The following is a blog post by Betsy Shepard of Surry County, Virginia. The largest coal plant ever proposed for the state is proposed within the small town of Dendron, in Surry County and upwind of nearly 2 million people in Hampton Roads, a region already suffering from poor air quality. Somehow Betsy finds time in between raising her kids, running a business with her husband and living life to fight this proposed coal plant and to write awesome blog posts like this one.

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Recently the issue of “modeling” has come up as it pertains to the proposed Surry Coal Plant.

No, this is not another ad campaign by the “Clean Coal” folks showing scantily clad models pretending to be coal miners—or coal plant operators in this case.

This kind of modeling has to do with making accurate predictions about air pollution from a proposed source —a key component in understanding the impacts of the largest coal-fired power plant proposed for Virginia. And an essential consideration for the 1.8 million Hampton Roads residents who live directly downwind.

According to the EPA, modeling refers:

“. . . to a general technique that uses mathematical representations of the factors affecting pollutant dispersion. Computers are used extensively to help scientists model the complex systems responsible for transport and dispersion of air pollutants.

In modeling air pollution transport and dispersion, specific information is gathered for an emission point. This information includes the location of the emission point (latitude and longitude), the quantity and type of pollutants emitted, stack gas conditions, the height of the stack, and many meteorological factors that include wind speed, ambient temperature profiles, and atmospheric pressure. Using this data as input for a computer model, scientists can predict how pollutants will be dispersed into the atmosphere. Concentration levels can be estimated for various distances and directions from the site of the stack.” Source: EPA

Modeling the pollution from the coal-fired power plant proposed by the Old Dominion Electric Cooperative (ODEC) will provide vital information for these downwind communities as they seek to understand the impacts they could expect from such a proposal.

Recently the Chesapeake Bay Foundation (CBF) released a report predicting rather dire consequences for downwind communities, citing “illnesses, premature deaths, and health-related costs” should the coal plant project come to fruition.

Responding to the Foundation’s report, ODEC’s David Hudgins, director of member and external relations had this to say:

“The report is inaccurate and misleading, and grossly misrepresents the potential environmental and public health . . .”

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Thoughts on Justice in the Coal Bearing Areas of Appalachia

Tim DeCristopher, an native West Virginian, has been sentenced to 2 years in jail plus a $10,000 fine for putting a false bid on an oil lease at a public auction, essentially nullifying the results of the auction. The punishment Tim received is roughly equal to that of a Kentucky company which sent a boulder the size of a mini-van into a nearby house in 2009. The only difference is that when the company allowed that boulder to crash into that house, nobody went to jail. That $10,000 fine obviously didn’t do much to how business is done, as another boulder flew into the home of a Kentucky family with children (2 and 6 years old) again this week.

DeChristopher’s entire statement is below, but in this section he specifically addresses mountaintop removal in a manner that we hear time and time and time again from citizens having to live with the impacts of this horrible practice. I hope his words serve as food for thought for all of us.

…I have openly and explicitly called for nonviolent civil disobedience against mountaintop removal coal mining in my home state of West Virginia. Mountaintop removal is itself an illegal activity, which has always been in violation of the Clean Water Act, and it is an illegal activity that kills people. A West Virginia state investigation found that Massey Energy had been cited with 62,923 violations of the law in the ten years preceding the disaster that killed 29 people last year. The investigation also revealed that Massey paid for almost none of those violations because the company provided millions of dollars worth of campaign contributions that elected most of the appeals court judges in the state. When I was growing up in West Virginia, my mother was one of many who pursued every legal avenue for making the coal industry follow the law. She commented at hearings, wrote petitions and filed lawsuits, and many have continued to do ever since, to no avail. I actually have great respect for the rule of law, because I see what happens when it doesn’t exist, as is the case with the fossil fuel industry. Those crimes committed by Massey Energy led not only to the deaths of their own workers, but to the deaths of countless local residents, such as Joshua McCormick, who died of kidney cancer at age 22 because he was unlucky enough to live downstream from a coal mine. When a corrupted government is no longer willing to uphold the rule of law, I advocate that citizens step up to that responsibility.

This is really the heart of what this case is about. The rule of law is dependent upon a government that is willing to abide by the law. Disrespect for the rule of law begins when the government believes itself and its corporate sponsors to be above the law…

The rest of his statement is below the fold:
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After hearing that EPA Would Rely on the Best Science to Protect People from Mountaintop Removal Mining Waste, This Guidance is a Bitter Disappointment

Today, the Environmental Protection Agency released the final draft of their long-awaited surface coal mining guidance.

In light of new information showing a link between mountaintop removal and sickness, birth defects, and cancer clusters, this guidance falls disappointingly short of the “comprehensive” steps necessary to protect Appalachia and its people from what EPA themselves call “permanent” and “irreversible damage” from strip mines. We really, really need an EPA to protect us from a dangerous, dishonest, and often two-faced coal industry. This particular action by the EPA will not even come close to protecting citizens from the actions of these companies, or the most destructive mining practices in America.

We should take a moment to applaud EPA for taking a step in the right direction. Taking action to protect people from mountaintop removal is the right thing to do. They are certainly under seemingly unprecedented pressure from the coal lobby and their Congressional allies. For giving their time and attention to protecting citizens from mountaintop removal, we applaud and thank them.

However, there were several things EPA could have done to properly protect the environment and public health.

Firstly, this is just a guidance, which is a weak regulatory device for pursuing the regulation of deadly and dangerous practices like strip-mining. Ideally, the Administration would have fought for strong permanent protections in the form of a law, such as the bipartisan Clean Water Protection Act (HR 1375), which has over 100 cosponsors in the House, and would keep toxic mining waste out of our streams. At the very least, EPA should have gone through a formal rule-making process.

So not only is there little that is enforceable about this guidance, but in the final draft EPA actually backslides, and presents something that is even weaker than previous drafts. Of particular concern is that fact they are permitting valleyfills at all. Even worse, they went from “sequencing” valleyfills (allowing one at a time) under strict review, to allowing several at a time on particular mine sites.

My colleague Dr. Matt Wasson will have much more on this later, but its interesting to look at which words were changed in the new guidance compared to previous drafts.

There’s not a lot to like in that chart, but if you’re starting to worry that we’re moving backward rather than forward on mountaintop removal it might be reassuring to take a look at the word cloud from the final guidance memo released today.

Despite it’s flaws and the recent backsliding, the EPA’s guidance is a step forward in protecting Appalachian communities, streams and mountains. It’s just not a very big step, nor is it permanent. So we’ve got more work to do.

Appalachian Voices’ full press release is below…
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