CHARLESTON, W.VA.  – Senator Jon Blair Hunter (D-Monongalia) earlier this week introduced legislation that would effectively end the practice of burying thousand of miles of streams under the rubble created by mountaintop removal coal mining.

“I introduced Senate Bill 588 because I fervently believe that God did not intend for us to destroy the mountains, the streams, the forests and His people in order to mine coal,” Sen. Hunter said.

 In mountaintop removal, coal companies blast hundreds of feet off the tops of mountains in order to mine thin seams of coal. Rubble from the former mountaintops is pushed into “valley fills,” burying streams in nearby valleys under hundreds of millions of tons of mining waste. According to the U.S. Office of Surface Mining, 1,208 miles of streams in Appalachia were destroyed from 1992 to 2002, and regulators approved 1,603 more valley fills between 2001 and 2005 that will destroy 535 more miles of streams. 

 
“Senator Hunter's bill would stop mountain top removal operators from continuing to use West Virginia's mountain streams as giant garbage cans to dispose of billions of tons of mining waste,” said Joe Lovett executive director of the Appalachian Center for the Economy and the Environment. “West Virginians overwhelmingly oppose mountaintop removal, and I hope that the Manchin administration and others in the Legislature will stand with Senator Hunter to stop the permanent destruction of a huge swath of one of the oldest mountain ranges in the world.  It is time for the madness of mountaintop removal to come to an end, and Senator Hunter's bill is an important step in that direction.”

 
“For years, the legislature has refused to even consider the catastrophic environmental impact of mountaintop removal coal mining. This bill is long-past due,” said Don Garvin, legislative coordinator for the West Virginia Environmental Council.

 “This bill is a good start.  We need to do something to protect our streams,” said Mike Maynor, a former coal truck driver from Dorothy, in Raleigh County. “We also need to protect our homes from more flooding, such as the floods that damaged my home in 2001.” Maynor lives downstream from a valley fill, in an area where coal companies have asked for 15 new valley fills.

 “People everywhere who care about West Virginia’s future should be so grateful to Senator Hunter for having the courage to introduce this bill,” said Janice Nease, co-director of Coal River Mountain Watch.  “People trying to live with the effects of the blasting, people watching our mountains and streams destroyed forever—all of us are extremely grateful to Senator Hunter.”

 “Many state legislators must know in their hearts that mountaintop removal coal mining is a national disgrace. They must know this is the worst environmental destruction going on in North America,” said Raleigh County resident Chuck Nelson, a former deep miner and a volunteer with OVEC, the Ohio Valley Environmental Coalition. “I’m so glad this legislation has finally been introduced.”

“The thousands of headwater streams being buried under valley fills are the life blood of our mountains and our mountain communities.  If coal is to be mined, it should be done in a manner that doesn't destroy the water that we all depend on and the communities that have existed for generations along these streams,” said Cindy Rank, of the West Virginia Highlands Conservancy. “Surely there are other Senators who can stand beside Jon Hunter in support of Senate Bill 588.  It is the right thing to do for the future of West Virginia.”