Study: Mining process harm 'irreparable'

PITTSBURGH, Aug. 4 (UPI) -- Mountaintop removal mining has irreversibly harmed Appalachian ecosystems, damaging streams and increasing risks of flooding, U.S. environmental scientists say.

Researchers presented their finding at a conference of the Ecological Society of America in Pittsburgh Tuesday, the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette reported.

Even though mining companies and the federal government have made efforts to restore ecosystems, surface-mined areas suffer damages that are effectively permanent, Professor Keith Eshleman of the University of Maryland said.

Mountaintop mining produces more than 100 million tons of coal a year, mostly in West Virginia, Kentucky and Tennessee. Mountaintops are cleared of forests, topsoil and rock to give access to coal seams and debris from mining operations is moved into nearby valleys, filling them.

Attempts are made to reclaim areas by replacing topsoil and planting grasses, a process called mitigation.

The Obama administration has re-examined the practice, and the Environmental Protection Agency threatened to halt operations at a mountaintop mining site in West Virginia in March, the Post-Gazette reported.

"EPA is using existing regulatory authorities to significantly strengthen and improve protections for the public," an EPA spokeswoman wrote in a statement.

Mining officials said the scientists' claims were greatly exaggerated.

"We have a number of studies ... that have indicated post-mining impacts are minimized," Bill Raney, president of the West Virginia Coal Association, said. "They're clearly different in many cases, but certainly they're not terminal, nor are they negative. You've got to give this some time."