Restoring Clean Water in the Coalfields of Tennessee and Virginia

Take action today!

Tell the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and the Office of Surface Mining to stop ignoring the impacts of coal mining on our nation’s threatened and endangered wildlife.

Send a letter, fax or email to these decision makers (at right) urging them to ensure that coal mining does not trump our natural heritage.

Your letter will bolster the efforts of SELC and our conservation partners who are working to protect the region’s waters and wildlife. Together, we can make a difference for imperiled species.

In addition to information in SELC's petition, below are some talking points to use:

Coal mining in the form of mountaintop removal is ravaging Appalachia – destroying mountains, harming communities and wiping out hundreds of streams and rivers, some of which rank among America’s most biologically rich watersheds.
Coal companies have been operating virtually scot free under a 1996 federal policy that ignores mining impacts on the nation's at-risk aquatic species – tell-tale indicators of the overall health of our rivers.
This U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) policy was flawed from the start, and has resulted in untold damage to water quality in Appalachian and Cumberland mountains.
The 1996 one-size-fits-all “biological opinion” from FWS essentially states that no coal mining operation anywhere in the U.S. would ever harm threatened or endangered species listed then, or in the future. FWS - without conducting a thorough analysis - concluded that the Surface Mining Control and Reclamation Act provided sufficient protection.
However, the mining law has done little to protect Appalachia’s rivers. A 2005 EPA study found that between 1992 and 2002, 724 miles of streams in Appalachia were completely buried. An updated study found that 342 stream miles in four states (TN, VA, KY, WV) are slated to be buried from coal mining permits issued from October 2001 to June 2005.
Of particular concern are the Clinch and Powell rivers, and the Big South Fork of the Cumberland River, which is a federally protected resource in northeast Tennessee managed by the National Park Service. These watersheds are part of the Tennessee and Cumberland river systems which have the highest number of fish, crayfish and mussel species on the continent. Studies within the last ten years document significant declines of aquatic species in stretches of the rivers closest to active mining, and link the decline to the mining.
It's evident that the 1996 biological opinion is failing to protect the region's water quality and at-risk species. The FWS and OSM should repeal the opinion and start reviewing individual coal mining operation for impacts on specific listed species.