The Threat of MTR on Coal River Mountain

“Wind farms are a very efficient and sound way to create energy. I don’t like strip-mining at all, but I am worried about jobs, and more jobs would be created with new underground mines and with the wind farm. Also, because of mining behind my house (on Kayford Mountain), we don’t have any more water flowing past our house in Dorothy unless there is a heavy rain, and if the mining comes in across the way then the river will be impacted even more from the new valley fills, and I will be surrounded by strip-mines on both sides...

Strip-mining has already destroyed the river in front of my home so that there aren't any fish living there any more, and the wildlife have no other place to go but down, and Coal River Mountain is the last place in the area for them to live, and for water to flow into the river from. The wind farm would be a better way to produce energy and create jobs, and would allow for my family and the wildlife to live here without further damage to our home, and to our sense of community.” – Karen Dillon, Dorothy, WV

 

 

 

The Plan for Mining Coal River Mountain

 

Marfork Coal Company, a subsidiary of Virginia-based Massey Energy, plans to strip-mine 6,450 acres (ten square miles) of Coal River Mountain across three permit areas. As of June, 2008, they had already received two of the three permits, and had yet to apply for the third. The names of the three permits are Bee Tree, Eagle II and Eagle III. 

 

[Map provided by the West Virginia Department of Environmental Protection]

 

The mining is set to begin on the Bee Tree surface mine at the west end of the mountain – above Colcord and Dorothy, and alongside the Brushy Fork Impoundment - and move over the communities of Colcord, Horse Creek and Dry Creek toward the Eagle III permit area on the east end, ending above the communities of Rock Creek and Amaegle. The blasting will come within a half-mile of many of these communities, and will happen daily, up to two or three times per day.  Based on information provided in the permit applications, the mining is expected to last for 17 years.

 

The total mining plan also includes the ‘construction’ of 18 valley fills, which will result in the burial of over nine miles of headwater streams and the contamination of many more from sediment and heavy metal runoff. Nearly the whole mountain is currently forested, and the loss of the absorptive capacity of the forest coupled with the loss of streams will places the communities below in danger of severe and rapid flooding every time there is a heavy rain. 

 

[Photo courtesy of Daniel Shea, www.dsheaphoto.net]

 

This happened in 2001 when, after five days of heavy rain, the waters of the Clear Fork River rose to four or five feet above the river banks and flooded the towns of Dorothy and Colcord, damaging or destroying 150 homes and killing two people. 

 

[Photo by Bob Gates, extracted from here with permission]

 

That flood event has been tied to the deforestation and mining on the Kayford Mountain MTR site across the river from Colcord and above the town of Dorothy. Unless it is stopped, the proposed mountaintop removal mining on Coal River Mountain will put these communities at risk of even greater flooding, and the lives of residents in further danger.

 

 

 

The proposed mining will also eliminate nearly all of the potential for developing a wind farm on Coal River Mountain, thereby destroying any opportunity for economic diversification in the Coal River Valley. 

 

At their presentation to the West Virginia Division of Energy, Gamesa Energy - an international wind developer - said that pre-mining wind construction requires digging only an 8 foot hole for each turbine, whereas constructing turbines on post-mine lands would require holes 30-40 feet deep, and that this change makes most projects "economically unfavorable," due to the higher cost of having to dig each hole deeper.  Also, any reduction in ridge altitude from strip-mining will result in a diminishing of the wind resource (wind speeds in Appalachia are weaker at lower altitudes), which means a diminishing of the number of turbines and total energy production, and thus the loss of potential jobs and tax revenues. 

 

[Slide prepared by Rory McIlmoil using information provided by Gamesa Energy in their 2008 presentation to the West Virginia Wind Working Group]

 

WindLogics©, the same wind consulting firm that developed the wind map for Coal River Mountain, also analyzed the impact of MTR on the wind resource for nearby Cherry Pond Mountain, which is now being mined as part of the Edwight MTR mine. What they showed was that only four years of mining had reduced the wind potential by two wind classes, rendering the area unsuitable for wind development. So, the combination of a diminished wind resource and the breaking of the bedrock both work against the viability of a potential wind development project, like on Coal River Mountain.

 

 

(Class 4 sites can be developed for wind power) 

 

 

 

(Class 2 winds cannot be developed)

 

[Cherry Pond Mountain wind map and analysis conducted by WindLogics©]

 

The proposed mountaintop removal mines on Coal River Mountain, as currently planned, will impact over 60 percent of the available wind resource, including the areas with the highest wind speeds and therefore the greatest potential for producing clean, renewable energy.  These areas are shown in red in the map below, and represent Class 5 and 6 wind speeds.  The blue areas represent the valleys.

 

 

Coal River Mountain Wind Map with Turbine Locations and Permit Boundaries

 

[Image created by Matt Wasson of Appalachian Voices and Rory McIlmoil, using Coal River Mountain Wind map created by WindLogics©]

 

 

As happens with most other large surface and mountaintop removal mines, it can be expected that Massey will apply for and obtain permits for mining the rest of the mountain and destroying the remaining wind resource. Overall, the benefits of leaving the mountain intact and building a wind farm could theoretically last forever, whereas the benefits from strip-mining Coal River Mountain will last for only 17 years. 

 

 

Final Thoughts

 

Coal is running out in Raleigh County and southern West Virginia, the number of jobs available with mining is on the decline, and coal severance taxes will last only as long as the coal does, so it is time to stop destroying the resources that could, and should, be used for diversifying the local economy and generating opportunities for employment that will be there even after the coal is gone.  A Coal River Mountain wind fam provides this opportunity for the citizens of Raleigh County. 

 

Both the costs and consequences of mountaintop removal mining, and the benefits of developing a wind farm, could last forever.   So, the question is, given the facts, which option is the better option for Raleigh County and West Virginia? 

 

It has been shown that the proposed MTR operations would impose social and environmental costs on the local communities and surrounding environment - known as "externalities" - in the amount of $600 million over 34 years.  That represents the economic cost of the forest loss, water pollution, flooding, health impacts and increased fatalities that would result from the proposed mining, to name a few. 

 

 

These are real costs, and they are not paid by either the coal company or the consumer of the electricity generated from the coal.  They are paid by the land and the local residents.  By comparison, the wind farm would result in near-zero external costs, while providing jobs, energy and tax revenue indefinitely.

 

That is the choice Coal River residents are fighting for on Coal River Mountain.