Mountaintop Removal Mining Research Articles

The Embattled Wilderness: The Natural and Human History of Robinson Forest and the Fight for Its Future by Erik Reece and James J. Krupa (review)

Reviewed by: The Embattled Wilderness: The Natural and Human History of Robinson Forest and the Fight for Its Future by Erik Reece and James J. Krupa Robert Gioielli (bio) The Embattled Wilderness: The Natural and Human History of Robinson Forest and the Fight for Its Future. By Erik Reece and James J. Krupa. (Athens: University of Georgia Press, 2013. Pp. 144. $24.95 cloth; $24.95 ebook) [End Page 278] In the 1920s, after he and his partner had sucked all profit from a twenty-three-square-mile tract of forest in central Kentucky, Cincinnati businessman E. O. Robinson deeded the land to the University of Kentucky, with the caveat that the property be used for research to “tend to the betterment of the people of the mountain region of Kentucky.” Since that bequest, Robinson Forest has been an important research station for the university. But in recent years, as the surrounding landscape has been torn apart by mountaintop-removal coal mining, there are serious concerns that the university, in order to turn the forest into a profitable asset, will sell the mineral rights. This book, written by two University of Kentucky professors, is a full-throated opposition to that idea. The Embattled Wilderness is not a conventional historical text. Erik Reece, an English professor who has written extensively about mountaintop-removal mining, and James J. Krupa, a biologist who has spent more than twenty years traversing every ridge and stream of the forest, trade off chapters. Krupa’s three chapters discuss the natural history of this forest, with a focus on its amazing biodiversity. He explains topics as diverse as woodrats, rock outcrops, and forest-fire ecology in an engaging first-person style that reflects not only years of scientific study, but also one person’s fascination with a specific piece of land. Reece’s remaining four chapters combine some basic social and environmental history of the forest, descriptions of the specific ecological threats of coal mining, and an argument for keeping the forest as a site for research and experiential education. The alternating nature of the chapters provides an interesting structure for the book. If held to the standards of academic or even popular history, The Embattled Wilderness fails. There is little evidence of primary- or secondary-source research, and Reece’s historical discussions too often resort to clichés about a pristine, presettlement wilderness, rugged yeoman, and greedy, rapacious capitalists. But to hold this book to those standards would be unfair. What Reece and Krupa have constructed are really two interwoven essays that argue for the social, educational, and natural value of Robinson Forest as [End Page 279] it currently exists. Krupa is the detailed naturalist here, explicating topics like the biology of how flying squirrels execute controlled dives across the treetops, while Reece is the expert muckraker. His anger at the destructive totality of coal mining is balanced by extended passages in which he shows that sustainable forestry techniques could help the university derive profit from the forest while keeping it ecologically intact. Taken together, these two narratives are tremendously convincing. Krupa takes you deep inside the forest as an intricate natural system, while Reece zooms out to the larger political, economic, and social issues. They show that with Robinson Forest, the University of Kentucky, and the people of Kentucky, have a tremendous resource that should not be squandered. This book should be required reading for all university trustees, administrators, and state legislators. They need to see what mountaintop-removal mining would destroy and craft a plan that will guarantee the integrity and sustainability of this forest. Robert Gioielli Robert Gioielli teaches environmental and modern American history at the University of Cincinnati Blue Ash College. He is currently completing a book on the relationship between urban decline and modern American environmentalism. Copyright © 2014 Kentucky Historical Society

The embattled wilderness: the natural and human history of Robinson Forest and the fight for its future

Robinson Forest in eastern Kentucky is one of our most important natural landscapes-and one of the most threatened. Covering fourteen thousand acres of some of the most diverse forest region in temperate North America, it is a haven of biological richness within an ever-expanding desert created by mountaintop removal mining. Written by two people with deep knowledge of Robinson Forest, The Embattled Wilderness engagingly portrays this singular place as it persuasively appeals for its protection. The land comprising Robinson Forest was given to the University of Kentucky in 1923 after it had been clear-cut of old-growth timber. Over decades, the forest has regrown, and its remarkable ecosystem has supported both teaching and research. But in the recent past, as tuition has risen and state support has faltered, the university has considered selling logging and mining rights to parcels of the forest, leading to a student-led protest movement and a variety of other responses. In The Embattled Wilderness Erik Reece, an environmental writer, and James J. Krupa, a naturalist and evolutionary biologist, alternate chapters on the cultural and natural history of the place. While Reece outlines the threats to the forest and leads us to new ways of thinking about its value, Krupa assembles an engaging record of the woodrats and darters, lichens and maples, centipedes and salamanders that make up the forest's ecosystem. It is a readable yet rigorous, passionate yet reasoned summation of what can be found, or lost, in Robinson Forest and other irreplaceable places.

Environmental Enforcement as a Shield Rather than a Sword: How Environmental Injustice Resulted from Increased Coal Mining Violations After a Settlement with the Environmental Protection Agency

Abstract A top priority of the Executive Office of the President has been to address environmental justice in minority and low-income populations. Pollution is attributed to disproportionate health impacts and economic growth. Environmental pollution from coal mining and mountaintop removal (MTR) mining exists in the Appalachian region, which also suffers from widespread poverty, low incomes, low education levels, and poor health. The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is tasked with incorporating environmental justice into its mission by identifying disproportionate environmental effects and health impacts on low-income populations. That goal could be accomplished through enforcement efforts to stop or lessen water pollution in Appalachia by bringing enforcement actions against coal mining operations which routinely discharge illegal quantities of pollutants under the Clean Water Act (CWA). Environmental justice also requires EPA to actually follow through and force violators to come into compliance w...

Increased Risk of Depression for People Living in Coal Mining Areas of Central Appalachia

Abstract This study examines the relationship between depression symptoms and living in areas where mountaintop removal coal mining is practiced. Data were analyzed from a survey of 8,591 adults residing in Central Appalachian areas both with and without coal mining. The survey included a validated measure of depression severity. Results showed that diagnosable levels of major depression were present in almost 17% of respondents in mountaintop removal mining areas, compared to 10% of residents in non-mining areas. This disparity was partly attributable to socioeconomic disadvantage, but after statistical control for income, education, and other risks, depression risk for residents in the mountaintop removal area remained significantly elevated (odds ratio=1.40, 95% confidence interval 1.15–1.71). This study contributes to the empirical evidence in support of the concept of solastalgia and indicates that persons who experience environmental degradation from mountaintop removal coal mining are at elevated r...

Terrestrial salamander abundance on reclaimed mountaintop removal mines

Mountaintop removal mining, a large-scale disturbance affecting vegetation, soil structure, and topography, converts landscapes from mature forests to extensive grassland and shrubland habitats. We sampled salamanders using drift-fence arrays and coverboard transects on and near mountaintop removal mines in southern West Virginia, USA, during 2000–2002. We compared terrestrial salamander relative abundance and species richness of un-mined, intact forest with habitats on reclaimed mountaintop removal mines (reclaimed grassland, reclaimed shrubland, and fragmented forest). Salamanders within forests increased in relative abundance with increasing distance from reclaimed mine edge. Reclaimed grassland and shrubland habitats had lower relative abundance and species richness than forests. Characteristics of reclaimed habitats that likely contributed to lower salamander abundance included poor soils (dry, compacted, little organic matter, high rock content), reduced vertical structure of vegetation and little tree cover, and low litter and woody debris cover. Past research has shown that salamander populations reduced by clearcutting may rebound in 15–24 years. Time since disturbance was 7–28 years in reclaimed habitats on our study areas and salamander populations had not reached levels found in adjacent mature forests. Published 2013. This article is a U.S. Government work and is in the public domain in the USA.

Impact of Valley Fills on Streamside Salamanders in Southern West Virginia

Valley fills associated with mountaintop-removal mining bury stream headwaters and affect water quality and ecological function of reaches below fills. We quantified relative abundance of streamside salamanders in southern West Virginia during 2002 in three streams below valley fills (VFS) and in three reference streams (RS). We surveyed 36 10- × 2-m stream transects, once in summer and fall, paired by order and structure. Of 2,343 salamanders captured, 66.7% were from RS. Total salamanders (adults plus larvae) were more abundant in RS than VFS for first-order and second-order reaches. Adult salamanders had greater abundance in first-order reaches of RS than VFS. Larval salamanders were more abundant in second-order reaches of RS than VFS. No stream width or mesohabitat variables differed between VFS and RS. Only two cover variables differed. Silt cover, greater in VFS than RS first-order reaches, is a likely contributor to reduced abundance of salamanders in VFS. Second-order RS had more boulder cover than second-order VFS, which may have contributed to the higher total and larval salamander abundance in RS. Water chemistry assessments of our VFS and RS reported elevated levels of metal and ion concentrations in VFS, which can depress macroinvertebrate populations and likely affect salamander abundance. Valley fills appear to have significant negative effects on stream salamander abundance due to alterations in habitat structure, water quality and chemistry, and macroinvertebrate communities in streams below fills.

Characterizing streamflow response of a mountaintop-mined watershed to changing land use

Mountaintop removal mining is a dominant driver of land use/land cover changes in the Appalachian Region of the eastern United States and is expected to increase in scale in the coming decades. While several studies quantify land use/land cover changes attributed to traditional surface mining and at regional scales, no studies we are aware of focus specifically on mountaintop removal/valley fill mining practices at the watershed scale. Further, despite its scale and extent, its impact on runoff, particularly at larger spatial scales (103 km2), is poorly understood due to the complex relationships between climate, land use, and hydrology. To explore the impacts of this practice at broader scales, we estimated land use/land cover changes using Landsat 5 TM imagery over five periods between 1994 and 2010; used a simple rainfall–runoff model to estimate hydrologic response time; and conducted non-parametric trend analyses on annual hydrologic metrics (streamflow, Q/P, response time) for the Big Coal River watershed located in the southern West Virginia coalfields. No statistically significant trends were detected in any of the timeseries. The lack of detectable trends and correlations between land use changes and hydrology at the basin scale are not entirely unexpected due to the history and mosaic of land cover changes that span timescales larger than our study period. Further interannual variation likely overwhelms our ability to detect potential changes using monotonic trend analysis at the annual time scale, particularly in light of strong streamflow seasonality. Future studies therefore should include different methods of change detection applied to different timescales to more appropriately account seasonal and interannual variations. Until the significance of this practice on water resources (quality and quality) are understood, efforts to reduce the environmental problems associated with mountaintop mining will be difficult to achieve.

Coal River’s Last Mountain

A failed proposal to substitute wind energy for mountaintop removal coal mining provides a valuable case study illustrating the weakness of theoretical approaches that neglect class relations and the analytical strength of Marxist ecology for understanding the processes of environmental degradation. The latter’s strength is shown in its illumination of the ways in which class relations in the coalfields are tied to capitalism’s metabolic rift and how this rift shapes political struggle and developmental path dependencies. Using Marx’s approach of successive abstractions, the interrelated drivers and consequences of mountaintop removal mining in the Coal River Valley are analyzed from three vantage points: the perspective of ecology, of capital, and of human development. The destructiveness involved in this type of coal production reveals the ways in which capitalism depends on an après moi le déluge regime, discounting the future, and thus barring sustainable human development.

Horizontal cliffs: mountaintop mining and climate change

Poleward and upward shifts in ranges in plant and animal species are amongst the most confident impacts of climate change on terrestrial ecosystems. While mountain tops have long been recognised as an important limit in this regard, the implications of the practice of mountaintop removal mining, i.e., acting counter to the upward shift of species, have yet to be considered. In regions where climate warming and mountaintop mining occur together, species face increased risk of range contraction and local extinction.

Fading into the Horizon: the disappearance of Appalachian hollow communities and culture

The identity of an individual or community is highly dependent upon their cultural values and traditions. It is an industry that is causing the communities that occupy the hollows of Appalachia to lose these values and traditions. It has been found that the loss of cultural identity in Appalachian hollow communities is tied to local mountain top removal mining operations. Mountain top removal mining is the source of many jobs for these communities, but the mining process itself is causing environmental devastation and spreading disease through surrounding communities. This destruction has forced community members to choose between their health and their livelihood and is dividing the community into those who are “for” and “against” mountain top removal mining. This division of community goes against the traditions and values of the Appalachian hollow culture and is causing the eradication of communities, a lifestyle, a culture, and their identity.

‘Fishing’ for Alternatives to Mountaintop Mining in Southern West Virginia

Mountaintop removal mining (MTR) is a major industry in southern West Virginia with many detrimental effects for small to mid-sized streams, and interest in alternative, sustainable industries is on the rise. As a first step in a larger effort to assess the value of sport fisheries in southern West Virginia, we estimate the potential abundances of two popular sport fishes-smallmouth bass (Micropterus dolomieu) and brook trout (Salvelinus fontinalis)-in the Coal River Basin (CRB). A self-thinning model that incorporates net primary production and terrestrial insect subsidies is first used to predict potential densities of adult (age 1+) smallmouth bass and brook trout. Predicted densities (fish ha(-1)) are then multiplied by the surface area of the CRB stream network (ha) to estimate regional abundance. Median predicted abundances of bass and trout are 38806 and 118094 fish (total abundances with the CRB), respectively. However, when streams that intersect permitted MTR areas in the CRB are removed from the dataset, predicted abundances of bass and trout decrease by ~12-14%. We conclude that significant potential exists in the CRB to capitalize on sport fisheries, but MTR may be undermining this potential.

Could a public ecology approach help resolve the mountaintop mining controversy?

In recent years, controversy has grown around decisions related to mountaintop removal mining of coal in Central Appalachia, USA. While this mining method can be particularly efficient, it necessitates removal and relocation of huge volumes of earth—permanently altering the natural landform and potentially impacting local environments and communities. Current decision-making systems and regulatory frameworks have been largely ineffective at incorporating the values and concerns of stakeholders. This is due, in part, to contradicting policies, a legacy of distrust, and problems related to scale. Further, the lack of good civic science related to mountaintop mining and meaningful routes for public involvement have also hampered effective decision-making. We propose that the fundamental concepts of public ecology may provide a progressive approach to resolving these complex issues, and examine the challenges that must be met along the way.

Removing Mountains: Extracting Nature and Identity in the Appalachian Coalfields (review)

Reviewed by: Removing Mountains: Extracting Nature and Identity in the Appalachian Coalfields Sarah A. Watson Removing Mountains: Extracting Nature and Identity in the Appalachian Coalfields Rebecca R. Scott. 2010. University of Minnesota Press, Minneapolis, Minnesota. 271 pp. Photos, notes, bibliography, and index. $75.00 cloth; $25.00 paper. (ISBN 978-0-8166-6599-0) (ISBN 978-0-8166-6600-3) In the coalfields of Central Appalachia, concerns about the economic and environmental future of the region are inextricably connected to the historical legacy and contemporary practices of coal mining. It is within this complicated landscape that Rebecca R. Scott focuses her attention in the book Removing Mountains as she attempts to unpack the cultural politics of coal mining and shed light on how the process of mountaintop removal mining (MTR) has become acceptable, despite its destructive environmental consequences. To do this, Scott crafts a picture of southern West Virginia that relies upon observations of community organizations, analysis of representations, and interviews with coal miners, local residents, activists, and business people over the course of three visits (in 2000in 2004, and 2008). In doing so, she challenges readers to avoid viewing the intricacies of environmental issues in the region purely through a “jobs-verses-the-environment” paradigm and oversimplifying them. Instead, Scott attempts to add nuance to discussions about mountaintop removal mining, arguing that it must be understood as a practice ensconced within a larger constellation of political subjectivities and cultural practices within Appalachia and the United States. To advance this argument, Scott begins the book by examining various representations of Appalachia that marginalize the region, leading mainstream America to often understand it via its regional distinction and difference. She pulls examples from pop culture, photojournalism, and news events to illustrate the continuing sway of “hillbilly” and “redneck” imagery that distills complexities found within the region to simple stereotypes and naturalizes issues like poverty and environmental destruction. Scott argues that part of the national imaginary of the region is connected to a notion of sacrifice. This, she believes, is entangled in the representations of otherness which eventually has helped cast the region into an “environmental sacrifice zone,” as per Valerie L. Kuletz (1998). A sacrifice zone is a space where the exploitation of the environment and people is understood as necessary to promote and protect larger interests of the nation. Scott argues that we can understand the process of MTR through this lens [End Page 343] because debates surrounding MTR often appeal to ideas of national security and progress, while the negative effects of MTR, like health problems and environmental destruction, are oftentimes only endured by residents living adjacent to MTR sites. In the second chapter, Scott focuses her attention to issues of gender in Appalachia and the role of coal mining in gender construction. Scott is mainly interested in how the production and perpetuation of certain masculinities are understood through a legacy of coal mining, which in turn can create, reinforce, and stabilize the dominance of coal mining to the culture. Scott gives examples of difficulties faced by women working in the mines and interviews various men who dismiss non-coal mining jobs as not “men’s work” to illustrate the identity construction that can happen through appeals to coal mining. Scott focuses on three separate yet interwoven masculine identity constructions, “the family man,” “the tough guy,” and “the modern man,” to highlight various ways that gender norms become linked to representations of coal mining. With each of the identity constructions, Scott teases out how they help create building blocks for pro-MTR advocates to represent MTR as a natural and logical undertaking in the region. To highlight the dominance of these gender constructions, Scott also discusses how anti-MTR activists oftentimes must perform gender identities that are in response to the hegemonic masculinity fostered by coal mining. For example, she gives details from interviews with various male anti-MTR activists, who speak of developing alternative ways to understand their role as men in the community and within their families. In chapter five, Scott extends her exploration of issues concerning gender, representations, and ideas of sacrifice by turning her focus towards the development of historical narratives centered on the coal...

Music, Place, and Identity in the Central Appalachian Mountaintop Removal Mining Debate

Research Article| April 01 2012 Music, Place, and Identity in the Central Appalachian Mountaintop Removal Mining Debate Travis D. Stimeling Travis D. Stimeling Search for other works by this author on: This Site Google American Music (2012) 30 (1): 1–29. https://doi.org/10.5406/americanmusic.30.1.0001 Cite Icon Cite Share Icon Share Facebook Twitter LinkedIn MailTo Permissions Search Site Citation Travis D. Stimeling; Music, Place, and Identity in the Central Appalachian Mountaintop Removal Mining Debate. American Music 1 January 2012; 30 (1): 1–29. doi: https://doi.org/10.5406/americanmusic.30.1.0001 Download citation file: Zotero Reference Manager EasyBib Bookends Mendeley Papers EndNote RefWorks BibTex toolbar search Search Dropdown Menu toolbar search search input Search input auto suggest filter your search All Scholarly Publishing CollectiveUniversity of Illinois PressAmerican Music Search Advanced Search The text of this article is only available as a PDF. Copyright 2012 by the Board of Trustees of the University of Illinois2012 Article PDF first page preview Close Modal You do not currently have access to this content.

Same Sun Here (review)

Reviewed by: Same Sun Here Hope Morrison House, Silas . Same Sun Here; written by Silas House and Neela Vaswani; illus. by Hilary Schenker. Candlewick, 2012. 297p. ISBN 978-0-7636-5684-3 $15.99 R Gr. 5-8. This epistolary novel documents the correspondence between two pen pals: Meena, an Indian-born twelve-year-old girl living in New York City's Chinatown, and River, a twelve-year-old rural Kentucky boy, brought together by a school project. The letters reveal not only their developing friendship but some of the bigger issues faced by each of their families, namely River's community's struggle with the environmental devastation caused by mountaintop-removal mining and Meena's [End Page 402] family's illegal status in their apartment and quest for American citizenship. Meena and River communicate with the candor that distance and anonymity often bring; as they grow closer, they feel they can ask each other anything (such as when River asks if Indian women draw their bindis on with Magic Marker) and tell each other anything (such as when Meena describes the embarrassment of being made fun of for her hairy legs at her new school). House penned River's letters and Vaswani Meena's, resulting in appropriately different voices for each kid. While at its heart a friendship story, this is also a celebration of writing, both as a means of processing emotions and as a vehicle for making the writer more observant of people and places, and both Meena and River come to appreciate and value the role the letter writing plays in their own lives over the course of their relationship. Readers who enjoy differing points of view will particularly enjoy this old-fashioned yet contemporary letter-writing exchange. Occasional spot art and black-and-white photos of the kids' surroundings are included. Copyright © 2012 The Board of Trustees of the University of Illinois

Ducktown Smoke: The Fight over One of the South’s Greatest Environmental Disasters (review)

Reviewed by: Ducktown Smoke: The Fight over One of the South’s Greatest Environmental Disasters Ken Fones-Wolf Ducktown Smoke: The Fight over One of the South’s Greatest Environmental Disasters. By Duncan Maysilles. (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2011. Pp. x, 333.) Ducktown Smoke begins by noting that turn-of-the-century copper entrepreneurs were able to accomplish a remarkable feat–to turn an area that receives sixty inches of rainfall annually into a desert. Dealing with the consequences of an Appalachian desert required nearly two decades of litigation involving hundreds of lawsuits (which ultimately resulted in a landmark ruling) and another four generations of reclamation to get rid of the “old red scar” that spread from southeastern Tennessee into Georgia and North Carolina. Duncan Maysilles’s first-rate legal history of this important environmental disaster should serve as a cautionary tale for current advocates of mountaintop removal mining and Marcellus Shale fracking, but it hardly gives environmental activists a rosy picture of what they might be facing in the future. Borders and competing claims for sovereignty played a large role in the Ducktown drama. Situated in what was a remote corner of the Cherokee nation in the early nineteenth century, the small population residing in the Ducktown Basin could not avoid the tug-of-war between Georgia and the federal government once the North Georgia gold rush commenced in 1828. Removal of the Cherokee also erased local knowledge of the rich copper deposits in the basin, delaying development of the industry for a generation. By the 1850s, however, skilled copper miners from Cornwall and local colliers began to slowly transform the region, retarded once again by borders and sovereignty—this time involving the development of transportation and then a civil war. Not until the railroad reached Ducktown in 1890 were all the elements in place to trigger the long battle over sovereignty and environmental regulation that would make the Ducktown Basin so infamous and important. Although the scale of copper mining and smelting entered a new phase at the end of the nineteenth century, the environmental toll the industry would take was evident much earlier. To create fuel for the smelting process, smelters relied on charcoal produced from local forests at an annual [End Page 90] rate of about seventy-five acres per year for each furnace. When multiplied by the number of furnaces and the need for local timber to build houses and firewood, the impact was huge. Complicating this was the fact that clear-cutting sections of the forest exposed topsoil to the devastating effects of heavy rainfall. Once truly corporate-scale mining and smelting began after 1890, it did not take long to turn the once resource-rich basin into a desert, particularly since the sulfuric smoke from the furnaces stripped the bark and leaves from the remaining trees. Thus, the long-awaited industrial development of the region, which promised to provide markets for local farmers, instead destroyed their produce and left the farmers looking to government for a solution. Once again, borders intruded into the lives of those around Ducktown. The Populist movement in northern Georgia and western North Carolina united farmers against the corporate intruders who threatened their livelihoods, but they were powerless to impose regulations on companies that were operating in Tennessee. Only the courts could settle these disputes, but where could plaintiffs go to redress their grievances? Local courts in Georgia had no authority in Tennessee, where the courts wanted to support the industrial development that fed their citizens. Moreover, Tennessee courts had no provision for class-action suits, meaning that hundreds of individual suits needed to be filed. Finally, there were no clear precedents for one state (in this case Georgia) to file a federal suit on behalf of its citizens against another state (Tennessee) and corporations operating there to prevent pollution. Indeed, Georgia’s attorney general was crafting new legal maneuvers that would change environmental law. Ultimately, Georgia “successfully extended the nuisance law to establish a state’s sovereign right for injunctive remedy against interstate pollution” (221). Maysilles does a wonderful job of untangling the complexities involved and highlighting the important new precedents. However, the outcome hardly...

The Indictment of Mark Powell

The Indictment of Mark Powell Denton Loving (bio) Inside St. John University's Abbey, in Collegeville, Minnesota, stands a particularly memorable statue of John the Baptist. This version of the saint is an emaciated, haunting form. Towering over visitors to the church, the bronze image is tall and thin and represents John during his time in the desert when he survived on a diet of locusts and wild honey. John's right hand extends forward as if in invitation to all who enter. Mark Powell and I spent a week in July 2010 as writing fellows at the Collegeville Institute, in association with St. John's. One evening, while exploring the abbey, I found Mark standing before this image of John the Baptist, their fingers stretched toward each other, touching tip to tip. Mark told me this statue felt to him like an indictment. I remember being surprised by his choice of words. I knew by Mark's countenance that the feeling had to do with his faith, but in my view, Mark already exemplified the kind of person I wanted to be. Foremost, he was more like Christ than most of the Christians I had encountered in my life. I knew this from my earliest conversations with Mark, although it took me a while to comprehend the difference between these two very different and sometimes opposing ideas. Eventually, I understood that to Mark, the starved form of John the Baptist manifested a number of difficult questions: "What have you done for your fellow man? What have you given up? Have you hungered with your brother?" These were not new questions. These are the questions Mark carries with him always. In an article Mark wrote for Yale Alumni Magazine, he addressed where he believed men like Martin Luther King, Jr. and Deitreich Bonhoeffer would find today's church. Mark answered: "I think they might find the church in the ghettos of major cities where Catholic workers and Quaker communities stand in solidarity with the poor, or among the rural poor of Appalachia where local activists literally risk their lives to end Mountain Top Removal mining, or amid the modern Tom Joads circulating between migrant camps as they move through the central valley of California. I am certain they would find the church in the [End Page 35] slums of Lagos or Sao Paulo, in the wastelands of Sudan and Chad. Whether or not they might find traditional 'Christians' wouldn't really be relevant: they would find people imitating Christ." It's this imitation of Christ that drives Mark as a person and as a writer. Mark's novels are undeniably bleak. His characters are weary and beaten down by the world. Emotionally, they are as hungry and emaciated as the statue of John the Baptist. But they are beautiful, too. They are beautiful in their weaknesses, in their battles, and in their own quests for salvation. Mark has often advised me that the greatest risk yields the greatest reward. I would dismiss advice like this from many people, but it's difficult to dismiss Mark when you see him live by these words and put his faith to action: When I first met Mark in 2006 at the Appalachian Writers Workshop, he was pursuing graduate studies at Yale Divinity School. I later learned he had given up a good job and a comfortable life in Charleston, South Carolina, in order to follow a calling to better understand his faith. In 2007 he traveled to Colombia with Christian Peacemaker Teams, where he volunteered in an accompaniment program where his simple presence as an American in a Colombian village potentially saved Colombian lives. And for the past three years, Mark has taught fiction writing to inmates at the Lawtey Correctional Institute in Raiford, Florida, where he jokes, there's no dropping the class—just parole. I list these examples of Mark's work to show he is a man engaged with the world, not detached from it. When he articulates what he believes Christianity to be about, it isn't a place that can be found, but rather a way that must be continuously followed. I have come to see Mark's...

Judicial Limitation of the EPA's Oversight Authority in Clean Water Act Permitting of Mountaintop Mining Valley Fills

Mountaintop removal mining operations in the Appalachian region have expanded significantly in recent decades. The practice decimates the mountain ecosystems by leveling forests, filling headwater streams, and producing significant runoff of heavy metals, sediment, and other pollutants that impair the aquatic environment of entire watersheds. Yet environmental permitting of the practice is relatively limited. A recent trend in litigation aimed at halting mining operations has involved challenging permits that authorize the discharge of mining overburden into headwater streams pursuant to the Clean Water Act (CWA). The Army Corps of Engineers has assumed jurisdiction over such discharges under section 404 of the CWA, asserting that overburden is “fill material.” Initial litigation on the matter challenged the Corps’ assumption of jurisdiction, asserting instead that overburden is a “pollutant,” the discharge of which is regulated by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) under section 402 of the CWA. After the courts upheld the Corps’ interpretation that overburden is fill, the issue became the degree to which section 404 allows or requires the EPA to exercise environmental oversight of the Corps’ permitting process. The EPA has recently attempted to increase its oversight role by establishing procedures to review permit applications before the Corps issues the permits and by retroactively “vetoing” existing permits that it has found result in irreparable environmental damage. Those actions have been subjected to challenges by the mining industry, which have produced court rulings constraining the EPA’s oversight authority. In this Note, I argue that Congress did not intend for mining overburden to fall within the purview of the Corps’ section 404 jurisdiction, and that the cases affirming the Corps’ assumption of such jurisdiction were wrongly decided. Assuming, however, that those cases will not be overturned, I argue that the EPA must be afforded the ability to exercise the oversight authority inherent in section 404 to ensure that the Corps’ permits for mountaintop removal mining valley fills do not result in undue environmental damage. I assert that the recent decisions in National Mining Association v. Jackson and Mingo Logan Coal Co. v. EPA improperly read limits into the EPA’s oversight authority, and that the courts of appeals should overturn those decisions. Absent the EPA’s second layer of environmental review of section 404 permitting, the fragile Appalachian landscape may be permanently destroyed as a consequence of mountaintop removal mining.

Mountaintop Removal Mining: Digging Into Community Health Concerns

The practice of mountaintop removal (MTR) coal mining has been carried out on at least 500 Appalachian peaks.1 MTR mining is controversial for its environmental impacts: “Spoil”—the earth and rock dislodged by mining—is deposited in the valleys of this hilly and steep terrain,2 by some estimates burying almost 2,000 miles of headwater streams that ultimately feed the Mississippi River.3 Slurry, the residue from cleaning the coal, is impounded in ponds or injected into abandoned underground mine shafts, where it can leach potentially toxic constituents such as arsenic, lead, manganese, iron, sodium, strontium, and sulfate that ultimately may end up in groundwater.4 Now research studies are beginning to link these environmental impacts to adverse outcomes in community health, raising questions about whether the benefits of MTR mining come at too high a health cost. For most of MTR mining’s history, permits had been relatively easy to obtain, but under the Obama administration, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) began conducting more stringent reviews of applications. By late January 2010, the agency had scrutinized roughly 175 proposed mines and signed off on only 48, according to The Washington Post.5 Then, on 1 April 2010, the EPA issued what it described as comprehensive guidance, based on strong science, designed to strengthen permitting requirements for Appalachian MTR and other surface coal mining projects.6 Subsequently, on 13 January 2011, in a decision that opponents of MTR mining considered a major victory, the agency halted disposal of mining waste at the proposed Spruce No. 1 Mine, which would have buried more than 6 miles of streams in Logan County, West Virginia, and dynamited roughly 3.5 square miles of mountaintop and forestland.7 MTR Mining in Progress. Trees are clearcut, and explosives and massive machines are used to remove earth and access coal seams from the top down. Mining waste, or “spoil,” is dumped into valleys. The landscape changes incurred by MTR mining ... A form of surface mining, MTR mining first emerged in the late 1960s but remained a small source of coal until the mid-1990s. Now it is a major form of coal mining in West Virginia and Kentucky—the second and third largest coal-producing states after Wyoming—and it also occurs in Virginia and Tennessee.2 A few factors account for its rise. First, the Clean Air Act amendments of 1990 encouraged companies to seek low-sulfur coal, which is abundant in central Appalachia. MTR mining also uses less labor than underground mining, with massive draglines able to move 100 cubic yards of earth in a single scoop. And with underground coal supplies significantly depleted, MTR mining allows the harvest of seams of coal too thin to work from traditional coal mines.8 The literature on health impacts of MTR mining has been both scant—encompassing a mere three-quarters of a page in the 99-page decision on the Spruce Mine7—and circumstantial. The dearth of literature is not surprising; just 10 investigators study the public health impact of MTR mining, says Michael Hendryx, an associate professor in the Community Medicine Department of West Virginia University in Morgantown. That’s partly because large-scale MTR mining is such a recent development. But a round of research articles published in 2011 has begun backing up anecdotal evidence of health effects with peer-reviewed data showing strong associations. The combination of the new studies along with the previous anecdotal and circumstantial evidence begs for more research to be conducted, Hendryx says.

Mountaintop Removal and Job Creation: Exploring the Relationship Using Spatial Regression

This project focused on a new and increasingly contested method of coal extraction, mountaintop removal (MTR), and its effects on central Appalachian residents’ quality of life vis-à-vis increased employment. Attention is given to central Appalachia because its fossil fuel landscapes have undergone major changes as a result of two interrelated forces: (1) a national push for energy independence that led to the region's all-time high production of coal (supplying over half of the nation's coal); and (2) changes in mining technology that allowed for increased production. Such transitions have led to widespread use of MTR mining, a method that entails removal of extensive land area to expose coal seams. Although policymakers are aware of the negative environmental effects of MTR, its continued use is primarily rationalized using the argument that it contributes to local economies, especially job retention and development. MTR proponents argue that, without MTR, other regions and countries more competitively extract coal. Opponents counter that MTR fails to substantially contribute to employment due to efficiencies in mechanization. This study used socio-spatial analysis to understand MTR's impact on employment in southern West Virginia populated places. We integrated coal mining permit boundaries with employment indicators obtained from the U.S. Census. Contrary to pro-MTR arguments, we found no supporting evidence suggesting MTR contributed positively to nearby communities’ employment. Implications for economic development are discussed.