The Mine Safety and Health Administration has approved a 50 foot and two billion gallon expansion to the 750 foot tall and 6.6 billion gallon Brushy Fork coal slurry dam.  Unless the West Virginia Department of Environmental Protection denies the expansion, the largest sludge impoundment in Appalachia will become taller than the Hoover Dam.  WVDEP and the Federal Office of Surface Mining have been studying the compaction of coal waste dams in West Virginia for the past two years.

Coal River Mountain permit hearing Feb 28. Please attend or send comments Marfork Coal Company, a former Massey subsidiary of Alpha Natural Resources, has applied for yet another permit to strip mine Coal River Mountain. The Middle Ridge Surface Mine, S301712, would destroy 800 acres in the heart of Coal River Mountain.This permit has been on the fast track to approval. Impacts would include negative health impacts from the blasting dust, contamination or depletion of water supplies, destruction of sustainable forest resources, and elimination of a significant portion of the mountain’s renewable wind energy resource.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:
Appalachian Community Health Emergency Campaign
www.ACHEact.org
Contact: Bo Webb, Appalachian Community Health Emergency Campaign, 304.237.0065, webb.bo@gmail.com
Bob Kincaid, Appalachian Community Health Emergency Campaign, 304.640.6495, bobkincaid@gmail.com
Maria Gunnoe, Appalachian Community Health Emergency Campaign, 304-245-8481(o), 304-989-9581(c),
wvhollowgirl@gmail.com
House Representatives Introduce Bill to Address Appalachian Health Crisis and Stop Mountaintop Removal
Bill would protect Appalachian families from extremely destructive coal mining practice
Washington, DC – Today a group of U.S. House of Representatives lawmakers introduced the Appalachian
Community Health Emergency Act (ACHE Act, H.R. 526) to protect Appalachian families and communities
from the nation’s most extreme form of coal mining, mountaintop removal. The Appalachian Community
Health Emergency Act’s leading sponsors are Rep. John Yarmuth (D-KY) and Rep. Louise Slaughter (D-NY),
joined by original cosponsors Rep. Earl Blumenauer (D-OR), Rep. John Conyers (D-MI), Rep. Rush Holt (DNJ),
Rep. Raul Grijalva (D-AZ), Rep. John Sarbanes (D-MD), Rep. Jim Moran (D-VA), Rep. Donna Edwards (DMD),
Rep. Judy Chu (D-CA), Rep. Keith Ellison (D-MN), Rep. Charles Rangel (D-NY), Rep. Jared Huffman (DCA),
Rep. Barbara Lee (D-CA), Rep. Michael Honda (D-CA), Rep. Peter DeFazio (D-OR), Rep. Matt Cartwright
(D-PA), Rep. Rosa DeLauro (D-CT), Rep. Lucille Roybal-Allard (D-CA), Rep. Chellie Pingree (D-ME), Rep. Janice
Schakowksy (D-IL), Rep. Jim McDermott (D-WA), Rep. Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-DC), and Rep. Jared Polis
(D-CO).
The ACHEresponds to more than 20 peer-reviewed scientific studies published on the human health impacts of mountaintop removal by calling for a moratorium on mountaintop removal coal mining permits until health studies are conducted by the Department of Health and Human Services.

This quickly expanding body of science reveals significantly elevated rates of mortality, cancer, major organ disease, and birth defects in the areas closest to mountaintop removal mining, after controlling for all major contributing factors.  One study even shows a 42 percent higher risk of birth defects in communities near mountaintop removal.

In a statement released today, leading sponsor Rep. John Yarmuth (D-KY) said:
“Mountaintop removal coal mining destroys entire ecosystems and contaminates the water supplies in mining communities, making people sick and jeopardizing their safety," said Congressman John Yarmuth (KY_#).  "This legislation will provide families in these communities the answers they need and the protection they deserve.  If it can't be proven that mountaintop removal mining is safe, we shouldn't allow it to continue."
Added ACHE Act cosponsor Rep. Louise Slaughter, a Kentucky native:  “Every American has a right to live and work in a community free from environmental health risks,” said
Congresswoman Slaughter, “and it is our duty to ensure that this right is not infringed upon by industries that consider community health and environmental protection to be less important than their profit margins.There is mounting evidence that people living in communities near mountaintop removal coal mining sites are at an elevated risk for a range of major health problems, and until we can ensure there is no link between the
mines and these risks, we should place a moratorium on further mountaintop coal removal activity.”The following are statements from Appalachian citizens and members of the Appalachian Community Health Emergency Act (ACHE) Campaign:

 After a long fought battle, the kids at Marsh Fork Elementary School will finally be inside a new, clean, safe school.                                                                                          photo credit/  Appalachian Watch