Environmental justice and coal mining in Appalachia is the study of environmental justice
– the interdisciplinary body of social science literature studying
theories of the environment and justice; environmental laws, policies,
and their implementations and enforcement; development and
sustainability; and political ecology – in relation to Coal mining in
Appalachia.
The Appalachian region of the Southeastern United States is a leading producer of coal in the country. Research shows that people who live in close proximity to mountaintop removal (MTR) mines have higher mortality rates than average, and are more likely to live in poverty and be exposed to harmful environmental conditions than people in otherwise comparable parts of the region.
In the late 1990s, several Appalachian women, including Julia Bonds, began to speak out against MTR and its effects on the people and environment of mining communities. Research has shown that MTR is causing "irreparable" environmental damage in Appalachia. The blasting of mountaintops has polluted stream and water supplies have been contaminated by toxic waste from coal processing called slurry ponds. Scientists have noted an increase in respiratory and heart problems among area residents, including lung cancer. Mortality rates and birth defect rates are higher in the areas surrounding surface mining locations.
Coal mining production in Appalachia declined from 1990 to 2015, but there is some debate over why. Cited factors include a rising demand for clean energy, environmental policies and regulations set forth by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), and globalization. The number of coal mining jobs in the region remained steady from 2000 to 2010, but declined by 37% between 2011 and 2015. Less production is responsible for much of this job loss, but improved mining techniques like mountain-top removal also contributed. Discourse around coal in the area has sparked a debate in academia over whether it creates wealth or poverty. The core debate centers around coal production's impact on local and national economy.
The Appalachian region of the Southeastern United States is a leading producer of coal in the country. Research shows that people who live in close proximity to mountaintop removal (MTR) mines have higher mortality rates than average, and are more likely to live in poverty and be exposed to harmful environmental conditions than people in otherwise comparable parts of the region.
In the late 1990s, several Appalachian women, including Julia Bonds, began to speak out against MTR and its effects on the people and environment of mining communities. Research has shown that MTR is causing "irreparable" environmental damage in Appalachia. The blasting of mountaintops has polluted stream and water supplies have been contaminated by toxic waste from coal processing called slurry ponds. Scientists have noted an increase in respiratory and heart problems among area residents, including lung cancer. Mortality rates and birth defect rates are higher in the areas surrounding surface mining locations.
Coal mining production in Appalachia declined from 1990 to 2015, but there is some debate over why. Cited factors include a rising demand for clean energy, environmental policies and regulations set forth by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), and globalization. The number of coal mining jobs in the region remained steady from 2000 to 2010, but declined by 37% between 2011 and 2015. Less production is responsible for much of this job loss, but improved mining techniques like mountain-top removal also contributed. Discourse around coal in the area has sparked a debate in academia over whether it creates wealth or poverty. The core debate centers around coal production's impact on local and national economy.
Background
Coal production
Appalachia is one of three coal-mining regions in the United States; the others are the Interior coal region, and the Western coal region, which includes the Powder River Basin. Eight states lie in the Appalachian coal region: Alabama, eastern Kentucky, Maryland, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Tennessee, Virginia, and West Virginia.
West Virginia is the largest coal-producing state in Appalachia, and
the second-largest coal-producing state in the United States, accounting
for about 11% of the nation's total coal production in 2014 (the
largest coal-producing state is Wyoming, which lies in the Western coal region and accounts for 40% of U.S. coal production).
Two other states in the Appalachian coal region, Kentucky and
Pennsylvania, account for 8% and 6% of U.S. coal production,
respectively.
The coal industry in Appalachia has changed over time. According to U.S. Department of Energy's Energy Information Administration
data, Central Appalachia—consisting of southern West Virginia, eastern
Kentucky, western Virginia, and eastern Tennessee—made up almost 29% of
U.S. coal production in the U.S. in 1990, but only about 13% by 2013. By contrast, coal production in Northern Appalachian has remained relatively stable, going from 16% in 1990 to 12.5% in 2013. As a result, "both regions account for nearly the same share of U.S. coal production" as of 2014.
In the Appalachian coal region, 72% of coal produced came from underground mines. This is a much higher percentage than in the Western coal region, where 90% of all coal produced comes from surface mines.
History
Historically, "the building of coal towns began in the 1880s, peaked in the 1920s, and virtually ended with the coming of the Great Depression" when the availability of other forms of energy—namely, oil, gas, and hydroelectricity—reduced demand for coal. The company town
was particularly dominant in southern Appalachia; in 1925, almost 80%
of West Virginia coal miners lived in company towns, while an average of
64.4% of coal miners in Maryland, Virginia, Kentucky, and Tennessee
lived in company towns.
Impacts of coal mining in Appalachia
Strip mining in Barnesville, Ohio
Since 1995, the Appalachian region has produced about half of the United States' coal.
Although Appalachia has played a large role in contributing to the coal
supply of the United States, the communities surrounding such mining
practices have suffered immensely. Several studies have shown disparities between mining communities and non-mining communities in terms of public health, environmental degradation, pollution, and overall quality of life in Appalachia. Variations of surface coal mining techniques in the Appalachia include contour, area, high-wall, auger, and mountaintop removal mining (MTR).
Surface mining
The
damage caused by mountaintop removal strip mining has had a calculable
effect on the environment and communities in Appalachia. The resource
rich region remains economically deprived and suffers from the
externalities of coal mining, including the health problems caused by
coal pollution. The Office of Surface Mining (OSM) is the federal agency tasked with regulating strip-mining under the Federal Surface Mining Control and Reclamation Act
(SMCRA). According to OSM, "[t]o the extent that low income populations
are prevalent in the coalfields, the impacts of mountaintop mining are
felt disproportionately by these environmental justice populations".
Most local residents are unable to see the extent of the damage
that has been caused by surface mining. Geologist Sean P. Bemis
investigated claims by local residents that the extent of the damage was
not easily visible. In interviews with the research team, former miner
Chuck Nelson stated that the extent of the destruction is only clearly
visible from a plane. Coalfield resident activist Maria Gunnoe gave a
similar account to the researchers, saying "I never realized it was so
bad. My first fly-over with South Wings [non-profit aviation
organization], and that right there is what really fired me up. When I
got off the plane that day, I cried all the way across the tarmac, all
the way home ..." The Government Accountability Office (GAO) confirmed this in a 2009 report:
Despite the public scrutiny that surface mining in mountainous areas has received, the public is limited in its ability to access information on the scope of these operations - their size, location, and how long they have been in operation - and on what the mountain can be expected to look like after mining operations have ceased and the land has been reclaimed
— Government Accountability Office (GAO), as quoted in Fighting King Coal
There are no official records of the total number of "disturbed
acres" that have resulted from surface mining, but geospatial analysis
has shown that between 1.05million and 1.28million acres of land and
more than 500 mountains in West Virginia, Kentucky, Tennessee, and
Virginia have been surface mined.
Mountaintop removal
One
form of surface mining is mountaintop removal (MTR). This technique may
remove up to 800 to 1000 feet of mountaintops, to reach coal seams not
accessible by other surface mining techniques.
This practice was used on a small scale in the 1970's and became
heavily used in the 1990's. This extraction technique became popular
because the increased demand for high-grade low-sulfur coal, due to the Clean Air Act amendments passed in 1990.
The process of MTR begins by the deforestation of a chosen mountaintop,
then it is blasted with explosives. Next all of the excess soil and
rock or "spoil" is moved out, after the mining operation is complete
this will be replaced. Once this rock has been disturbed in this
process, swelling will take place. The spoil will expand by fifteen to
twenty five percent, due to air incorporation and voids. This excess spoil or "overburden"
then is dumped into nearby streams or valleys, this process is called a
valley fill. Since the boom in MTR usage as many as 500 mountaintops
have been destroyed and 2000 miles of waterways have been filled.
Mountaintop mining and valley fills can lead to large scale landscape
changes. These may include: fragmentation of forests, conversion of
habitats, and loss of large tracts and forested areas.
There also may be adverse effects to the people living in these
Appalachian mining communities Micheal Hendrix a researcher at Indiana
State University, in an interview with Yale, stated that “The number of
excess deaths every year comes to about 1,200 people who live in these
mining communities compared to other parts of Appalachia.” The diseases most prevalent in these MTR areas include: cardiovascular disease, lung cancer, and COPD.
These are not only the occupational illnesses of miners but of the
general public. Birth defects especially heart defects risk goes up by
181% in MTR areas. Researchers are beginning to research smaller particulate matter as the cause of these illnesses, and increased mortality.
Effects on health
Several
studies have found that communities within the Appalachian region
surrounding coal mining practices disproportionately experience negative
health effects than communities with no coal mining. Such health disparities are largely attributed to the contamination of water and land associated with coal surface mining. MTR has increased salinity, metals, magnesium, and sulfates within Appalachian watersheds, threatening human health.
Sixty-three percent of stream beds near coalfields within the
Appalachia mountains have been identified as "impaired" due to high
toxic chemical and metal contamination. In West Virginia, 14 counties are experiencing water that exceeds safe drinking water standards by seven times more than non-mining counties. Combustion waste and fly ash from MTR lend to toxic dusts pollute the surrounding air and have contributed to increased levels of cancer, cardiovascular disease, liver disease, and kidney disease. Public health costs of pollution in the Appalachia are upwards of 75 billion dollars a year. In
a comparative analysis of health-related quality of residences in
counties with and without coal mining Appalachia "reported significantly
fewer healthy days for both physical and mental health". The same study highlights strong correlations between heavy coal mining counties and a greater risk of depression and severe psychological distress. Areas in the Appalachia with coal surface mining exhibit greater rates of adverse health effects and reduced self-rated health in comparison to the national average. In addition, studies from the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health have concluded a high "relationship between surface coal mining jobs and the prevalence of pneumoconiosis". Lastly, through examination of mortality rates, county-level poverty rates,
and coal mining within counties of the Appalachia, it was identified
that coal mining areas of Appalachia experienced higher mortality rates
then counties with no coal mining.
Environmental impacts
Mountaintop removal coal mining in Martin County, Kentucky
Coal surface mining has heavily altered the hydrological cycle and landscape of the Appalachia causing environmental degradation and contributing to ecosystem damages beyond repair. Surface coal mining in the Appalachian has contributed to the destruction of over 500 mountain tops.
In addition, it has led to the clearance of over 1 million acres of
forests and contributed to the degradation or permanent loss of over
12000 miles of streams crucial to the Appalachia watershed from 1985-
2001. Increased salinity and metal contamination of the Appalachian streams have led to toxic effects of fish and bird species.
Mountaintop removal, or MTR, is a type of surface mining that has
played a major role in negatively impacting the Appalachian environment.
When MTR is used, it causes much of the contaminants from the process
to be emptied into surrounding valleys which, oftentimes, make their way
into nearby streams. These wastes are disposed in "valley fills" which have collapsed and produced heavy flash floods in Appalachia. The Environmental Protection Agency approximates that between 1985 and
2001, over 700 miles worth of streams in the Appalachians were covered
by these "valley fills" due to mountaintop removal coal mining.
Social and economic impacts
Appalachia has historically been one of the most impoverished regions of the country.
There is a debate about whether coal production is a source of
wealth or poverty in Appalachia. The U.S. geological survey and the U.S.
bureau of mines states that there is a coal-wealth paradox in
Appalachia. Appalachia is home to some of the largest coal mines yet the
average per capita income is only about 68% of the national per capita
income.
However, work done by Black and Sanders shows that between 1970 and
1980 the increase in coal production substantially boosted the pay of
low skilled workers in Appalachia and likely caused a decrease in income
inequality.
Although coal mining industries are often associated with
increased jobs and economic growth, this association does not hold for
Appalachia, where two-thirds of the counties have higher levels of unemployment than the nation and per capita personal wages falling 20% lower than the nation.
More specifically, in Hendryx and Zullig's comparative analysis of
Appalachia counties, those with coal mining had greater economic
disparities and more poverty than those without industry. The shift towards coal surface mining from underground mining led to a
50% decline in mining jobs from 1985 to 2005, and competition from cheap
natural gas also decreased demand for coal, leading some mines to close
or reduce extraction, which further increased unemployment. From 2014 to 2015, overall mining employment for Appalachia has dropped by 15.9%. A NASA study states that promises of beneficial post-mining development in the Appalachian region have yet to materialize.
A 2017 study found that neighborhoods closest to coal impoundments are
"slightly more likely to have higher rates of poverty and unemployment,
even after controlling for rurality, mining-related variables, and
spatial dependence".
Specific events
Buffalo Creek Disaster
In 1972, a slurry pond built by Pittson Coal Company collapsed. In what is known as the Buffalo Creek disaster
130 million gallons of sludge flooded Buffalo Creek. More recently, a
waste impoundment owned by Massey burst in Kentucky, flooding nearby
streams with 250 tons of coal slurry.
Law and regulation
The Black Lung Benefits Act of 1973 provided payments to coal miners disabled from Coalworker's pneumoconiosis or "black lung disease" and their dependent survivors.
The 1977 Surface Mining Control and Reclamation Act (SMCRA) created two programs: one for regulating active coal mines and a second for reclaiming abandoned mine lands.
In the view of Jedediah Purdy, The Clean Air Act and the Clean Water Act
improved the quality of air and water for much of America, but created
"sacrificial zones" in America, including coal mining communities in
Appalachia, that hid the environmental effects of industry and
agriculture from people in suburbs but increased exposure to danger for
people who lived near sites of pollution.
These laws, along with the National Environmental Policy Act form the basis in law for regulation of coal mining, including mountaintop removal mining.
Regulations issued on the basis of these laws focus on issuing or
withholding permits for new mining operations; the regulations
themselves have been contested.
As of 2012, these laws did not take into account direct effects on
communities near mines nor economic or racial disparities in those
communities, and regulations and executive orders issued that attempted
to address such environmental justice concerns had been struck down, and
legal challenges based on potential effects on local communities
generally failed, since neither the law nor regulations were written to
address these concerns and judges ruled based on what the law and
regulations actually said.
The Affordable Care Act is a federal government health care law; it includes provisions that amend the Black Lung Benefits program.
The Black Lung Benefits program details the extent to which coal miners
have their medical coverage compensated by the federal government.
The ACA provisions that amend the Black Lung Benefits program are
commonly known as the Byrd Amendments taking its name from the late West
Virginia Congressman Robert Byrd. The Byrd Amendments are found in
Section 1556 of the ACA.
Among the many protections the Byrd Amendments provides coal miners, it
covers medical expenses for coal miners who worked at least 15 years
underground (or comparable surface mining) and who have a totally
disabling respiratory impairment. Further, it shifts the burden of proof
of disability due to "black lung disease" from these coal miners back
to the coal companies. Coalworker's pneumoconiosis or "black lung disease" can be a common health problem faced by retired coal miners.
The Surface Mining Control and Reclamation Act of 1977
Early attempts to regulate strip-mining on the state level were
largely unsuccessful due to lax enforcement. The Appalachian Group to
Save the Land and the People was founded in 1965 to stop surface mining.
In 1968, Congress held the first hearings on strip mining. Ken Hechler
introduced the first strip-mining abolition bill in Congress in 1971.
Though this bill was not passed, provisions establishing a process to
reclaim abandoned strip mines and allowing citizens to sue regulatory
agencies became parts of SMCRA.
SMCRA also created the Office of Surface Mining, an agency within the Department of the Interior,
to promulgate regulations, to fund state regulatory and reclamation
efforts, and to ensure consistency among state regulatory programs.
Advocacy groups
The study of justice has often been defined by the theories of John Rawls.
Justice theory has focused on the principles by the which to distribute
goods in a society. The defining arguments of the environmental justice
movement were about patterns that violated some of these distributive
principles of justice theory. Several contemporary scholars have
developed theories of justice that are broader then the distributional theory of justice.
The study of justice theory, as applied to the environmental
justice, has primarily focused on "maldistribution". In other words,
this area of study has concentrated on the fact that poor communities,
indigenous communities and communities of color are often
disproportionately impacted by environmentally-related negative externalities and receive less environmental protection.
Environmental justice has been identified by scholars as a
movement that acknowledged the disproportionate effects of environmental
damage and toxic contamination on the poor and people of color. It has
also been noted that the race and class of the parties effects the
community's chances of success in enacting reforms. Environmental
justice groups were community grassroots organizations that combined
environmentalism with issues of race a class equality. These groups organized in opposition to the disproportionate threat mountain communities faced from health hazards like acid mine drainage.
Save Our Cumberland Mountains
Save
Our Cumberland Mountains (SOCM, pronounced "sock 'em") was founded when
thirteen residents of the Tennessee coalfields petitioned their state
government to make coal landholders pay a fair share of taxes. SOCM
later grew into one of most significant community organizations in the
region and went on to lead a major legislative campaign against
employers who replaced their permanent employees with long-term
temporary workers.
J.W. Bradley was the president of SOCM for its first five years.
He had worked in the deep mines and was outspoken about what he called
the "evils of strip mining." He believed in using litigation to pursue
reform. In 1974, SOCM established the East Tennessee Research
Corporation as a public interest law firm. By 1976, SOCM was trying to
ban strip mining and targeting individual strip mining operations.
An attorney who worked with SOCM in the 1970s has written that
very few people of color were involved with SOCM in the early years. He
highlights the importance of regional organizations like the Highlander
Research and Education Center that "seek to bring together diverse
communities to share their knowledge about the inner dynamics of
environmental justice issues".
Mountain Justice
Mountain Justice began in 2005 as a summer-long campaign for the abolition of MTM.
The organization was started after a 2004 mining accident in Virginia. A
three year old was killed when a boulder rolled off a MTM site above
his home.
The first MJ meeting took place in Knoxville, Tennessee and included
activists from Coal River Mountain Watch (CRMW), the Sierra Club,
Appalachian Voices, and Katuah Earth First (KEF!). Their mission
statement includes a commitment to non-violence.
