There is no such thing as cheap coal, part II

Le Jacquelope

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How much pollution does solar produce?
How many streams are fouled up or destroyed by solar panels?
How many mountains are blasted away to make room for solar panels?
How much dust do solar panels generate to mess up your lungs?
How many homes are flooded by solar panels to the point where emergency crews can't get in to rescue you?
How many toxic cleanups are needed around solar panels?
How many fish are poisoned by solar panels?

Do you think the clean-up involved with coal mining is free? Or the properties destroyed by toxic flooding? Or the medical problems?

Coal costs more than they're charging you for it in your electric bill. You just pay the full price later.

Solar appears more expensive because you pay for more of the costs up front. If not when your house is flooded by toxic sludge, then when you get mercury poisoning from fish.


http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/8148395.stm

Battle raging in US mining country

Opinion is divided in West Virginia's coal belt over a controversial mining technique, reports Jean Snedegar for the BBC's Americana programme.

For years, a battle has been raging in the Appalachian Mountains over a coal-mining practice known as "mountaintop removal mining".

In the last three decades this kind of mining has flattened some 2,500 square miles, and buried more than 1,200 miles of mountain streams.

With a new administration in Washington, the battle over mountaintop removal mining is heating up, most notably in southern West Virginia - and grassroots activists are at the forefront.

Blasting and dumping

Maria Gunnoe, 41, lives with her husband and two children in a tiny community called Bob White, in Boone County, which produces more coal than any other county in the state.

Her family has lived in the area for more than 200 years, and coal mining has been in her family for generations. Two of her brothers are underground miners.

But over the last 10 years, coal has started to threaten her land, and her life. Three different mountaintop removal operations surround Ms Gunnoe's home, which sits in a steep, narrow hollow. The first mine started in 2001.

"To begin with I heard chainsaws," she tells me.

"When I went back, I seen massive clear-cutting on the mountain behind where I live at. All of the trees and timber that weren't of value went into the valley behind me."

Shortly afterwards, the mining company began blasting the top off the mountain, and dumping the rock and debris - called "overburden" - that it had removed from above the coal seam into the valley as well.

When she walked up the stream that flows by her house - also her main water source - she noticed it was plugged.

"This is known as a valley fill," Ms Gunnoe explains.

The valley fill contained two ponds full of waste water from the mine.

In 2003, some of that waste water broke through and flooded the narrow valley where Ms Gunnoe lives.

"The flooding devastated our property. In places it was 20ft deep and 60ft wide - almost like a mini-tsunami. It literally washed live standing trees by myself and my family. We were trapped in. We had no way out."

And emergency services had no way in.

In the flood's wake, Ms Gunnoe and her husband lost five acres of land, the access road to their property and the stream which served as their water supply. Today it contains toxic levels of selenium.

Disappearing communities

Regular blasting continues above her property.

"I have coal dust inside of my computers, my TVs, my refrigerator - everything in my home is inundated by coal dust. My kids shouldn't have to be breathing this. Our community members shouldn't have to be breathing this."

Ms Gunnoe's experiences turned her into an activist and community organiser against mountaintop mining.

Since 2004, she has testified at hearings for mountaintop removal permits and in lawsuits against coal companies.

As a result, she faces regular intimidation from angry miners who feel she is taking away their jobs.

But Ms Gunnoe is eager to show anyone who will listen what the mining has done to the community where she grew up - to the homes, air and water.

From her house, we drive about 10 miles along a narrow, twisty road that used to be populated with small mining communities.

But with mountaintop mines on either side of the road, many of the mountaintops have disappeared.

Pointing to one flattened summit, Ms Gunnoe says: "I had the opportunity to sit and watch the sun set on this mountain for the last time last year - for the last time ever. It'll never happen again - the mountain has been blasted down now."

Most of the small communities have disappeared too. Residents have been bought out, or driven out by the noise of blasting and large mining machines.

Despite the obvious environmental impact on land and water, many people in West Virginia support mountaintop mining.

Coal brings 20,000 mining-related jobs and earns $8bn (£5bn) a year.

Of that, the state gets more than $400m in taxes - a major source of income in the state.

Job generation

About 25 miles from Maria Gunnoe's home, Roger Horton drives a lorry at Guyan Mine, owned by St Louis-based Patriot Coal and the sixth largest mountaintop mine in West Virginia.

In January, he started a pro-mountaintop mining group called Citizens for Coal.

"I decided that we should be pro-active," Mr Horton says.

"We should come forward and tell the entire world what it is that we do here and how it benefits America. Over half of the electrical energy that we use in this country is derived from coal."

Mr Horton points out the clear economic benefits: that miners earn two to three times the average wage of the area, and how some former mining sites have been reclaimed.

On one site near his home is a new regional jail. On another, an industrial park, and on a third, a new NASCAR racetrack is being built.

"On top of that, for every mining job that's out here, there's approximately four or five other jobs that are generated by that one miner working," Mr Horton says. "And we buy cars, we buy homes, we buy clothing, food - it's just in the best interest of everybody for us to continue working. It really is."

In late June, Maria Gunnoe and Roger Horton took their battle to Washington - to a Senate sub-committee hearing on "The Impacts of Mountaintop Removal Coal Mining on Water Quality in Appalachia".

At the hearing, Maria Gunnoe told her story, and Roger Horton and 200 other miners and their families were there to show their support for mountaintop mining.

Two senators - Democrat Ben Cardin of Maryland and Republican Lamar Alexander of Tennessee - are planning to introduce legislation that could effectively ban mountaintop removal mining.

This is music to the ears of those like Ms Gunnoe who believe passionately that it should be stopped, and anathema to those who support mountaintop removal mining.

Though Maria Gunnoe's work recently brought her the 2009 Goldman Environmental Prize for North America - sometimes referred to as the "Green Nobel" - Roger Horton remains confident that mountaintop removal mining will not be stopped any time soon.

"I believe that in the end that we will be victorious, and continue to mine coal," he said.

This article is an adaptation of a feature that was originally broadcast on BBC Radio 4's Americana programme. Americana is broadcast at 1915 BST every Sunday on BBC Radio 4 FM.
 
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090819/ap_on_go_ot/us_mercury_contamination/print

New gov't study shows mercury in fish widespread
By DINA CAPPIELLO, Associated Press Writer Dina Cappiello, Associated Press Writer Wed Aug 19, 4:12 pm ET

WASHINGTON – No fish can escape mercury pollution. That's the take-home message from a federal study of mercury contamination released Wednesday that tested fish from nearly 300 streams across the country.

The toxic substance was found in every fish sampled, a finding that underscores how widespread mercury pollution has become.

But while all fish had traces of contamination, only about a quarter had mercury levels exceeding what the Environmental Protection Agency says is safe for people eating average amounts of fish.

The study by the U.S. Geological Survey is the most comprehensive look to date at mercury in the nation's streams. From 1998 to 2005, scientists collected and tested more than a thousand fish, including bass, trout and catfish, from 291 streams nationwide.

"This science sends a clear message that our country must continue to confront pollution, restore our nation's waterways, and protect the public from potential health dangers," Interior Secretary Ken Salazar said in a statement.

Mercury consumed by eating fish can damage the nervous system and cause learning disabilities in developing fetuses and young children. The main source of mercury to most of the streams tested, according to the researchers, is emissions from coal-fired power plants. The mercury released from smokestacks here and abroad rains down into waterways, where natural processes convert it into methylmercury — a form that allows the toxin to wind its way up the food chain into fish.

Some of the highest levels in fish were detected in the remote blackwater streams along the coasts of the Carolinas, Georgia, Florida and Louisiana, where bacteria in surrounding forests and wetlands help in the conversion. The second-highest concentration of mercury was detected in largemouth bass from the North Fork of the Edisto River near Fairview Crossroads, S.C.

"Unfortunately, it's the case that almost any fish you test will have mercury now," said Andrew Rypel, a post-doctoral researcher at the University of Mississippi who has studied mercury contamination in fish throughout the Southeast. He said other research has shown mercury in fish from isolated areas of Alaska and Canada, and species that live in the deep ocean.

Mercury was also found in high concentrations in western streams that drain areas mined for mercury and gold. The most contaminated sample came from smallmouth bass collected from the Carson River at Dayton, Nev., an area tainted with mercury from gold mining. At 58 other streams, mostly in the West, the acidic conditions created by mining could also be contributing to the mercury levels, the researchers said.

"Some ecosystems are more sensitive than others," said Barbara Scudder, the lead USGS scientist on the study.

All but two states — Alaska and Wyoming — have issued fish-consumption advisories because of mercury contamination. Some of the streams studied already had warnings.

"This is showing that the problem is much more widespread," said Sonya Lunder, a senior analyst for the Environmental Working Group, which has pushed for stronger advisories on consumption of mercury-laden fish and controls on the sources of mercury pollution. "If you are living in an area that doesn't have a mercury advisory, you should use caution."

Earlier this year, the Obama administration said it would begin crafting a new regulations to control mercury emissions from power plants after a federal appeals court threw out plans drafted by the Bush administration and favored by industry. The Bush rule would have allowed power plants to buy and sell pollution credits, instead of requiring each plant to install equipment to reduce mercury pollution.

The EPA also has also proposed a new regulation to clamp down on emissions of mercury from cement plants.

___

On the Net:

U.S. Geological Survey: http://water.usgs.gov/nawqa/mercury/
 
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