The debate over the legality of Mountaintop Mining (MTM) has now raged for many years and some have attempted to turn it into a morality play. Issues of morality are present in many aspects of our lives and not surprising people disagree on what is moral and what is not. Many good people disagree on several fundamental issues from what is marriage or relationships between two people to what is a just cause to go to war. Emotional pleas to ban MTM have been made. Just because someone says something is true does not make it so. This is a technical issue and engineering and scientific facts should prevail.
MTM SPECIFICALLY ALLOWED UNDER SMCRA
MTM is a mining method that the United States government is largely responsible for creating. I happened to have been starting my tenure in the engineering community when the Surface Mining Control and Reclamation Act of 1977 (SMCRA) was passed under President Carter. This act contemplated and specifically allowed and encouraged MTM. R&D under the Carter Administration’s DOE, EPA and BOM helped develop and refine MTM. I know because I helped work on several projects funded by those agencies.
LONGSTANDING AND ACCEPTED PRACTICES ARE SUDDENLY DECLARED ILLEGAL
The mining industry has been operating for almost 30 years with the understanding that these practices were legal and even encouraged by the government. Full resource recovery and higher land utilization is one of the goals of SMCRA. Many in industry also felt that SMCRA was designed to provide a coordinated approach to permitting sites that crossed agency and regulatory program lines to avoid just the types of problems that have now occurred: i.e. a continual reinterpretation of regulations and insertion of personal beliefs.
MTM is truly a form of Sustainable Development.
MTM areas provide one of the keys to the economic future of Appalachia. One point being missed in the public debate is APPALACHIAN LANDOWNERS WANT MOUNTAINTOP MINING! Landowners must approve any plan for MTM or it cannot take place. Developments have been created and landformed all over Central Appalachia including hospitals, schools, golf courses, airports, industrial parks, prison sites, residential and commercial developments, farms, recreation and wildlife areas, all of this in a region where level land is scarce. MTM is bringing many things to Appalachia that other regions take for granted. Some people see these sites today and do not know they resulted from mining. Wildlife is now more abundant than it was 30 years ago. Mining has actually helped create wildlife habitats and the resurgence of wildlife populations.
ROCK AND DIRT ARE NOT NECESSARILY WASTE IN THE EPA CLASSIC SENSE
Much has been made of the controversy over filling streams. Mining can be compared to road construction. Material placed in hollow or valley fills has been called waste; a term adopted by engineers over the years, but not waste in the connotation presented. It is simply excess rock and dirt placed in engineered and managed fills. Streams are not lost forever. The water is still there, however new flow paths are created. The vast majority of these areas are in the upper reaches of a hollow where typically there is no water flow, comparable to drainage ditches or curbs that control the flow of water in cities.
SUMMARY AND CONCLUSION
The recent EPA EIS on MTM found that only 6.8 of Appalachia has or even can be mined by MTM methods, so I hardly think Appalachia is being “decapitated” as many editorialists claim. Rather MTM as I have seen it can be described as creating “plateaus” of useable land where there was none. As an Environmental Practioner, I strongly support Alternative III, as outlined in the EIS as the preferable approach. I feel that MOUNTAINTOP MINING IS A VALUE ADDED PROCESS .
