TRUMP'S COAL MINERS WERE HIS FOCUS, NOW HE'S READY TO ABANDON THEM

…A Mountain-Top Coal Mine in West Virginia

 

Trump is trying to stop mountain-top mining study.

 

If Donald J. Trump is so strong about coal miners, why is the Department of the Interior halting their study on how the so-called mountaintop-removal coal mining affects people who live around these landscape-stripping operations?

 

They say the halt of the study is part of a broad budgetary review. If that’s so, the Interior Dept. should restart the study quickly. It is a worthwhile use of government research money, and it should proceed no matter which supporters the president promised to support.

 

Here is the reality of mountaintop-removal mining.

 

It involves literally blowing the tops off mountains in order to extract coal deposits that are too thin for conventional subsurface mining.

 

The explosions kick up a lot of dust. Piles of rubble are dumped into nearby valley streams and those heavy metals leach into the local waterways.

 

Scientists have already warned that they are seeing heightened rates of lung cancer, kidney disease, birth defects and other devastating illnesses around these mountaintop removal sites. There is also mounting data showing that mountain top removal mining seriously harms all the local ecosystems.

It is amazing how they have reached correlations that will require more careful studies to determine how closely the data relates to mountaintop removal, as opposed to local poverty or other factors.  They also need to recommend ways of addressing the issue.  To stop it right now would be a horrible waste of time and effort to date, and they already are seeing the negative affects of this mining on the local inhabitants.

 

West Virginian officials have already asked the federal government for more solid information. That is the reason why the Interior Department asked the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine to conduct a two-year, $1 million study of these and other questions. A team of 12 experts was to characterize the mountaintop-removal process, assess potential effects, examine the data, and recommend ways to monitor people’s health and to conduct research for new safeguards.

But as of this month the Interior department told the National Academies that it must cease its work, due to “an agency-wide review of its grants and cooperative agreements in excess of $100,000, largely as a result of our changing budget situation.” In response, the National Academies insisted that Interior was putting the brakes on “an important study” and promised to “stand ready to resume it as soon as the Department of the Interior review is completed.”

 

Even though the states seldom seek federal expertise on matters relating to their citizens’ welfare, this particular study is no waste of time. There may not be as many operating mountaintop-removal sites as before, but if the practice is going to be used at all, there must be science-based standards.

 

Moreover, state health officials should know about any legacy of illness and pain that may await their communities around mountaintop-removal sites. The National Academies was charged with examining both active and reclaimed mining sites, of which there are hundreds of them.

 

The reality is that President Trump’s Interior Department can try to bury the science in hopes of keeping these disgusting operations in business a little longer, or in their shortsighted budget cutting, but that will not solve any of the problems that would remain.

 

Just one more example of a novice in the White House that could take decades to get over.

 

Copyright G.Ater  2017