sweeping, nationwide policy issued by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) in 1996 at the request of the Office of Surface Mining (OSM), which regulates coal mining. The policy, called a “biological opinion,” stated that no coal mining operation anywhere in the U.S. would ever harm threatened or endangered species listed then, or in the future.
FWS summarily concluded, without any analysis, that the Surface Mining Control and Reclamation Act provided sufficient protection for all species, everywhere. As an environmental safety net, this mining law has been a tragic failure. More than 1,200 stream miles in four Appalachian states, including Tennessee and Virginia, have been damaged or destroyed by regulated mining between 1992 and 2002. Recent studies document significant declines of native fish and mussel species in stretches of the Clinch, Powell and Big South Fork closest to active coal mining, and link the decline to the mining.
As our petition states, the FWS and OSM are required by the Endangered Species Act to re-open consultation to fully assess impacts of coal mining operations on federally protected species and habitat.
The Southern Environmental Law Center, representing the Center for Biological Diversity, National Parks Conservation Association, and World Wildlife Fund, has filed a petition urging the FWS to revoke its 1996 opinion. The Tennessee Wildlife Resources Agency is also a petitioner, and the Tennessee Department of Environment and Conservation has supported our petition with a letter to FWS.
This action is especially critical now, as OSM moves to further weaken the water quality protections of the surface mining law with its proposed change to the controversial “stream buffer zone” rule, making it easier for coal operations to dump waste in headwater streams.
