greedy coal companies aren’t too happy about the EPA proposal

Have you heard? The EPA just announced a plan to protect our health by limiting dirty soot, smog, toxic mercury, and carbon pollution from coal-fired power plants like the LG&E Cane Run and Mill Creek plants, the Shawnee plant in Paducah, and the Paradise Plant in Muhlenburg County.

This is great news for us, since coal plants are responsible for most of the air pollution that causes asthma and threatens Kentuckians’ health. They also contribute to mining that increasingly threatens Kentucky communities and the natural beauty of our state. Unfortunately, greedy coal companies aren’t too happy about the EPA proposal. They’re filling the airways with ads attacking the EPA to stop any progress toward cleaning our air and safeguarding our health.¹

We need to make sure that everyone knows the truth: the EPA’s new proposal will protect our health, create jobs, and fight climate change.

Get the truth out in your community. Write a letter to the editor of your local newspaper!

We all try hard to keep our kids safe and healthy — making sure they buckle their seatbelts, eat fruits and vegetables, and floss before bed. But right now we can’t protect them from the dirty soot, smog, and toxic mercury spewing out from coal plants — and every year thousands of children suffer asthma attacks in Kentucky.

With the EPA’s new proposal we will have the chance to protect our kids from asthma. We can’t let Big Coal’s attack campaign take this opportunity away from us. This is one of our best opportunities to reduce demand for toxic coal and retire dirty coal plants like LG&E’s Cane Run that pollute our communities and endanger our health.

Write a letter to the editor to your local paper and make sure the EPA has the support it needs to protect our health!

It’s easy! We’ve got everything you need to get started: talking points, factsheets, tips on writing a letter, and info on how to submit it. We even have folks who will give you a call to answer any questions you may have.

Our kids don’t deserve to suffer the effects of Big Coal’s pollution. Take five minutes to write a letter to the editor and make sure they won’t have to any longer.

Thanks for all you do to protect our environment,

Thomas Pearce,
Beyond Coal Campaign
Sierra Club

P.S. After you take action, please forward this message!

References

1. New ACCCE Ad Campaign Highlights Coal’s Abundance & Affordability, American Coalition for Clean Coal Energy.

 

Stop Dirty Coal Pollution: Write A Letter To The Editor

Cambrian Coal Lawsuit: Kentucky Mining Company Settles Over Deadly 2010 Flood

 

 

 

LOUISVILLE, Ky. (AP) — A Kentucky mining company settled a lawsuit Friday that blamed mountaintop mining for stoking a 2010 flood that ravaged a tiny Appalachian community.

The lawsuit filed in August 2010 in Pike County said rainwater runoff from Cambrian Coal Corp.’s surface mine during a July 17, 2010, storm turned nearby Harless Creek into a “raging river.” The flooding engulfed homes and carried away cars and other property.

Ned Pillersdorf, a Prestonsburg attorney representing the plaintiffs, said the terms of the settlement reached Friday with Cambrian Coal are confidential. A trial had been scheduled for Monday.

No one answered the phone Friday at Cambrian’s office in Belcher, Ky.

Residents argued that the surface mining activity on the mountaintop, which stripped away trees, topsoil and vegetation, caused “excessive water flow that resulted in damages upon all of the plaintiffs’ property,” the lawsuit said.

A hydrological analysis by a Virginia consulting firm said mining in the area increased the peak stormwater runoff by 44 percent during the rains. The study said the company’s mining and failure to restore the area directly caused the increased flow of water down the valley and into Harless Creek.

Video posted on YouTube by a resident during the storms showed cars and a shed being carried away by the creek, which had swelled into a swift-moving muddy river.

“It rained some but not that long and it didn’t rain that hard,” said Harold Thacker, a lifelong resident of the area who filmed the flooding. “That water came up like a tidal wave.”

The 2010 storm caused flooding throughout Pike County, killing two people and knocking out water service to thousands of residents. Federal officials declared a major disaster in the area.

Pillersdorf said Cambrian’s mining permit had expired the year before and state officials had not enforced reclamation laws that require mining companies to return the land to its original shape, plant trees and restore vegetation. Flyover video recorded by Pillersdorf showed a brown, treeless landscape directly above the Harless Creek area after the flood.

Pillersdorf said he has three other pending eastern Kentucky cases that are similar to the Pike County suit, in which surface mining is blamed for causing or intensifying flooding.

“I do not think it’s a coincidence that the worst damage occurs in areas directly below unreclaimed strip mines,” he said.

The Harless Creek suit also originally named a second mining, company, AEP Kentucky Coal, but residents settled with AEP in October, Pillersdorf said. The residents had sued both companies for damage compensation, punitive fines and the replacement of water supplies.

___

Follow Dylan Lovan on Twitter: www.twitter.com/dylanlovan

CONTINUE READING…