The immediate and long-term environmental effects of mountaintop removal coal mining are severe and irreversible, according to recently released studies accompanying a draft Environmental Impact Statement (EIS). Hundreds of miles of streams have been buried, hundreds of square miles of forested mountains flattened, and generations-old communities of coalfield residents have been forced from their homes by this extremely destructive mining practice.

The EIS is supposed to suggest ways to limit the environmental harm caused by mountaintop removal. Yet, the Bush administration is suggesting just the opposite: it wants to allow mountaintop removal to continue and even make it easier for coal mining companies to get permits for this form of mining.

TAKE ACTION: Please tell the Bush administration it must consider alternatives that would limit the harmful effects of mountaintop removal coal mining, not weaken existing environmental protections. The comment period has just been extended to January 21, 2004. We encourage you to take action right away.

Sample Letter for Campaign

Dear [ Decision Maker ] ,

I find it unconscionable that the Bush administration plans to continue to let coal companies destroy Appalachia with mining practices that level mountaintops, wipe out forests, bury streams, and destroy communities.

According to the administration's draft Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) on mountaintop removal coal mining, the environmental effects of mountaintop removal are widespread, devastating, and permanent. Yet the draft EIS proposes no restrictions on the size of valley fills that bury streams, no limits on the number of acres of forest that can be destroyed, no protections for imperiled wildlife, and no safeguards for the communities of people that depend on the region's natural resources for themselves and future generations.

Remarkably, the Bush administration's "preferred alternative" for addressing the enormous problems caused by mountaintop removal coal mining is to weaken existing environmental protections. The draft EIS proposes streamlining the permitting process, allowing mountaintop removal and associated valley fills to continue at an accelerated rate. The draft EIS also suggests doing away with a surface mining rule that makes it illegal for mining activities to disturb areas within 100 feet of streams unless it can be proven that streams will not be harmed. This "preferred alternative" ignores the administration's own studies detailing the devastation caused by mountaintop removal coal mining, including:

- over 1200 miles of streams have been damaged or destroyed by mountaintop removal

- direct impacts to streams would be greatly lessened by reducing the size of the valley fills where mining wastes are dumped on top of streams

- the total of past, present and estimated future forest losses is 1.4 million acres

- forest losses in West Virginia have the potential of directly impacting as many as 244 vertebrate wildlife species

- even if hardwood forests can be reestablished in mined areas, which is unproven and unlikely, there will be a drastically different ecosystem from pre-mining forest conditions for generations, if not thousands of years

- without new limits on mountaintop removal, an additional 350 square miles of mountains, streams, and forests will be flattened and destroyed by mountaintop removal mining

The Bush administration's "preferred alternative" ignores these and hundreds of other scientific facts contained in the EIS studies. In light of these facts, the Bush administration must consider alternatives that reduce the environmental impacts of mountaintop removal and then implement measures to protect natural resources and communities in Appalachia, such as restrictions on the size of valley fills to reduce the destruction of streams, forests, wildlife and communities.

Sincerely,

Campaign Launched:
December 12, 2003