2008 Woodie Awards
Vote Absentee
Road show brings strip mining to ETSU students
Amanda Marsh
Issue date: 1/31/08 Section: News
Last Thursday night, Kentucky activist Dave Cooper brought the "Mountaintop removal road show" to ETSU. The seminar focused on issues that are having dangerous effects on the Appalachian Mountains.
"Radical strip mining" or "mountaintop removal" is drastically changing the land and water supply vital to many counties in southwest Virginia, and eastern Kentucky.
Miners no longer drill on the side of mountains; instead, they strip them using ammonium nitrate/fuel oil (ANFO) to remove the tops of mountains. Over 4 million pounds of ANFO are used everyday at mining sites. These explosive emit toxic gasses on impact.
The top soil and sediment that does not contain coal is simply pushed over in the nearby valley.
Called "valley fill," it contaminates drinking water and affects freshwater habitat.
When mountains and trees are destroyed, rain water has nowhere to go causing flooding in several small towns below the mining sites.
Many citizens also worry about spills of the toxic sludge left over after removal is complete.
Both Cooper and his assistant Eric Blevins are trying to keep this problem from coming to east Tennessee.
They informed the audience about a new bill called the Clean Water Protection Act that would eliminate "valley fill" in any future mining sites. This bill has to be endorsed by legislators in order to be implemented; therefore Cooper believes that it will take local constituents' letters and phone calls to keep mountaintop removal from coming to East Tennessee.
The event was sponsored by the environmental studies minor, the Center for Appalachian Studies, and the Initiative for Clean Energy (ICE) student group.
As for ETSU, some students feel that changes should be made in a more environmentally friendly direction.
Coal is the main source of energy and is burned on campus. Some of the coal in this area could be traced back to mountain removal mining. In order to make ETSU more environmentally friendly, ICE is pushing for a student vote that would enact a "green fee."
According to Kevin O'Donnell, director of the environmental studies minor, a proposal is currently being drafted to go to the SGA to be voted on.
"The proposed fee would be $10 per student per semester for full time students and $1 per credit for part-time students per semester," says ICE Vice President Micky Morton.
A sustainability committee will then be set by ETSU President Paul Stanton.
That committee will be composed of students, faculty, staff that will meet twice a semester to decide on how the money is spent and which initiatives to instill on campus.
"Radical strip mining" or "mountaintop removal" is drastically changing the land and water supply vital to many counties in southwest Virginia, and eastern Kentucky.
Miners no longer drill on the side of mountains; instead, they strip them using ammonium nitrate/fuel oil (ANFO) to remove the tops of mountains. Over 4 million pounds of ANFO are used everyday at mining sites. These explosive emit toxic gasses on impact.
The top soil and sediment that does not contain coal is simply pushed over in the nearby valley.
Called "valley fill," it contaminates drinking water and affects freshwater habitat.
When mountains and trees are destroyed, rain water has nowhere to go causing flooding in several small towns below the mining sites.
Many citizens also worry about spills of the toxic sludge left over after removal is complete.
Both Cooper and his assistant Eric Blevins are trying to keep this problem from coming to east Tennessee.
They informed the audience about a new bill called the Clean Water Protection Act that would eliminate "valley fill" in any future mining sites. This bill has to be endorsed by legislators in order to be implemented; therefore Cooper believes that it will take local constituents' letters and phone calls to keep mountaintop removal from coming to East Tennessee.
The event was sponsored by the environmental studies minor, the Center for Appalachian Studies, and the Initiative for Clean Energy (ICE) student group.
As for ETSU, some students feel that changes should be made in a more environmentally friendly direction.
Coal is the main source of energy and is burned on campus. Some of the coal in this area could be traced back to mountain removal mining. In order to make ETSU more environmentally friendly, ICE is pushing for a student vote that would enact a "green fee."
According to Kevin O'Donnell, director of the environmental studies minor, a proposal is currently being drafted to go to the SGA to be voted on.
"The proposed fee would be $10 per student per semester for full time students and $1 per credit for part-time students per semester," says ICE Vice President Micky Morton.
A sustainability committee will then be set by ETSU President Paul Stanton.
That committee will be composed of students, faculty, staff that will meet twice a semester to decide on how the money is spent and which initiatives to instill on campus.