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Voice 2012 01Febmar.Pdf AppalachianThe February / March 2012 VOICE Forty years ago, a wave of coal slurry swept away Then communities along Buffalo Creek, killing 125. Some problems from our past have improved — others & Now seem stuck in time. Have we learned our lesson? ALSO INSIDE: The Habits of Hibernating Bears • Georgia’s Historic Blood Mountain • Standing Up for Clean Water TheAppalachian VOICE Yesterday and Today: Defending the Clean Water Act A publication of A Note From Our Executive Director By Jamie Goodman AppalachianVoices TOP: Councilmen from Cleveland, Forty years ago, it took a Ohio, examine a white cloth that came 191 Howard Street • Boone, NC 28607 There’s a common saying in Appalachia: what we do to the land, 1-877-APP-VOICE flaming river to spur our nation up dripping with oil after being dipped we do to the people. www.AppalachianVoices.org to protect its waterways. in the Cuyahoga River in 1964. The [email protected] What the coal industry is doing to the citizens in our region is river notoriously caught fire in June The river that played a promi- unforgivable. In the last several years, 21 peer-reviewed studies have 1969, bringing it national attention nent role in the creation of the EDITOR ....................................................... Jamie Goodman confirmed the worst of our fears -- that mountaintop removal coal min- and leading to renewed efforts toward MANAGING EDITOR ........................................... Brian Sewell Clean Water Act and the Envi- ing is destroying not only the land, but also the people of Appalachia. improving water quality (Photo ASSOCIATE EDITOR ............................................Molly Moore ronmental Protection Agency is by Jerry Horton). INSET: Another The results are staggering. Residents born near the destruction of DISTRIBUTION MANAGER .................................. Maeve Gould thought to have erupted in flames Cuyahoga River fire in 1952. (Photo GRAPHIC DESIGNER .........................................Meghan Darst mountaintop removal are 42 percent more likely to be born with birth on thirteen separate occasions in a by James Thomas). Both images EDITORIAL ASSISTANT .............................. Madison Hinshaw defects and 50 percent more likely to die of cancer compared with other courtesy of Cleveland Press Collection, one-hundred-year period, ending people in Appalachia. Cleveland State University Library DISTRIBUTION VOLUNTEERS: Alison Auciello, Heather Baker, Becky Barlow, with a conflagration in June of The ecological footprint of the coal industry goes far beyond central Appalachia and is also Jere Bidwell, Blue Smoke Coffee, Rebecca Booher, Charlie Bowles, Cindy Bowles, 1969 that captured the attention of Jane Branham, Steve Brooks, Gail Burns, Carmen Cantrell, Alex Carll, Charlie Chakales, damaging to regions where coal is consumed. Two-thirds of water withdrawals in the drought- friendly representatives from Shay Clanton, Chris Clark, Patty Clemens, Theresa Crush-Warren, Beth Davis, Detta Time magazine, and subsequently prone Southeast are used to cool electric generating plants and the majority of our waterways Davis, Deborah Deatherage, Jim Dentinger, Lowell Dodge, Nels Erickson, Lauren Essick, the rest of the country. both the Senate and House have Emma Ford, Dave Gilliam, Scott Goebel, Lisa Goodpaster, Bruce Gould, Gary Greer, are polluted with mercury as a result of coal combustion. At the time, Ohio’s Cuyahoga waged what seems like a full-on Tim Guilfoile, Kelly Griffin, Sharon Hart, Susan Hazlewood, Jennifer Honeycutt, Cary For far too long, the country has ignored the human and environmental costs of coal mining, and Karen Huffman, Tim Huntley, Pamela Johnston, Mary K., Rose Koontz, Frances River was so choked with in- war against the Clean Water Act Lamberts, Carissa Lenfert, Sean Levenson, Susan Lewis, Loy Lilley, Debra Locher, processing and combustion. Even now, the coal industry’s supporters in Congress are trying to dustrial runoff it displayed no and the EPA. Bills such as the Joy Lourie, Gail Marney, Lee Martin, Mast General Store, Kate McClory, Kim Greene undermine what few regulations are in place to protect Appalachia! McClure, Jay McCoy, Rich McDonough, Bonnie McGill, Mike McKinney, Steve Moeller, visible signs of life for miles. In Clean Water Cooperative Fed- Yet there is hope — and it comes from you. Only by lifting our voices together can we be Dave and Donna Muhly, Dennis Murphy, Catherine Murray, Dave Patrick, Jackie a March 11, 1970 article, Time eralism Act of 2011 (H.R. 2018), Pontious, Bronwyn Reece, Martin Richards, Carol Rollman, Debbie Samuels, Steve heard above the greedy demands of special interests. Join our growing online activists lists to Scarborough, Gerry and Joe Scardo, Craig Schenker, Kathy Selvage, Gregg Shirk, magazine described the river as which environmental groups stay informed and take action when you’re needed the most. It is free and we make it easy. We Brenda Sigmon, Kayla Sims, Leah Smith, Sarah Smith, Jennifer Stertzer, Nora Walbourn, “Chocolate-brown, oily, bubbling dubbed the “Dirty Water Bill Wasserman, Dean Whitworth, Amy Wickham, Donna Williams, Graham Williams, need your voice. Act,” the REINS Act (H.R. Barbara Williamson, Diana Withen, Hayley Wood, Gabrielle Zeiger, Ray Zimmerman with subsurface gases” and “a For the health of Appalachia, 10) and numerous amend- Printed on 100% recycled newsprint, cover 40% recycled paper, all soy-based inks constant fire hazard” due to Willa Mays the large quantities of oil and ments attached to the 2011 Federal Budget all attempted ABOUT THE COVER other pollutants smothering ThenThen NN ww to eliminate the EPA’s ability the surface. The ‘69 fire, which A birds-eye view of the destruction in P.S. - Go to AppVoices.org to sign up for action alerts && the wake of the 1972 Buffalo Creek slurry nearly destroyed two railroad to regulate federal clean wa- flood that killed 125 people and left more bridges, was not even the larg- A History of Clearcutting .... p. 10 ter and other environmental than 4,000 homeless. Photo courtesy of est the river had endured. laws and remove barriers to West Virginia State Archives Sadly, the problem was not Nuclear Confusion ............ ..p. 12 repeating mistakes of the past. Forty years ago, it took a contained to the Cuyahoga. Revisiting Buffalo Creek ..... p. 14 Due to lax water regulations, flaming river to spur our na- industrial pollution at the time Sewanee Coal Seam .......... p. 17 tion to protect its waterways. was rampant in streams and What will it take today? lakes. Bacteria levels in New Reclaiming the Law ........... p. 18 Pollutant found that, “on average, three - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - York’s Hudson River were 170 Natural Gas ........................ p. 20 times more mercury is falling from the Become A Mountain Protector Today times the safe limit, and Lake sky today than before the Industrial In This Issue Erie was, according to the same Revolution 200 years ago,” and a 2009 In this special issue of The Appa- Join our sustainable giving program for as little as $10/month article in Time, “in danger of dy- Carl Pope of the Sierra Club told PBS EPA study found that tissue in game lachian Voice, we explore several envi- and help Appalachian Voices continue working to block bad bills ing by suffocation.” journalist David Brancaccio in an 2004 fish exceeded health-based limits of ronmental problems that have played a on the Hill (and in state legislatures) that would undermine the An environmental senator from interview, “For the first time since the mercury in 40 percent of U.S. lakes. significant role in Appalachian history EPA's attempts to protect our water. Maine led the charge on the 1972 federal Clean Water Act was passed…EPA New threats arose in the 2000s since the 1970s, including the issues bill, and despite a veto from then-Pres- reported last year that America’s wa- as well. A massive spill from a Harri- surrounding coal — such as the sludge ident Richard Nixon — overridden by terways are getting dirtier.” Name of Member__________________________________________________ man, Tenn., coal-fired power plant into disaster that killed 125 people in Buffalo both houses of Congress — forty years In the 2002-2003 study Brancaccio the Clinch and Emory rivers in 2008 Address________________________________________________________ Creek, W.Va., forty years ago this month ago the Clean Water Act was born. referenced, 39 percent of the nation’s prompted the EPA to investigate toxic City______________________ State_________________ Zip______________ and the coal impoundments that still Flash forward to the present, and streams were listed in “poor biological coal ash — an arsenic-laden byproduct of plague Appalachia (see p. 14) — and the Phone_______________ ________E-mail______________________________ we see a country struggling once health.” That number rose to 42 percent burning coal that has to date been treated management of our region’s national Make me a Mountain Protector (monthly contirbutor) at $_______/month ($10 minimum) again with laws governing the health in the agency’s 2006 report, with 55 per- as no more dangerous than household forests. Some articles indicate that we For one-time contributions, visit our website at www.AppalachianVoices.org/donate of our national waterways. Make no cent of streams in Southern Appalachia garbage. EPA efforts to regulate coal ash have made progress, others expose the MC/VISA #_______________________Expiration date_____________________ mistake, the nation’s
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