Virginia has the second-dirtiest waterways among the 50 states.
That’s according to a recent study by the Environment America advocacy group tallying the amount of pollutants discharged into bodies of water across the nation.
Based on numbers reported to federal authorities, only Indiana had more toxic chemicals released into its waterways by industry than Virginia’s 18 million-plus pounds in 2007.
Sad. Really sad.
So yeah, I see where they are going … the state’s waterways are already a disaster area, so let’s let ODEC add insult to injury by building the state’s largest coal fired power plant – running 24/7 at 1500 MW in Dendron, (Surry, VA.) Hmmm….
WASHINGTON, July 15 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ — The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers announced today it is soliciting public comments on two proposals related to the use of Nationwide Permit (NWP) 21 in the nation’s Appalachian region. NWP 21 authorizes discharges of dredged or fill material into waters of the United States for surface coal mining activities.
The proposals would affect only the Appalachian region of the following states: Kentucky, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Tennessee, Virginia, and West Virginia. The use of NWP 21 for surface coal mining activities in other regions of the country would not be affected.
The first proposal is to modify NWP 21 to prohibit its use in the Appalachian region. In the absence of NWP 21, an applicant would be required to obtain an individual permit for surface coal mining projects. An individual permit includes increased public and agency involvement in the permit review process, including an opportunity for public comment on individual projects.
The second proposal is to suspend NWP 21 while the Corps evaluates the comments received during the 30-day comment period, and while the Corps completes the process to modify NWP 21. If NWP 21 is suspended during this interim period, an applicant would be required to obtain an individual permit for surface coal mining projects.
The Corps’ decision to issue these proposals is a result of the interagency action plan agreed to on June 11, 2009, as part of a Memorandum of Understanding signed by the Corps, the U.S. Department of the Interior, and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. The agencies agreed to work together to reduce the adverse environmental impacts of surface coal mining activities in the Appalachian region. A copy of the MOU is available at: http://www.usace.army.mil/CECW/Pages/moumoas.aspx.
A public notice on the proposals was published in the July 15, 2009 Federal Register, http://edocket.access.gpo.gov/2009/pdf/E9-16803.pdf . Written comments should be submitted at the federal eRulemaking portal at http://www.regulations.gov under docket number COE-2009-0032; or mailed to the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Attn: CECW-CO (Attn: Ms. Desiree Hann), 441 G. Street N.W., Washington, D.C. 20314. Comments must be submitted on or before August 14, 2009. Email or faxed comments will not be accepted.
SOURCE U.S. Army Corps of Engineers
It would appear to me that the USACE does try to do what they can to protect the communities and nature when they have the support of the government, and the public. But, I would think it would be difficult to do so if their hands are tied by either weak laws, greed, or when those in places of power bend like reeds in the wind.
I am sorry to say that this is too little, too late. The existing laws it seems have not been fully enforced as they should be for a very long time — for 500 mountains are already blown up! And hundreds more are in the pike.
What ever happened to “Do unto others as you would have them do unto you” — is that too much to ask? Those who think these practices are good, or at least a necessary evil, could they, or more importantly would they, walk in the moccasins, drink the water, live in the homes of those who have suffered due to these destructive or at best polluting practices? Would they want this done to their home? The same holds true for coal plants.
Honestly, it seems to me that even the current laws would be difficult to adhere to when confronted with such a destructive process as Mountain Top Removal. The process itself is the problem.
IMHO, either those who are mining coal should figure out how to get the coal out without impacting the surrounding natural area (the forests, streams, animals, etc.) and the human communities that have put their entire lives and fortunes into their mountain homes, or find a new safer business model that doesn’t hurt people, places or things.
Certainly, renewable energy sources would be much safer for everyone and everything and not be the one shot that Mountain Top Removal is (once you blow up the mountain and take the coal, it’s gone). Not to mention the joke of supposedly trying to put the mountains back to rights after they’ve already been destroyed.
The effects of MTR (Mountain Top Removal) on communities and nature, and the other end of the spectrum, the effects of Coal Fired Power Plants on communities and nature, can be seen through many places including my postings, iLoveMountains.org, Environmental Justice or through searches in search engines. It truly is appalling.
Even if other methods are, or seem like they are more expensive right now, they won’t be for long as they become more ubiquitous. Just as in other areas, once the R&D has been paid for, the prices do come down.
NO ONE SHOULD SUFFER TO PROVIDE ELECTRICITY TO ANYONE.
EVER.
Hmmm, ODEC has proposed a 1,500 MW baseload coal fired power plant — running 24/7, with two fly ash/coal ash landfills, two turbines, two 600 foot stacks polluting the air, land, water, livestock, humans, and additionally causing sight, noise and light pollution … yeah, I think this scenario certainly fits with the topic of Environmental Justice discussed in this video.
Thank you so much Peebles for a wonderful article about the meeting last night! I am still so excited about the outcome! And so thankful to all the people (and thoughts and prayers) that made this possible!
Below find just a few (5-7 is still a few right? LOL!) paragraphs of the great article written by Peebles on ChesapeakeClimate.org (The whole article is a must read!):
The last time that Dendron came to vote on the ordinance to retain its zoning rights, the atmosphere was quite different from last night’s. ODEC employees filled the June 2 meeting, creating an unbalance that went far from unnoticed. Taking up a large portion of Recreational Center’s front-row seats, ODEC’s presence was pronounced – and unwelcome.
This time, the Coalition to Keep Surry Clean, Wise Energy for Virginia, and students from the nearby College of William and Mary turned out, in force, to ensure that Dendron’s residents were given priority in the meeting hall by “saving spots” outside while locals arrived. Due to the efforts of Surry and Dendron’s concerned and active citizenry, last night’s demographic within the meeting was strikingly different from the month before. With upwards of 25 Dendron residents, supported by more than 50 folks from surrounding Surry County, gone were the suits and ties of ODEC’s Glen Allen headquarters, near Richmond. Gone also, was the attitude that a new coal plant would bring the economic boon of the 1920’s back to the struggling town. As the meeting progressed, the council made two key moves to ensure its independence as a town in determining its future.
In a somewhat surprise move, Councilwoman Misti Furr began by introducing a resolution to establish a planning commission within Dendron, to be charged with evaluating zoning permits for land within the town proper. The vote was a necessity, as the council would be expected to vote on the zoning ordinance later that evening, which would greatly diminish the town’s control over its permitting process by delegating a large portion of it to Surry County. Furr’s resolution passed, giving Dendron its own planning commission, who will have to handle ODEC’s zoning permit, provided that control over permitting stay with the town. That decision remained uncertain, further down the evening’s agenda.
Before the decision over that ordinance came to vote, residents and concerned individuals were permitted to speak before the council and audience, and as the queue began to move along, a fascinating trend began to emerge.
Unlike last month’s meeting, where ODEC garnered support from its own employees and purposefully misled low-income and struggling families, Monday’s atmosphere was one much more aware of the terrible implications for environmental, economic, and human health that a dirty coal plant would bring to their small community. At least, it seemed, some of the untruths, dispelled by ODEC over the past few months, had finally been discredited, much to the benefit of those citizens in opposition to the plant.
This attitude was reflected in the council’s final vote, as the body decided to reject any imposition by the county on the capacity of Dendron to decide its own future. With a wire-thin 3-2 margin, a great sigh of relief gripped the meeting hall as ODEC and its cadre of supporters left the hall, flustered and frustrated. Now, ODEC will be required to submit its zoning permit to the town, where it will decide whether or not the plant will move forward, free from interference by the coal-friendly county, and totally in its own hands.
What will happen now is, for the moment, uncertain. The coal industry has deep pockets, while most folks in Dendron do not. The struggle against this plant is a long way from over, and the rejection of county control over the zoning process marks but a small step in a very, very, large fight.
Thanks again to the many Dendron residents (as well as property owners that hope to be residents in time), Surry residents, Isle of Wight residents, and other surrounding communities (too many to name but you know who you are!!), as well as the Coalition To Keep Surry Clean, Wise County VA Coalition and AppVoices (including the fantastic Kayti and Mike!), Sierra Club (Glen, Tyla, Jim, and so many others!), Chesapeake Bay Foundation, CCAN, and so many others that helped us get where we were last night at the Dendron Town Council meeting, plus the William and Mary students, and residents from Williamsburg and Hampton that came to the meeting in support of Dendron residents during the meeting.
As Betsy from the Coalition To Keep Surry Clean said in an email:
Thanks to the Council members who took a big stand.
Thanks to everyone who came out and made their presence felt.
Thanks to the brave attendees who stood up to speak.
Thanks to those who brought info, fans, petitions, signs to pass along physically and verbally to our neighbors and others.
Thanks to the W&Ms for coming and helping us hold the line and chairs.
Thanks to the Wise Energy Coalition folks for supporting us and picking up the tab for so many of our endeavors and materials.
Thanks to Mike and Kayti for being such total and complete rockstars–personally and professionally.
And of course thanks to those who stayed home or at the Bible Study I missed to attend the meeting, and prayed during the meeting as well!
I really think it took all of us to make this happen!
Our little town of Dendron — at least has a fighting chance to do what we Dendron residents (all of us together) can do to forge our own future! Maybe this is what Dendron needed to pull us all together to make this happen.
Things are looking up!
And while we are at it, lets not forget our connection to Mountain Top Removal through use in existing coal plants in Virginia, as well as if we were to allow this coal fired baseload 24/7 plant to be built. We aren’t the only ones we hurt with coal plants…we all share the same planet, the same air, and the same fate.
EDIT: To add two videos pertinent to the Dendron Town Council Meeting:
Please come if you can, or keep us in your thoughts and prayers if you can’t because the Dendron Town Council Meeting will be holding their monthly meeting tonight at the Dendron Fire Station building on Rt 31 in Dendron.
The Town Council deferred important action regarding zoning of the property on which ODEC seeks approval and rezoning to industrial status in order to build the 1,500MW coal fired power plant with two turbines and two 600 ft stacks, and 2 flyash/coal ash landfills backing up even closer to Dendron residents than previously thought due to USACE requirements to move it further away to protect the wetlands.
I have no problem with protecting the wetlands, but what about the people that live in Dendron? Now it will be that much closer to the residents of Dendron.
Robert Kennedy Jr. cites other countries’ efforts as evidence that renewables are good for the U.S. economy.
Awesome!
While we in our tiny town of Dendron and Surry County, and the whole of Hampton Roads are in a fight to keep yet another coal plant from being built, it’s so encouraging to see videos like these.
Thank you Robert Kennedy Jr. for speaking out where others might be intimidated to do so; or drawn into the so called ‘promise’ of monetary compensation or the so called ‘promise’ of jobs that will be short-lived if at all, to look beyond all that, and truly see the real dangers that are far reaching.
We do need to go to renewable energy regardless if you believe in global warming or not. It just makes sense economically. And we need to take care of our planet; to provide a healthy future for our children and grandchildren.
Old Dominion Electric Cooperative, which is seeking approval for a massive, coal-burning power plant in Surry County, serves fewer than 300,000 homes in Virginia. Those homes need a reliable source of power, but this plant would exact an environmental cost far out of scale to the number of people who would benefit.
Carbon dioxide: By the company’s public projections, the plant would discharge 14.6 million tons a year into the air. To put that in scale, based on EPA numbers, it’s equivalent to the annual output of 2.5 million average passenger cars.
• Mercury: ODEC’s projections say the plant would discharge at least 100 pounds of mercury. Many lakes, streams and rivers are already contaminated by dissipated mercury, and the more the state tests, the more warnings it issues about eating fish from contaminated waters, because mercury causes neurological damage and retardation. The Blackwater River in Surry and Isle of Wight is already contaminated.
• NOX emissions: Nitrogen oxide emissions are a major source of smog and haze, air pollution and acid rain. The plant would put 3,000 tons into the air yearly.
• Health effects: Human bodies pay the price for “clean coal.” The coal plant would mean more asthma attacks, more chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, more heart attacks, more deaths.
BOLD emphasis mine
So much more in this very well done DailyPress.com OP-Ed article: No to coal in Surry. Must read.
Thanks for the link Betsy.
EDIT: Here’s my comment that I posted on the article:
Excellent article. Thanks so much to whoever wrote it. When I think about living way less than a mile from the proposed Cypress Creek Power Station (“station” don’t you love how they try to get away from using the words coal plant?) it just makes me sick…just to think about it coming here to Dendron. ALL of Dendron will be in the ‘stack shadow’ 0.6 to 1 mile from it. This will not only be a health hazard for all in Hampton Roads, but a major stress to the people of Dendron 24/7 – pollution, noise, light! Many are not thinking about all the negative impacts this coal plant will have on the tiny Town of Dendron — all they can see are dollar signs. I can understand that to some extent, I really can, especially in a depressed economy, however, the people of Dendron will have to live with this for a very long time-in their face! Wish those on the Surry Board of Supervisors would think about living less than ONE MILE from this thing. At the last Board of Supervisors meeting, there was mention that if the coal plant moved to Sussex County, then Sussex would get the benefits of having it instead of Surry. Well, having the coal plant in Sussex wouldn’t be a whole lot better (Sussex location no where near as close to a town), but it wouldn’t be 0.6 to 1 mile from their home, like it will be to us here in Dendron. As an old TechTV commercial spot was want to say, “Think about that!”
A mountaintop coal mining site at Kayford Mountain in West Virginia. (By Jeff Gentner -- Associated Press)
If ever an issue deserved President Obama’s promise of change, this is it. Mining syndicates are detonating 2,500 tons of explosives each day — the equivalent of a Hiroshima bomb weekly — to blow up Appalachia’s mountains and extract sub-surface coal seams. They have demolished 500 mountains — encompassing about a million acres — buried hundreds of valley streams under tons of rubble, poisoned and uprooted countless communities, and caused widespread contamination to the region’s air and water. On this continent, only Appalachia’s rich woodlands survived the Pleistocene ice ages that turned the rest of North America into a treeless tundra. King Coal is now accomplishing what the glaciers could not — obliterating the hemisphere’s oldest, most biologically dense and diverse forests.
This is a travesty! And an excellent article. Must read.
It is hard to believe that this goes unchecked! No one should suffer to provide others with electricity. Coal plants have long been fueled by coal mining and now with Mountain Top Removal, they can do it so much more profitably. As an old friend of ours (RIP GaryB) used to say, “Follow the money trail.”
If ODEC is allowed to build the 1500 MW coal fired baseload plant in Dendron, Surry County, or even Sussex County, which will run 24/7 it will only add even more ‘fuel to the fire’ of mountain top removal.
This is not the first time that greed has destroyed parts of the mountain. Paradise Gone:
Paradise, Kentucky - Courtesy of OLD Blue Bus Blog
… What many folks don’t know is the story of Paradise and the Green River. The Green River flows through the heart of the Western Coal Field Region of Kentucky. The Green River starts in Lincoln County, just about in the center of Kentucky and ends about 300 river miles away at the confluence with the Ohio River. The river flows through Mammoth Cave National Park and drains the cave and surrounding area.
Starting in 1842, a series of four locks and dams were constructed along the Green River to facilitate barge traffic to the vast lignite coal fields, petroleum coke, and aluminum ore that were mined and produced along it’s banks. Muhlenberg County was at one time the largest coal producing county in North America and the Peabody Coal Company was, and still is, the largest coal company in the world. Peabody had several operations along Kentucky’s Green River, but it wasn’t Peabody that hauled away the town of Paradise.
Notice that Paradise is capitalized in [John] Prine’s lyrics. Yes, there was a town named Paradise along the Green River. Peabody didn’t directly haul the town away, although it is possible that their influence and political power had much more to do with it than the records indicate. No, the town of Paradise was submerged below the Green River Lake in 1969, when the Tennessee Valley Authority impounded the river behind a new dam to provide flood protection, electricity, and improved barge traffic to the coal fields….
It’s amazing what greedy Towns, Counties and States have done over time to facilitate and empower big business – like Mr. Peabody’s many operations along the Green River and whether directly or indirectly was the reason for the damming of the Green River and loss of the town of Paradise.
Renewable energy sources would be a much better way to do things that do not hurt people, destroy communities and ancient mountains in a one fell swoop — and as we see in this posting and these two articles — Mountain Top Removal is just the latest profitable way to do this! See iLoveMountains.org and my blog postings for more information on Mountain Top Removal and the Coal Plant connection.
Virginia doesn’t need to become one of Big Coal’s latest statistics if we stop both ends of the production to give the EPA, the USACE and other agencies time to reassess the impact of Mountain Top Removal and whether there needs to be any new Coal Plants built due to the massive impact on people (particularly children and those with illnesses), and the planet now and over time.
The economic crash has made many unpleasant truths about the United States apparent. One of the most alarming, according to a former chief economist of the International Monetary Fund, is that the financial industry has effectively captured the U.S. government.
If the IMF’s staff could speak freely to the U.S. government, it would say what it says to every country in such a situation: Recovery will fail unless the financial oligarchy blocking essential reform is broken. And if the U.S. is to avoid a true depression, time is running out.
The article from The Atlantic linked below details how the U.S. financial crisis is shockingly similar to problems more commonly associated with the third world — and the harsh and necessary steps needed to get out of it.
Very interesting video with Bill Moyers and William K. Black linked on the article page and some great commentary by Dr. Mercola as well on this and an article from The Atlantic.
