TLPJ Obtains EPA Slide Show Documenting Environmental Destruction Caused by Mountaintop Removal Mining

Mountaintop removal mining converts Appalachian forests into grasslands, and fills adjacent streams and valleys with mining waste. Photo courtesy of U.S. News & World Report.

A U.S. Environmental Protection Agency slide show – prepared to privately brief Bush administration officials and obtained by Trial Lawyers for Public Justice and the Appalachian Center for the Economy and the Environment on May 2, 2002 – documents wholesale deforestation, toxic pollution, burying of streams, and other environmental destruction caused by mountaintop removal mining. 

For example, the EPA's internal briefing materials state:

• 560 miles of Appalachian streams "have already been eliminated by valley fills;"
• Aquatic life forms downstream of valley fills are being impaired; and
• "Stream chemistry monitoring efforts show significant increases" in concentrations of selenium – a metalloid that according to the EPA "can be highly toxic to aquatic life even at relatively low concentrations" – downstream of mountaintop removal mining and valley fill operations.

"The Appalachian Highlands is characterized by some of the best forest habitat in the world," the EPA briefing states. "Current reclamation practices are converting these forests into grasslands, which may significantly impact neotropical bird populations and other sensitive species if left unchanged." The briefing also states that the federal government has suggested actions to protect these forests, but the Office of Surface Mining "recommends deleting these actions from further consideration."

The EPA briefing shows that even under the most restrictive scenarios considered by the agency, economic costs would be minimal because:

• there would still be adequate coal to supply the nation's energy needs; 
• the price of electricity would not significantly increase; and 
• the price of coal would increase by only about a dollar per ton (which is swamped by the volatility of the market, because the price of coal has varied from $17 to $40 per ton over the past two years). 

The Appalachian Highlands – "some of the best forest habitat in the world."  Photo from "West Virginia Wild and Wonderful," an official state tourist guide.

The multimedia presentation was prepared for a March 5, 2002, briefing on mountaintop removal mining Environmental Impact Statements (EIS), to senior agency officials from three EPA offices:

• Office of Water
• Office of Federal Activities
• Office of General Counsel

Jim Hecker, Director of TLPJ's Environmental Enforcement Project, and Joe Lovett, Executive Director of the Appalachian Center for the Economy and the Environment, obtained the EPA briefing materials in response to a Freedom of Information Act request.

^^ BACK TO TOP ^^

Download the EPA Slide Show (PC Users Only)

File Size and Download Time: Please note that this Corel Presentations Show on the Go is a large file (3.96 MB), so depending on the speed of your Internet connection, it may take from one to four minutes to download to your PC. 

File Format and Windows Compatibility: Corel Presentations Show on the Go creates a .EXE file – a self-executing slide show that can be played on any computer that uses the Windows® operating system, even if the computer doesn’t have Corel Presentations 10 installed. This portable slide show runs on either Windows 95, 98, 2000, ME or NT. To learn more about Corel Presentations Show on the Go, click here.

Download: PC users, to download the EPA slide show briefing, click here. After you have downloaded the slide show, click your left mouse button to scroll from one slide to the next. To jump forward or backward to a specific slide (such as Slide # 36 or Slide # 42), or to exit the slide show, click on your right mouse button.

^^ BACK TO TOP ^^